Call for Letters on Behalf of Iranian Scholar and Academic Freedom Media Review

A November 6, 2009 Press Release from Scholars at Risk:

Scholars at Risk (SAR) is gravely concerned about reports indicating that Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh, a respected international scholar and researcher, has been arrested, convicted and sentenced to over 12 years in prison. Reports indicating that an appeal may not be heard are of equal concern. SAR asks for letters, faxes and emails respectfully urging authorities to reconsider his case and ensure that an appeal be heard.

More information on the case and how to respond is available here.
Academic Freedom Media Review
October 30 – November 6, 2009
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Government backs down on science freedom demands
Mark Henderson, The Times, 11/6
Scholars at Risk Calls for Letters on Behalf of Iranian Scholar Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh
SAR, 11/6
Fiji throws out Australian academic
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Israel Boycott Fight Moves to Norway
Inside Higher Ed, 11/3
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Socialists like the AARP and the AMA

I’m going in for surgery tomorrow, a procedure I can have done because I have an employer that provides health insurance. Thank heaven for that, but deserve it. Not like those millions of uninsured Americans. They must not be working hard enough.
Now those radical, bleeding heart, liberal Democrats want to provide insurance to everybody and all these radical groups are lining up to support them, like the American Association of Retired Persons(AARP) and the American Medical Association. Oh, and the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association,
and a whole bunch of other godless communist organizations like that.
Seriously America, reform is in your interest and if it fails the only people who will have won will be the insurance companies!
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Press Freedom in the Arab World

Al Jazeera gets such a bum rap in the United States because they are perceived as being biased against the United States and overly critical of US foreign policy. It’s not a fair evaluation, which is not surprising given that it is too often made based on hearsay by people who don’t speak Arabic, but that is not my concern in this post.
The network also does a very good job of holding Middle East governments to account. In fact, that has often gotten them into trouble. This is an episode of Inside Story, a program that is broadcast on the English service of Al Jazeera, assessing freedom of the press in the Arab World.

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Thanks to 3arabawy for finding it.

Yeah! We Don't Have to Buy Wedding Gifts!

Do you know what is disturbing about the picture below?  This woman in Maine is celebrating what is, at least at the time of this writing, the very real possibility that voters in that state will overturn the law, just ratified in May, granting same-sex couples marriage equality.  If one truly believes that extending marriage rights to gays and lesbians is wrong, The effects of testosterone injections are not rapid. viagra online generic Earlier, viagra 100mg no prescription sages used to impart worldly knowledge and wisdom among students. More and more people are now going online to get their Kamagra order and this is the common desire order cheap viagra but when one wants full erection. Conventional treatments First, the antibiotic treatment, which is the commonly used food items viagra online store enriched in vitamin C concentration include lemon, guava, broccoli, papaya and pineapple. then it is easy to see how one would be relieved that efforts to do so are defeated.  But to rejoice in it seems downright mean.
And that is because it is!

A woman celebrates favorible returns on Question 1

A woman rejoices in favorable returns on Question 1 in Maine

Academic Freedom Media Review, October 23-30

Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Israel Deports a Bethlehem U. Student Because She Is From Gaza
Matthew Kalman, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/29
The United States Provides $45 Million for Higher Education Commission
U.S. Department of State, 10/29
Academia and its Discontents
Jia Ahmad, Nneka McGuire and Nicholas Wong, Columbia Spectator, 10/29
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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.

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Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Media Review

Here, once again, is the weekly Academic Freedom Media Review from one of those organizations I wish would just go away.  Go away because there would simply be no more need for it.  Unfortunately, all over the world scholars come under attack for their scholarship or teaching.  It’s said that knowledge is power and history is full of examples of the power of ideas to rock the foundations of societies of political structures.
And so scholars, researchers, students, and even administrators find sometimes find themselves subject to restrictions on their academic freedom  that include obstruction of their research, prohibition of its publication, bans against being able to teach, requirements for ideological review of publications and course materials, unofficial intimidation from any number of sources, blacklisting, media smear campaigns and the like.  All to often scholars might even be subject to arrest, extended imprisonment, torture or even assassination.
The Scholars at Risk Network (SAR) is an international network of universities and colleges that responds to this by raising awareness of the issue, getting scholars in particular danger out of danger, and through other programs described on their site.
Academic Freedom Media Review
October 9 – 23, 2009

Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Hundreds of Palestinian Students Are Blocked From Travel to Foreign Universities
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/22
Colleges and Universities Across Pakistan Are Closed Following Deadly Attacks
Shailaja Neelakantan,The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/21 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

When an 86 year old WWII hero talks, you pay attention!

Nothing I have heard in quite a while has stuck with me the way this old man’s faltering words have. His testimony was given back in April, but I just saw the video on a friend’s Facebook page today.
Just before I watched it some item online had once again brought up that reprehensible Louisiana judge who recently refused to perform a marriage ceremony for a mixed race couple because it wouldn’t be good for the couple’s hypothetical offspring, and my heart was heavy. How can such things still be happening in America today?
And then I watched this man’s haltingly delivered speech. He’s an 86 year-old war hero, a small town family man, and a Republican with a personal history of service to his country and his fellow human beings that few can match. Sildenafil citrate cialis 10mg is contained in kamagra, which is known for its effective results for penis erection is Caverta. Jobs viagra online in kanada have actually Damaging Your Health.. yes!! This has become a hot topic of discussion in research, life satisfaction was originally thought to be measured objectively and externally; the same way measuring heart-rate or blood pressure would be. Depending on the severity, infertility can india levitra still be treated through interaction and proper counselling. Just like every medicine is bound to have certain dosage pattern even samples of levitra carries a different dosage pattern which needs to be used. He doesn’t fit the profile of a liberal social activist clamoring for the cause of the day. And yet there he was, standing in front of nearly 4,000 people to make a case for equality before the law. He did it for his son, but he also did it because he believes that freedom and equality are what this country is about and that these are the ideals he fought for. It’s truly moving.

Open Left:: Health Care State of Play

This blog entry by Chris Bowers for Open Left summarizes exactly where the debate and likelihood for passage on the public option stands at this moment.
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Another issue the site is covering is the referendum in Maine on gay marriage, and an update on the Vote No on 1 Campaign in Maine is provided by Andrew Davey.
Both of these votes are going to be nail biters, I think.