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Media Watchdog Group Names Freedom 'Predators'
Media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders has named the leaders of China, Russia and Rwanda as some of the world's worst "predators of freedom".
A Yemeni checks newspaper headlines in Sana'a, 2006. Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) criticised the situation of press freedoms in Yemen, saying it was worsening by the day. (AFP/File/Khaled Fazaa) The report, marking World Press Freedom Day, lists what the Paris-based group regards as the 40 worst offenders against the freedom of the press.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il and the head of Burma's military government Than Shwe, are also on the list.
Mexico is named as among the most dangerous countries for journalists.
Sixty-two journalists have been killed in Mexico over the last decade.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has "promoted a climate of pumped-up national pride that encourages the persecution of dissidents and freethinkers", the report contends.
The Basque separate group Eta in Spain and criminal gangs in Italy are also said to have threatened journalists.
Israeli Defence Forces have physically injured at least 33 Palestinian journalists, the report says. Palestinian militant group Hamas is also criticised.
The report accuses Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's brother, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, of condoning attacks on journalists.
To mark World Press Freedom Day, however, President Rajapaksa ordered the release of a journalist who was sentenced to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges.
Tamil journalist JS Tissainayagam had been convicted on the basis of articles he wrote which the government said incited racial hatred.
Political tension is rising in Rwanda ahead of elections due in August and investigative journalist Robert Mukomboz was thrown out of the country for criticising President Paul Kagame.
"The president's office would try to dictate what I'm supposed to write, would even want to dictate the headlines, and would go to the extent of trying to draft the story for me and include my by-line," he told the BBC's World Today programme.
Reporters Without Borders has removed several Iraqi Islamist groups from the list, arguing that, while violence remains high, journalists are no longer being singled out.
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22 Comments so far
Show AllBut surely our corrupt corporate media produces the most enslaving
and deceitful new darkness the world has ever known. For all their
news is a new pretense of good hiding a new intent by the rich to be
enriched upon our misery.
And so, comes now Reporters Without Borders to tell us that of no
importance is the danger to the life of society by our deceitful
corporate media, while of the absolute highest importance is the
danger to their health and well being are anti-US governments that
oppose their work. But, their work is primarily that of a propaganda
smoke screen for US government, the worse of two evils surely.
Exactly, Truth_Light!
This story reminds me of the scene from "Caddy Shack", wherein Judge Smails is trying to talk Chevy Chase into joining his team for the club championship, and says:
"You should play with Dr. Beeper
and myself.
I mean, he's been Club champion
for three years running...
...and I'm no slouch, myself."
To which Chevy Chase replies:
"Don't sell yourself short, Judge.
You're a tremendous slouch."
As you precisely note, Truth_Light, the American media should never "sell itself short" regarding deceit, propaganda, contemptible distortion, guilefulness, nor any of the other fabulously sophisticated modern scientific techniques that it uses to keep the American public stupid, asleep, pliable, and even fully comfortable with the massive ruling-elite's Global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE of cancer which has taken over 'our' country and hides right in the open of our burning kitchen of democracy exactly because of the skills of our world-class media whores ---- who are certainly "no slouches" when it comes to suborning and destroying democracy while hiding EMPIRE.
Thanks for your insight, Truth_Light!
The biggest predators for this Global Empire are the inventors of the physical "Predator" drones --- who use these modern stealthy technologies to physically kill those getting in the way of the Empire's oil territories, but who use far more stealthy media predators to kill the vision, curiosity, thinking, public discourse, and even the minds of our citizens.
Best,
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Right on fellas. It's the media, most particularly the television, that paints lies on the living room walls. Notice that there is no mention of the journalists murdered at the Baghdad Hotel early in the invasion, nor the attempted murder of the ransomed Italian lady journalist, because "we don't negotiate with terrorists."
Ignorance is bliss..........just ask a neocon.....
Oh, hm-m, I was expecting names, American names, to be named. Instead, it's (a brief news item about) a global report of some misc. countries who either try to control the news or are actually dangerous for reporters. It does not include nor even mention the U.S., strangely.
Whistleblowers do not fare well here, and one assumes that similar pressures and threats face investigative journalists. When the bulk of the media mis-, dis-, and under-informs the general public, purveying outright propaganda with hidden goals and bent intent, you'd think it would qualify as "media predators".
That also bothered me upon reading the report. How on earth did they fail to mention the United States, where it's corporate, pro-military, and elitist "news journals" continually pump out propaganda, half-truths, distortions and outright lies - and the occassional journalist who dares to print ACTUAL truth (which usually means something that doesn't serve the US government's pro-corporate and / or imperialist goals) will have their career vanish upon printing such truth.
Anyone remember Danny Casolaro...the journalist working on BCCA, contra arms smuggling within the US, justice department illegal and outright thefts...the list goes on. He takes a room in a highly populated hotel and is found the next morning with his wrists slashed beyond comprehension. No matter that everyone who knew him absolutely refuted that he could so such a thing to himself (especially since he was terrified of blood and also told his brother that if he died it would not be an accident) his death was nevertheless ruled a "suicide".
Anyone else remember George W. Bush's biographer...i think the name of his book was 'fortunate son' or something like that. Detailing all of Bush's cocaine snorting / DUI / Yale flunking / draft-dodging / women-harassing / illegitimate fathering / sociopathic psychology / stupid/poor social skills/ dumb beyond utter belief psychology and exploits? He too checked into a hotel only to supposedly 'blow his brains out'....never mind again that all who knew him says he was happiest as he had ever been and would NOT do such a thing and in fact warned people if something like it were to happen to him, it would be murder. No investigation allowed there either!
It is easy to name those individuals and governments that strike directly and openly at journalists and journalism. It takes little in the way of thought, little in the way of courage. It is another matter all together to name the consolidation of media under five or six entities/persons as the severe threat to journalistic freedom that it is. It is easy to point out facts and shootings and deliberate oppression. Pointing out the dissolution of freedom by propaganda is a more difficult task. I applaud the acts of this organization in fingering the leaders they have fingered, and sneer at their lack of courage in naming the US Military's actions in the Middle East, and the corporate media's actions behind doors directing the talking heads, in what is the most powerful empire the world has ever known.
It would be interesting to know why the USA and Israel didn't make the top of the list in suppression of free press as they should have. They're more subtle but the results are surely huge. It's easy to attack North Korea. How about going after the press in those countries with the closest ties to the US empire and the US press itself/ This would be a real eye opener of how they serve as mouth pieces for the power elites in those countries and thus suppress the facts.
AD
In neglecting to even mention the ruinous-for-democracy problems of mega-corporate centralization of mainstream newsmedia ownership in the US, plus the US MSM's suffocation of in-depth fact reporting, exclusion of alternate global viewpoints, chronic panning of legitimate domestic dissent, and routine collusions with official government positions, Journalists Without Borders seems indistinguishable, in this report anyway, from just one more disinformation campaign.
A country's not killing journalists is hardly the most meaningful criterion by which to judge the existence of a free and meaningful Fourth Estate.
Gee what a disappointment! When I read the headline I thought it was about the whore, war mongering cheerleaders; casuistry and obfuscation of the American corporate media.
*Comment deleted by site administrators for violating our Comment Policy*
see: http://www.commondreams.org/comment-policy
Focus on Empire itself? Where is it - in DC, or on Wall and K streets, or in the Pentagon, or in the MSM, or in corporate HQs, or... Too broad a target for a laser, my friend.
I'm really getting tired of Common Dreams and it's Nazi administrators flagging and blocking anyone who says something someone else doesn't like. CD you really need to watch yourself or myself and others sick of this will be finding some other hole to water at.
They've deleted amacd's comment while I was composing my reply to his post. My comment now hangs in the air.
They banned me on my other screen name of 'Nader 4 Prez' because I wrote that Obama was a 'house negro' and that I wouldn't be surprised if he votes John Yoo to the supreme court. In typical CD fashion, someone took some major offense to that, had me flagged, and CD banned me under that name. How ridiculous it's getting here :(
PhRMA payback – Sanofi-Aventis is the largest single funder of Reporters Without Borders and the CEO is also Chairman of PhRMA. RWB goes out of their way to avoid any mention of the US despite talking about Iraq and Afghanistan:
http://en.rsf.org/predators2010-03-05-2010,37235.html
RWB gives heavy Obama spin on their profile of the US:
http://en.rsf.org/report-united-states,176.html
Yeah, I could only read so much of that life-under-Obama praise before clicking the x at the top right of the screen in frustration.
RWB would be highly remiss not to have included predators from within the United States. By my own personal ranking I put the US damn near close to the bottom of the list.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Exhibit F: Why the progressive left is failing in the U.S. and elsewhere because of a lack of cross racial, cross educational level, cross income level SOLIDARITY AND THE WILL TO ORGANIZE on a bigger, broader scale so that even erstwhile progressive organizations must crawl on their knees to corporatist, capitalist sources to give them operating money. This is what Nader was talking about in his latest book.
Again its melodrama time. We all have free expression here. Common dreams exists now doesn't it? And do not a large amount of the stories come reprinted from publication else where?
So some are saying there is no free expression while freely expressing themselves on forums on dissenting articles published in a free press? How embarrassing.
Very true Truth_Light
By far American empire and the west in general with some exceptions were and still are more than ever the representative of the delusional/illusionary free world that was and is the main creator of those dictatorships that murdered assassinated kidnapped, ransomed every man/woman with a pen or pencil.
whether its a journalist, a writer, a teacher, an activist or even a priests. In fact the empire harbors some of the most inhuman schools in the world, cia, nsa, School of the Americas countless other entities covertly and overtly. Not to mention journalist who were directly killed by the empire look no further than the Reuters journalists cowardly executed(RULES OF ENGAGEMENT) in the footage provided by wikipedia three weeks ago.
As for Murdoch trash and the rest I won't even start.
As far as I'm concerned the one who shoots with a gun is no less guilty than the one who shoots with a camera both are extremities of the same whip the inhuman and savage whip of capitalism.
BE THE MEDIA, BE THE PEN&PAPER whatever we do we must not rely only on the Internet but meet join group and regroup discuss exchange and grow in the ideas, visions, strategies, alternatives and the numbers.
Meeting in the flesh is paramount. no for shopping but for creating alternatives.
In my local shopping center It is strictly illegal to take a photo and yet I am filmed 99 times for security reasons, by the same corporation who directly or indirectly are supporting dictatorships and the assassinations mentioned above indeed its all connected.
Latin America, Africa, Japan some European countries and many others are revaluing their relationship with the US they finally sea the chains. That's governments, IMAGINE the PEOPLE. WAKING UP LET US EVOLVE
In fact the empire is already ordering its satellite states to arrest jail torture and execute resistance, the local media dances to the tune.
Yes indeed it is painful but we cannot spend our lives being the shadow of Martin Luther King, Jean of Ark, Rosa Luxembourg, Chomsky, Howard Zinn or Spartacus for in each & everyone of us they all R.
Don't wait for Obama look for the little/Big Obama in all of US.
In Soulidarity