More than 2,000 BBC journalists vote for strike action
Date published: September 2, 2010
Author: Newswatch Desk
More than 2,000 journalists working for the BBC at centres across the UK have voted in favour of strike action in protest at planned reforms to their pension scheme. Figures released Wednesday night by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) reveal the extent to which its members are angered by management proposals to cap their pension contributions.
Of around 3,500 NUJ members at the BBC, 2,251 voted in the ballot with 2,107 (94 per cent) voting for strike action and 2,175 (97 per cent) voting for some form of industrial action short of a strike. At BBC Worldwide, 50 per cent of BECTU’s members took part in the ballot with all voting for strike action, while at BBC Studios & Post Production, 48 per cent of members took part in the vote with 85 per cent voting for strike action.
Journalist's video gives rare look at war behind Taliban enemy lines
Date published: September 1, 2010
Author: Newswatch Desk
A Norwegian journalist has been granted unprecedented access to the Taliban army for the first time. The journalist, Norwegian Paul Refsdal, says Taliban leader Commander Dawran granted him the access and allowed him to film the enemy soldiers while they attacked a US convoy.
The Taliban leader also allowed Refsdal to film him with his two children. The children were later allegedly killed in a US raid on the camp. The documentary, Behind Enemy Lines, was broadcast on Australian news programme SBS Dateline.
Executive Producer Peter Charley wrote on the Dateline blog, "There are always two sides to every story – as any reporter covering a conflict knows. But some conflicts – like the war in Afghanistan - make it simply too dangerous to get ‘the other side’ of the story: the point of view of the enemy.
Two Kurdish newspapers banned for a month over PKK photographs, news
Date published: September 2, 2010
Author: Newswatch Desk
Censored: Demonstrator hold a portrait of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan. The PKK has been waging an armed struggle against the Turkish state since 1984 and is on the Turkish, European Union, US and Canadian lists of terrorist organisations.
Kurdish publications have again been suspended or seized under the Anti-Terrorism Law (Law 3713), which allows the Turkish courts to impose harsh penalties on journalists and media when they allude to Kurdish armed separatists and fosters a repressive climate for the Kurdish media. Although the European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly condemned Turkey because of the Anti-Terrorism Law, the country’s constitutional court has refused to consider overturning it.
In the latest case, an Istanbul court suspended the daily Rojev for a month on August 28 under article 6 of the law because an article in that day’s issue used a photo of a poster of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and a photo of the PKK flag. The PKK has been waging an armed struggle against the Turkish state since 1984 and is on the Turkish, European Union, US and Canadian lists of terrorist organisations.
Bouterse’s installation as Suriname president is impunity for past murders of journalists
Date published: August 13, 2010
Author: Newswatch Desk
Desi Bouterse, sworn in Thursday as President of Suriname, continues to be charged with the murders of five journalists in 1982, while he was dictator. A soldier by profession, Bouterse has been returned to power by an election. He first came to power in a coup on February 25, 1980 and went on to run the country with an iron hand for two periods, 1980-1987 and 1990-1991, violating fundamental human rights with no compunction.
The five journalists were among a total of 15 pro-democracy activists who were executed on the night of December 8, 1982 in Fort Zeelandia military barracks under his presumed responsibility. They were Andre Kamperveen, the owner and manager of Radio ABC, Frank Wijngaarde, a Radio ABC reporter, and three print media journalists, Leslie Rahman, Bram Behr and Jozef Slagveer.
Indian media ignored indigenous Dongria Kondhs, gave lopsided coverage to corporate giant Vedanta
The Indian media by and large ignored the indigenous tribals living in the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa while according lopsided, voluminous coverage to Vedanta during recent developments over the corporate giant’s controversial mining and refinery projects in the eastern state, an independent study has found.
Indian newspapers made passing or no mention of the Dongria Kondh tribals whose very existence would have been at stake had the ministry of environment and forests not rejected the forest clearance for the project. On the other hand, the coverage centered around the UK-based Vedanta Resources and its activities, charges against it, and its denials, found the study by Newswatch, an online monitor that looks at news and developments pertaining to press freedom, journalistic ethics, and the news media industry.
Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez delivers a speech during a national address in Buenos Aires, Argentina Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2010. Fernandez said leading newspapers, Clarin and La Nacion, used the newsprint company, Papel Prensa SA, to impose media monopolies on Argentina, stifling other viewpoints by refusing to sell paper at fair prices to competitors.
Photo courtesy: Associated Press / Daylife
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