Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Amantha Perera COLOMBO, May 2, 2011 (IPS) – It has been two years since the end of Sri Lanka’s decades long war, and life in general has begun to slowly edge back towards normalcy here. Not so for the country’s besieged media community, according to observers and [...]
EGYPT: Press Freedom Comes With a few Red Lines
May 2, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Cam McGrath CAIRO, May 2, 2011 (IPS) – The collapse of autocratic regimes in Tunisia and Egypt has broken the state’s stranglehold on the local press, but journalists and bloggers must still be careful what they say. "The red lines are very blurry at the moment," says [...]
HUNGARY: Media Struggles to Find a Free Voice
February 22, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Zoltán Dujisin BUDAPEST, Feb 22, 2011 (IPS) – EU pressure may force Hungary to step back on some provision of its controversial media law, but its main goal has been achieved before it even took effect: media are intimidated. On December 21, just a few hours after [...]
EGYPT: Gag Tightens on Media Ahead of Elections
October 20, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Cam McGrath CAIRO, Oct 20, 2010 (IPS) – Media watchdogs see the "invisible hand" of the ruling party behind a string of firings and resignations that have removed some of Egypt’s most prominent government critics from their soapboxes just weeks before parliamentary elections. "Oblique threats and backroom [...]
Activists in Hong Kong Campaign for Liu’s Release
October 17, 2010 By
By Tony Henderson* IDN-InDepth NewsReport HONG KONG (IDN) – Over one hundred mainland China intellectuals and activists have issued and signed an open letter urging the Beijing government to release Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and to seize this as an opportune moment to embrace democracy peacefully. The letter, in Chinese, English, French and [...]
Iran’s "Blogfather" Gets 20-Year Prison Sentence
September 29, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Omid Memarian SAN FRANCISCO, California, Sep 28, 2010 (IPS) – A week after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told heads of state gathered for the U.N. General Assembly in New York that his government does not jail its citizens for expressing their opinions, Iran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced Hossein [...]
MEXICO: Freedom of Information Laws a Model; Not So the Practice
September 29, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Daniela Pastrana MEXICO CITY, Sep 28, 2010 (IPS) – Mexico has suffered a setback in terms of government transparency and access to public information, according to Thomas Blanton and Kate Doyle, experts with the Washington-based National Security Archive (NSA). In an interview with IPS, Blanton said that [...]
U.S.: Librarians Lead Fight Against Banned Books
September 24, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Karoline Kallweit NEW YORK, Sep 24, 2010 (IPS) – Penguins are indisputably cute. And a children’s book about such inoffensive animals could hardly be expected to trigger a nationwide controversy. But then came "And Tango Makes Three" and a heated debate was fired up. The book, based [...]
Honduras Bashed for Rights Violations
August 10, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN By S. J. Chander IDN-InDepth NewsAnalyis TORONTO (IDN) – Human Rights Watch has called on the Honduran government to provide protection to journalists and members of the political opposition, prosecute people responsible for human rights abuses, and restore the independence of the judiciary. "Violent attacks on journalists and [...]
WIKILEAKS: IMPLICATIONS OF LEAKAGE OF US DIPLOMATIC CABLES
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy B.RAMAN The leakage by WikiLeaks of over 200,000 diplomatic cables exchanged between the US State Department and its diplomatic missions abroad could have serious implications for US diplomacy and for the US-led war on terror. 2. To be successful and effective, diplomacy has to be confidential. It cannot be conducted [...]