Reporters without Borders on Press Freedom in Morocco

Stamp Commemorates Moroccan American Treaty of Friendship

Stamp Commemorates Moroccan American Treaty of Friendship


A few days ago I posted an entry about recent setbacks in freedom of the press in Morocco.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be visiting Morocco November 2-3.  In advance of that visit Reporters Without Borders, an organization that fights for freedom of the press has sent an open letter to the Secretary of State  outlining violations of press freedom since July 2009 and concluding:

Reporters Without Borders urges you to use the opportunity offered by your visit to Morocco to talk about the difficulties that the independent media are facing and to raise this crucial issue with the Moroccan authorities. The aim of the Forum of the Future which the US government set up in 2004 is to promote democratisation in the Broader Middle East and North Africa region. Press freedom is an essential component of this democratisation.

Continue reading

The Perils of Being a Journalist

Two more Moroccan journalists were fined today for reporting false information on the health of the King, Mohammed VI.  According to Agence France Presse

The editor of the daily al-Jarida al-Oula, Ali Anouzla, was handed a one year suspended jail term, while journalist Bouchra Eddou was also given a suspended sentence of three months.
The tribunal fined Anouzla 10,000 dirhams (876 euros, $1,315) and Eddou 5,000 dirhams.

Both men have appealed and accused the government of simply trying to clamp down on the press. As I noted previously, it continues a worrying trend. Continue reading

Freedom of the Press in the Maghreb

Upon the death of his father, it looked as if Morocco might be on its way toward total freedom of expression.  This post is too short to go into much detail, but tentatively at first, then progressively with more and more confidence the media and the arts began to confront previously taboo subjects including corruption in government and the private sector, human rights abuses, gender oppression, linguistic and cultural suppression of minorities, policies in the Western Sahara, homosexual rights, etc.
There was shock when the Moroccan magazine TelQuel was able to publish an investigative piece on “The Salary of the King,” and get away with it.  Under his father Hassan the II such matters were kept as secret as nuclear launch codes.  I don’t mean to say that the media totally ignored all that was wrong in Morocco until the liberalization, either.  But when something was  reported, it was done very carefully, with great care as to who was bore the blame.  All of that changed in the years following the elevation to the throne of Mohammed VI.
Recently, however, there have been a number of setbacks and it has been hard to watch.  Continue reading

CSM Columnist Argues Our Flag is Not a Prop

The Flag of the United States of America

The Flag of the United States of America


This is such a good piece about the symbolism of our national flag. Like the columnist, it has pretty much gotten to the point that if I see a flag displayed too prominently on an email or on a web page, I assume that the accompanying message is likely to be insulting and full of unsupported, reckless claims and attacks on the duly elected President of the United States.
How did the flag become this? It should be a symbol of our national unity, not a cudgel we use to beat those who don’t agree with us.
But Amy Hardin Turosak says it so much better than I in her piece “Our Flag is Not a Prop” for the Christian Science Monitor. It’s pithy, concise and to the point. She argues:
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The flag must not be used as a point of argument but as a symbol of the solidarity that binds the diversity of our nation.
But, if you protest, you have a responsibility to protest based on fact. This is not a university football game. This is the future of our country.

This Land Is Your Land – Ryan Bingham from Ryan Hargrave on Vimeo.

Cable News Has Massive Information Resources, William Kamkwamba Has a Few Library Books. Who Makes Better Use?

I’m not one of those who get’s all his news from The Daily Show, I swear, but as Jon Stewart points out in this segment, it’s hard to get it anywhere else.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
CNN Leaves It There
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

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But at least they are making sure Saturday Night Live gets the facts straight.
And then there’s this guy. Look what he did with some scraps that, quite frankly, a junkyard owner wouldn’t have bothered to save.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
William Kamkwamba
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

He did all that based on images in a library book? It took me hours to set up the surround sound in my family room, and I had diagrams and specific color coded cables! I’m calling William Kamkwamba next time. You know all those leaks in the Big Dig Tunnels Here in Boston where I live, they should have just told William Kamkwamba what they wanted done. Remember the Mars Climate Orbiter that NASA lost because they confused Metric and Imperial measurements? Maybe William Kamkwamba should have taken charge. I’m exaggerating, of course, but this kid’s story does make you wonder, if he can do that with what he had, what would he do with all the benefits I have. As he says in the interview, what if he had Google?

Journalism and Gender

Here are two articles that touch on freedom of the press and gender in the Islamic world.

A journalist in Afghanistan who had a death sentence for blasphemy commuted to 20 years in prison has now been released, officials say.
Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh has been pardoned by President Hamid Karzai, the Afghan justice ministry confirmed.
Relatives of Mr Kambaksh said he had already left Afghanistan as he had been granted asylum by a European country.
In 2007, he was convicted of distributing material that questioned Islamic attitudes to women.
Media rights groups have welcomed the release of Mr Kambakhsh, which they say is the result of persistent lobbying.
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In this second article, a journalist was arrested, but not for anything she said or did.  Unlike Mr Kambakhsh, she wasn’t charged with blasphemy or with some crime against the state, as dissident journalist so often are.  Her crime was her attire.  She wasn’t dressed properly.

A Sudanese court ruled on Monday that journalist Lubna Ahmad Al-Hussein should be fined two hundred dollars for wearing trousers; considered an indecent outfit in Sudan – applying Islamic Sharia in their law. It’s worth mentioning that Lubna was threatened of a verdict amounting to 40 whip lashes…  More than a thousand persons, including numerous women in trousers, demonstrated in front of the court on Monday in solidarity with the journalist. The police broke up the demonstrators and detained forty eight female activists and journalists on the charge of inciting a riot.
via Trouser-wearing Sudanese journalist escapes flogging, fined $200

It’s worth pointing out that this article is from the site Meedan, a site with the goal of connecting Arabic and English speakers by taking advantage of machine-assisted translation technology.  A useful resource.  More on that later.

Academic Freedom Media Review, October 2-9, 2009

The Academic Freedom Media Review is a collection of articles compiled weekly by Scholars at Risk. This is the review for October 2-9, 2009.
Iranian Professors Worldwide Call for Independent Ethical Conducts of their Peers in Iran
Payvand Iran News, 10/9
Palestinian University Is Shut Down Amid Fight For Control
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/8
Law to back academic freedom
Guy Healy, The Australian, 10/7
Egypt’s top cleric plans face veil ban in schools
Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press, 10/6
File under – ‘Silly comments by middle-aged university managers’
Ferdinand Von Prondzynski, Irish Times, 10/6
UNL faculty report aims to protect academic freedom
Melissa Lee, Lincoln Journal Star, 10/6
US complains about Turkmen student travel ban
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Saudi cleric sacked after attacking mixing at new university
AFP, 10/5
Palestinian Students in Gaza Ask Egypt to Allow Entrance to Universities
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/5
KENYA: University closed indefinitely after violent protest
Dave Buchere, University World News, 10/4
Visa snarl-up leaves thousands of Pakistani students barred from UK
Declan Walsh, The Guardian, 10/4
IRAN: Students protest on first day of new term
Jonathan Travis and Daniel Sawney, University World News, 10/4
Overthrown Honduras Culture Minister, Now at Harvard, Watches Strife From Afar
Noah S. Rayman and Elyssa A. L. Spitzer, Harvard Crimson, 10/2

AP Considers Charging for Early Access to Content

A post by Adam Ostrow on Mashable today alerted me to the fact that the Associated Press (AP) is considering charging publishers to get its news earlier. He got it from an AP story.

According to an AP story (fitting) about the idea, publishers could have a story exclusively for up to 30 minutes, giving them a major advantage in terms of the inbound links, social media sharing, and search traffic that online news sites depend on.
The devil is in the details here, and the details at this point are far from certain. The organization is simply considering the concept, which CEO Tom Curley discussed earlier today at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club.

There will be a lot of challenges in implementing this of course, but as Ostrow points out, the move would be an attempt to take advantage of the fact that in the fast paced world of our media today, the faster a story gets up the more likely it is to receive attention and if it goes up on your site first, your site will be the one that others site and redirect to.
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This is a real problem because the number of news gathering organizations is rapidly diminishing. With the constant re-posting of already existing content, who is to gather it to begin with. For a long time, traditional print newspapers funded and did much of the news gathering for the online writers to opine on. Now, though, the number of print newspapers is rapidly diminishing. So syndicates like the AP don’t have them to rely on for revenue. How then, do they replace that with a model that generates revenue from online publishers? It’s a complicated issue.
Are ideas such as charging for early publishing rights a way to come to terms with new realities or are they, as Ostrow argues, simple “new ways to make more money from the same content.”

Academic Freedom Media Review, September 25-October 2, 2009

The Academic Freedom Media Review is a collection of articles compiled weekly by Scholars at Risk. This is the review for September 25 – October 2, 2009.
UWO joins effort to protect scholars
Chip Martin, London Free Press, 10/1
Peruvian Academic Receives Death Threats
NEAR, 10/1
Israeli Court Says University Bowed to Chinese Pressure in Closing Exhibit
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/1
Saudi cleric to king’s university: don’t teach evolution, mix sexes
Asma Alsharif, Reuters FaithWorld Blog, 10/1
Calvin College Faculty Asks Trustees to Withdraw Memo Against Gay Advocacy
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/1
Government threatened grant agency over Mideast conference
Anne McIlroy, Globe and Mail, 9/30
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The Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/30
St. Louis U. Blocks David Horowitz Event
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Education, 9/29
LEBANON: Scholar angry at NATO after invitation to speak
Meris Lutz, The Los Angeles Times, 9/29
Tehran students protest on campus
BBC, 9/28
Venezuelan students keep up hunger strike
Reuters, 9/28
Universities in Philippines Close to Assist in Relief Efforts After Storm-Driven Floods
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/27

Iranian Blogger Said to Be in Solitary Confinement – The Lede Blog – NYTimes.com

Violations of Press Freedom should be of concern to us all.  When journalist are intimidated, then authoritarian forces can act with impunity. Here is the case of one Iranian blogger.

On Friday, an Iranian blogger and human rights activist, Mojtaba Samienejad, reported that a fellow blogger who had been working as a journalist for a reformist newspaper, Fariba Pajouh, has been in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin Prison for three weeks.
A version of Mr. Samienejad’s report was published on the English-language section of a Web site maintained by the group Human Rights Activists in Iran. Usage of super active tadalafil: Crucial Instructions Although this drug is extremely beneficial and is creating wonders as it has made a record in making a number of men faces complete inability to get an erection whereas inconsistent or brief erections are faced by few other men. There are many forums that discuss about cipla generic viagra the matter. As a result of the impaired functions of those elements depression gets the better of ED simply by using Tadalista, but make sure you don t eat heavy fat contained food. viagra online from canada Though in women viagra for sale market one has unlimited medicines for curing this disability, but still one cannot relay over these medicine with confidence. Ms. Pajouh’s father told Mr. Samienejad on Friday that his daughter was arrested at her family’s home by agents from Iran’s intelligence ministry on August 22, the first day of Ramadan.

via Iranian Blogger Said to Be in Solitary Confinement – The Lede Blog, September 11 – NYTimes.com.