 by Khaled Abu Toameh Arab journalists are under growing pressure from the Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to avoid “hanging the dirty laundry in the open.” Arab journalists are often taught that they should place the interests of their leaders, governments and homelands before above anything else, including the facts and the truth. Americans and Europeans who are pouring billions of dollars on Abbas and Fayyad need to be aware of the absence of an independent media in the West Bank. One can understand why the Iranian-funded Hamas is repressing journalists, but there is no reason why American and European taxpayers should be funding a regime that has no respect for independent reporters. If the West nevertheless insists on dealing with corrupt secular regimes to keep radical Muslims away, then Washington and its Western allies should demand good government and free media.
Western donors have every right to demand something positive in return for their money. The financial corruption and lack of democracy and freedom of expression is, meanwhile, driving many Arabs into the open arms of Hamas and al-Qaeda. Journalists are forced to go and work in the international or even Israeli media to be able to practice some form of real journalism. The absence of a free and independent media in the Palestinian territories has driven a majority of Palestinians to rely on foreign media outlets as a reliable source of information. Public opinion polls have even shown that most Palestinians prefer Al-Jazeera to the Hamas and Fatah media. The pressure is taking place in the context of the power struggle between Fatah and Hamas that has been raging in the Palestinian territories since the Islamist movement won the parliamentary elections in January 2006. Since then, the two rival parties have been waging a smear campaign against each other, using every available platform to discredit and undermine one another. Many local journalists have found themselves caught in the middle of this ongoing dispute. In the West Bank, the Western-backed “moderate” government of Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad has been exerting pressure on journalists to “toe the line” and refrain from reporting news that might reflect negatively on the two men. Abbas and Fayyad are using the US-trained Palestinian policemen not only to crack down on Hamas supporters in the West Bank, but also to silence critics and intimidate local reporters and editors. Some journalists who have dared to publicly criticize the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank have either found themselves behind bars under the pretext of “supporting” Hamas - an allegation aimed at keeping human rights organizations and Westerners silent. Other journalists who are not renowned as Fatah loyalists often receive threats over the phone directly from officials close to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. This policy has resulted in the creation of a media that is not much different than the ones existing under Arab dictatorships. The three major Palestinian newspapers, Al-Quds, Al-Ayyam and Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, are controlled, directly and indirectly, by Abbas and Fayyad loyalists. Criticism of these two men and their policies in the local media is unheard of. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of journalists who seek jobs with the Palestinian media in the West Bank are required to be Fatah loyalists. Of course no one is expecting Abbas and Fayyad to employ Hamas-affiliated journalists, but what about those who don’t belong to any political faction? And there’s certainly no shortage of fine and independent Palestinian journalists. Hamas’s attitude toward Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip has not been any better. Many journalists living there are afraid to speak out or report stories that might anger Hamas. Under this frightening atmosphere, many of these journalists nowadays sound as if they are Hamas spokesmen. A free media is one of the basic foundations of a healthy and prosperous society. It’s also an important element in the construction of a solid infrastructure for the much-desired Palestinian state. Hudson New York 
 Absolute intellectual/informational dominance is the strategic goal. In case you ever wondered why you never got the straight story on Islam directly after 911, and why the media seemed to be in the tank for jihad, here's a clue. The Society of Professional Journalists issued this directive a couple of weeks after 911. And they have followed it in goose step ever since. Just how long has the Muslim Brotherhood been strategizing the take down and take over of the US and the west? Decades. And while we have no strategy for fighting the enemy -- hell, we can't even name them -- they have a war plan that is so detailed and exact that every t is crossed and every i dotted. Take a look at the "diversity" guidelines as set forth by the Society of Professional Journalists not two weeks after 911. The enemy that attacked our country in an attempt to bring it down was writing the narrative. Diversity Guidelines On Oct. 6, 2001 at its National Convention in Seattle, the Society of Professional Journalists passed a resolution urging members and fellow journalists to take steps against racial profiling in their coverage of the war on terrorism and to reaffirm their commitment to: — Use language that is informative and not inflammatory; Even if the horror, murder and bloodshed of jihad is inflammatory, don't tell the people. — Portray Muslims, Arabs and Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans in the richness of their diverse experiences; Portray the axe wielding murderers, the homicide bombers, the infiltrators of our most senior levels, in the "richness of their diverse experience" (you know, stonings, amputations, shariah law, clitorectomies, Jew hatred, Islamic colonialism, the caliphate..........) — Seek truth through a variety of voices and perspectives that help audiences understand the complexities of the events in Pennsylvania, New York City and Washington, D.C. What voices? Hamas front CAIR picked voices?
Guidelines
Visual images
— Seek out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds when photographing Americans mourning those lost in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Seek out Muslims ................ — Seek out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds when photographing rescue and other public service workers and military personnel. Seek out Muslims.................. — Do not represent Arab Americans and Muslims as monolithic groups. Avoid conveying the impression that all Arab Americans and Muslims wear traditional clothing. Scam the folks on Muslims ........ — Use photos and features to demystify veils, turbans and other cultural articles and customs. "Demystify veils and turbans" Stories — Seek out and include Arabs and Arab Americans, Muslims, South Asians and men and women of Middle Eastern descent in all stories about the war, not just those about Arab and Muslim communities or racial profiling.
— Cover the victims of harassment, murder and other hate crimes as thoroughly as you cover the victims of overt terrorist attacks.
Cover the bogus tales of "harassment" just days after 3,000 Americans were brutally murdered by Muslims on our own soil. The Press is being told to throw Americans under the bus and kiss the adherents to the Islamic ideology that murdered our people and want to take over this country. — Make an extra effort to include olive-complexioned and darker men and women, Sikhs, Muslims and devout religious people of all types in arts, business, society columns and all other news and feature coverage, not just stories about the crisis.
Try to show Muslims out of jihad. And don't talk about the Islamic attacks especially, right after they happen. — Seek out experts on military strategies, public safety, diplomacy, economics and other pertinent topics who run the spectrum of race, class, gender and geography.
— When writing about terrorism, remember to include white supremacist, radical anti-abortionists and other groups with a history of such activity.
There aren't any (except the three under some rock in Appalachia). But not to worry, make it up, or pull the Unabomber out of your ass, and Timothy McVeigh too (just don't mention the third Muslim man).
— Do not imply that kneeling on the floor praying, listening to Arabic music or reciting from the Quran are peculiar activities. — When describing Islam, keep in mind there are large populations of Muslims around the world, including in Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, India and the United States. Distinguish between various Muslim states; do not lump them together as in constructions such as "the fury of the Muslim world."
But Obama does. The Islamic world does. The ummah is the worldwide global community. — Avoid using word combinations such as "Islamic terrorist" or "Muslim extremist" that are misleading because they link whole religions to criminal activity. Be specific: Alternate choices, depending on context, include "Al Qaeda terrorists" or, to describe the broad range of groups involved in Islamic politics, "political Islamists." Do not use religious characterizations as shorthand when geographic, political, socioeconomic or other distinctions might be more accurate.
— Avoid using terms such as "jihad" unless you are certain of their precise meaning and include the context when they are used in quotations. The basic meaning of "jihad" is to exert oneself for the good of Islam and to better oneself.
— Consult the Library of Congress guide for transliteration of Arabic names and Muslim or Arab words to the Roman alphabet. Use spellings preferred by the American Muslim Council, including "Muhammad," "Quran," and "Makkah ," not "Mecca."
— Regularly seek out a variety of perspectives for your opinion pieces. Check your coverage against the five Maynard Institute for Journalism Education fault lines of race and ethnicity, class, geography, gender and generation. The Maynard Institute for Journalism is "pure diversity" -- check out the front page. It's all Arab Muslims or African Americans. — Ask men and women from within targeted communities to review your coverage and make suggestions. In other words, ask Muslims for the taqiya and the right spin before you publish. Read it all here, and thanks to Atlas
 SUSPECTED Taliban militants have kidnapped two French journalists working for France's public television broadcaster and three Afghan companions in the east of the war-torn country, a colleague says. Gunmen snatched the group as they were travelling about 60km from the Afghan capital, a French journalist working with them said. Criminal groups and Taliban insurgents have kidnapped several dozen foreigners, many of them journalists, since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime in Kabul, sparking a nine-year insurgency. "The two journalists, accompanied by their Afghan translator, and the translator's brother and cousin, were kidnapped on the road between Surobi and Tagab," their French colleague said. She blamed the kidnapping on the Taliban, saying they had laid an ambush for the group in Kapisa province. French defence minister Herve Morin, who was visiting French troops in Afghanistan to mark the New Year, confirmed only that the journalists had been missing since Wednesday. "We can't rule out any hypothesis and are doing everything to make contact with them." The journalists' employer, public broadcaster France Televisions, did not formally confirm their abduction. "We have had no news of them for 48 hours," said Paul Nahon, director of documentaries. The journalist and cameraman had been working on a documentary for about two weeks, he said. French troops deployed in Kapisa have launched a manhunt for the five. The Australian
 AT least 15 anti-government protesters, including a nephew of Iran opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, have been shot dead by security forces in Tehran as the smouldering confrontation between the regime and the so-called Green Movement finally erupted. Analysts heralded the start of what could be a bloody end game, as hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters poured on to the streets of Tehran and other cities and fought running battles with the security forces. Opposition websites claimed some policemen had refused to fire on demonstrators. Foreign journalists have been banned from Iran but Western newsrooms were inundated with mobile phone film of astonishing scenes as demonstrators fought riot police and the Republican Guard's feared Basiji militia. A leading opposition activist claimed: "The entire country is beginning to rise." The violence came a week after the death of dissident cleric Hussein Ali Montazeri, an inspiration to Iran reformists and a fierce critic of the clerical regime he helped to create. The violence flared on a major religious holiday, Ashura. An Iranian opposition leader condemned the killing of protesters during Shia Islam's most important observance. Mahdi Karroubi, a candidate who lost in June's disputed presidential election won by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said even the former shah's regime respected the holy day of Ashura. Ashura is the culmination of a 10-day commemoration of a revered seventh-century Shia saint, Imam Hossein, who was killed fighting injustice. The deaths could become heavy with symbolism in Iran, given that Islam bans fighting during this season. During its war with Iraq, Iran halted its attacks during this time and during Iran's 1970s Islamic revolution, protesters came out en masse against the shah on that day, assuming correctly that he wouldn't attack. "Killing people on Ashura takes this crisis to a whole other level," said Roozbeh Mir Ebrahimi, a political analyst and journalist. Analysts yesterday said that if public outrage over the violence aligns the so-far dormant religious class against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the crackdown could prove to be a milestone. Opposition websites said that demonstrators broke through cordons, blocked streets to thwart squads of baton-wielding motorbike police, hurled stones, stripped captured police officers of their uniforms and weapons and burned state-owned banks. Mobile telephone footage showed them holding aloft captured Basiji crash helmets as onlookers cheered. Film clips showed demonstrators trying to tear down Ayatollah Khamenei's portrait and trampling on a street sign bearing his name. The protester deaths were the first shootings of demonstrators since June 20, eight days after the disputed election. The opposition website Rahesabz said security forces opened fire on a crowd near Enghelab Square in Tehran after failing to disperse it with teargas, baton charges and warning shots. It was reported that Seyed Ali Mousavi, 35, the opposition leader's nephew, was shot near Enghelab Square. Reports last night said he appeared to have been assassinated in a political gesture aimed at his uncle. Mr Mousavi was said to have been run over by a 4WD vehicle outside his home, then shot. Government officials took the body and warned the family not to hold a funeral. His family said last night the body had been transferred without its knowledge to an unknown location. "We cannot find it," said Seyed Reza Mousavi. "Nobody accepts responsibility for taking away the body . . . We cannot have a funeral before we find the body." The White House strongly condemned what it called the suppression of civilians in Iran. The Australian
 PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a press club in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing two people in the latest of a slew of attacks to strike the city of Peshawar since the military launched a major offensive near the Afghan border. A policeman tried to search the attacker as he approached the press club's gate, but the man resisted and was able to trigger his explosives, killing the officer and an accountant who worked for the organization, said Peshawar's police chief, Liaquat Ali Khan. A woman who was at the site of the attack apparently died of cardiac arrest, said Sahib Gul, a doctor at a hospital in Peshawar where the three bodies were brought. Adil Khan, a local photographer who was inside the press club when the attack occurred, said he heard the police officer at the gate, Muhammad Riaz, trying to force the bomber to submit to a search. "Suddenly a big explosion occurred and smoke made me unable to see immediately what happened," said Mr. Khan. "After a while, I saw Riaz and accountant Mian Iqbal lying dead in a pool of blood and there were some scattered body parts." Seventeen other people were injured in the attack, many of whom were traveling in a bus that passed the press club when the explosion occurred, said Dr. Gul. The blast blew out the press club's windows and slightly damaged the gate and several surrounding buildings. Peshawar has been hit by at least seven attacks in the past two months in retaliation for a military offensive launched in mid-October against the militant stronghold of South Waziristan in Pakistan's lawless tribal area near the Afghan border.
A single attack in late October in a market popular with women and children in Peshawar killed 112 people. The Peshawar Press Club targeted in Tuesday's attack is a well-known landmark in the city, and many journalists congregate there. "Journalists have played a vital role in our war by exposing the terrorists, so they are on the target list too, like mosques, bazaars and security institutions," said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for Northwest Frontier Province, where Peshawar is the capital. A provincial labor minister was scheduled to hold a press conference at the press club later Tuesday, said the organization's president, Shamim Shahid. He praised Mr. Riaz, the police officer who prevented the bomber from entering the building. "The policeman averted a major incident by sacrificing his life," said Mr. Shahid. WSJ
Iran's human rights record has been criticised in a new report by Amnesty International.
The report highlights what it describes as exceptionally high levels of violence, used in the aftermath of June's disputed presidential election. It says that human rights violations are as bad as at any time in the past 20 years, and urges the Iranian leadership to ensure a full, independent investigation of all alleged abuses. The rights group called on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, to allow United Nations human rights experts to visit the country to help carry out an investigation. Official inquiries to date "seemed to have been more concerned with covering up abuses than getting at the truth", the report said. Iran has dismissed previous criticism of its human rights record.
As Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught reports, some of those abused have had to flee Iran in fear of their safety and seek refuge in Turkey. Al Jazeera
 An armed group in the southern Philippines is holding at least 57 civilians hostage, government officials have said. The hostages, including several schoolchildren and their teachers, were among a group of 75 kidnapped in the small village San Martin in the province of Agusan del Sur on Mindanao island early on Thursday. Eighteen people were released following several hours of negotiations, Chief Supt. Lino Calingasan of the Philippine National Police told local media, but dozens of others remained held hostage. Military officials have said they believe the kidnappers are members of a civilian paramilitary force known as the "Perez group". Police were reportedly pursuing the gunmen, who appeared to be using the hostages as human shields to escape after a clash with authorities in a nearby village on Wednesday. Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas, reporting from Manila, said it was unclear what the group wanted although police say there is no political or religious motive for the kidnapping. She said the group was known to local police having been armed by the Philippines government a decade ago to fight against communist insurgents in the area. The group is similar to the force suspected by authorities of carrying out last month's massacre of 57 political activists and journalists in a nearby province, also on the island of Mindanao. Jaime Milla, a local police official, told the Associated Press the gunmen believed to be behind Thursday's kidnappings were former militiamen who had been dismissed and turned to banditry and extortion. He said the gang was known to have previously targeted mining and logging companies in Agusan del Sur and nearby provinces. Our correspondent said that last month's massacre and now Thursday's kidnappings had many Filipinos questioning whether it was a good idea to arm these groups in the first place, when the army should have been fighting the insurgents. "People are saying this was a monster the government had created, and it's now come back to bite them," she said. Al Jazeera
 Gloria Arroyo, the Philippine president, has said "no effort will be spared" in the hunt for those behind what is believed to have been a politically-driven massacre in the south of the country. Local media reports on Tuesday said that at least 46 people were believed to have been killed in the attack, up from an initial death toll of 22. The victims were part of a group of people abducted in Maguindanao province by around 100 armed men. Among those killed were the wife and family members of Esmael Mangudadatu, a local politician, as well as journalists. The army has linked the killings to political rivalries ahead of next year's local elections.
In a televised address to the nation on Tuesday afternoon, Arroyo said she was determined that those behind the killings would be held "accountable to the full limit of the law". "The chief of staff has ordered the establishment of check points and choke points and as of last night, the military elements were in place to preserve peace in the areas.
"Additional troops have also been deployed to the area last night to further secure the area," she said. Earlier officials in the president's office said she had ordered a state of emergency in the area, following what they said was the worst political violence seen in the country in recent history. Lieutenant-Colonel Romeo Brawner, a spokesman for the Philippines military, said that about 500 more soldiers had been sent to Maguindanao province on the island of Mindanao "to go after the criminals" believed to be behind the killings. He said the troops were under orders to arrest the followers of Andal Ampatuan, the incumbent governor suspected of being behind the killings. "We maintain the Ampatuans are the suspects," Brawner told the AFP news agency. On Monday, the military said 22 bodies - most female, some beheaded and mutilated - had been found in a mass grave in a remote mountainous area. Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas, reporting from the Philippines, said Ampatuan is known to be closely-associated to the government and a close ally of Arroyo so people are watching to see what action the government will take. Ampatuan is seen to have delivered the votes that swung the 2004 elections in Arroyo's favour, so people in the province fear he may not be punished if he is found to be behind the killings, she said. Meanwhile Mangudadatu, whose family members, including his wife, were among those killed according to the military, told local radio that at least four people had survived the attack. He said the survivors were safe under his care and "will come out at the right time". Mangudadatu told local television network ABS-CBN on Monday that he had been warned about the dangers of standing for the governorship against Ampatuan.
Mangudadatu said he stayed behind in the capital Manila and sent his wife, Genalyn Tiamzon-Mangudadatu, to file his nomination in Maguindanao on his behalf. Maguindanao is one of the most politically tense provinces in the country. The governor position is hotly contested because it is the seat of the autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao, she said. More at Al Jazeera
 TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian police have detained 109 people for "disturbing public order" during an opposition rally this week, the official IRNA news agency reported Saturday. Azizollah Rajabzadeh, a security spokesman, said 62 of those detained have been handed over to judicial authorities for trial and the rest have been released after questioning. "Police detained 109 people who disturbed public order on the sidelines of the rally," he said. "62 of those arrested were handed over to judicial authorities and the rest were set free. Of 62 detained, 43 are men and 19 women." Iranian security forces beat anti-government protesters with batons Wednesday on the sidelines of state-sanctioned rallies to mark the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover.
The counter-demonstrations were the opposition's first major show of force on Tehran's streets in nearly two months. The protests showed the determination of Iran's opposition to reassert its voice. But the latest marches drew far fewer demonstrators than in the summer or even in September, suggesting the relentless pressure by authorities could be taking a toll. Three journalists are reportedly among those detained. Farhad Pouladi, a reporter for the news agency Agence France Presse, and two other foreign jouranlists were taken into custody Wednesday as they headed to cover rallies outside the former U.S. Embassy. Source: FoxNews
 Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, has ordered an immediate end to state censorship of the media ahead of the country's first elections in almost 25 years. In a decree carried by the official Suna news agency on Sunday, al-Bashir put an end to "pre-censorship", the system where newspapers are screened by state censors before being available to the public. "We had a meeting with President al-Bashir. He ordered a stop to censorship from today," Ali Shomo, the chairman of Sudan's national press council, the state regulator, said. Editors gave the announcement a cautious welcome, but some said they would still face pressure over sensitive stories. Sudan's Ajras al-Huriya newspaper, which is linked to the former southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement, warned that journalists would still face pressure when writing about Darfur and other highly charged topics. "There is no way they [the security services] are going to tolerate anything about security, about the International Criminal Court," said Faisal Silaik, the paper's deputy editor-in-chief. Sudan's journalists have complained of regular censorship, saying security officers often visit their offices to check and sometimes remove articles ahead of publication, despite constitutional guarantees of a free media. Editors say print-runs have been seized and titles shut down, particularly when writers tried to tackle controversial subjects such as the Darfur conflict and the International Criminal Court's war crimes case against al-Bashir. Fadlallah Mohamed, the editor of independent al-Khartoum newspaper, said the move was "important" ahead of the national election due in April 2010 under the terms of a faltering 2005 peace deal that ended the country's north-south civil war. "Censorship is contrary to free press in Sudan," he said. "We are expecting the general election. It is very important to have a free press in such circumstances." Read more here,,,, Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 |
|
|
Copyright Muslims Against Sharia 2008. All rights reserved.
E-mail: info AT ReformIslam.org
|
|
|
by Khaled Abu Toameh
Posts
