By: Jonathan Watts, The Guardian, October 22, 2009
Chinese authorities have carried out their first executions of Tibetans in connection with the deadly riots that swept Lhasa last year, according to exile groups. As the first reported judicial killings in the region for six years, the news has prompted overseas protests and concerns that proper legal procedures were not followed.
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Book fair fires official for approach to Chinese
By: Steven Erlanger, NY Times, October 21, 2009
The Frankfurt Book Fair, which struggled to find a balance between free speech and honoring China as its featured country, dismissed its project manager after yet another embarrassing refusal to let Chinese dissidents speak. The fair, the world’s largest and most important, ended on Sunday with a traditional ceremony co-hosted by the German Foreign Ministry. But two Chinese dissident writers – the journalist Dai Qing and the poet Bei Ling – were not allowed to address the closing ceremony, despite what they said were invitations to do so.
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China: Banned writers slam book fair
By: RFA, October 21, 2009
Two dissident Chinese authors banned from making speeches at the closing ceremony of the prestigious Frankfurt book fair have lashed out at China’s leading role in the event, calling it a propaganda vehicle for the Communist Party. Dissident Chinese writer Bei Ling was originally invited by the organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair to attend the closing ceremony as a guest speaker.
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China stops activist-writer from returning home
By: Tibetan Review, October 21, 2009
China has prevented writer Li Jian Hong, a human rights activist, from returning home after she had gone to Sweden in early 2008 for a job. Li, a former leader in Shanghai of the 1989 pro-democracy movement, was on Oct 15 blocked at airport and sent to Hong Kong where she was given permit to stay for only 24 hours. She had since tried to re-enter China twice, but without success.
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An underground challenge to China’s status quo
By: Caylan Ford, Christian Science Monitor, October 21, 2009
The image on the Jinzhou evening newspaper was hardly unusual. It would have been nearly indistinguishable from any other Chinese state-run newspaper that day but for one important detail. In the bottom left corner of the photo, scrawled on a bike rack, were eight tiny but clearly visible characters: “Heaven condemns the Communist Party; denounce it and be blessed.” Similar writings that dare to challenge the divine mandate of China’s rulers appear regularly across China.
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China: Uighurs ‘disappeared’ in crackdown
By: Al Jazeera, October 21, 2009
Dozens of ethnic Uighurs, including several children, remain unaccounted for more than three months after China launched a crackdown on ethnic unrest in the country’s far west, a human right group has said. A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) released on Wednesday, said the group had documented the cases of at least 43 Uighur men and boys who have disappeared in a wave of arrests across the city of Urumqi.
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North Korea among the worst media on earth
By: Daily NK, October 21, 2009
There is still no such thing as press freedom in North Korea, according to the 2009 Press Freedom Index produced by Reporters without Borders. This year’s ranking places North Korea in 174th place on a list of just 175, below ally China (168), Middle Eastern regimes like Saudi Arabia (163) and Jordan (112), neighbor South Korea (69), and far below the region with the freest presses of all, Scandinavia, whose nations are all in the top five.
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Dissident detained in Mongolia
By: RFA, October 21, 2009
Chinese police from the northern city of Ordos, in China’s Inner Mongolia, have detained the head of a Tibetan medical college outside United Nations offices in the capital of the neighboring independent country of Mongolia, sparking calls for greater protection for asylum-seekers in third countries. Batzangaa, 35, a Chinese national and ethnic Mongolian, was arrested at the front entrance of the U.N. refugee agency office building in Ulaanbaatar on Oct. 3.
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Leader of China’s Uighur minority builds a stage across the globe
By: Andrew Jacobs, NY Times, October 20, 2009
In what has become a familiar vocal pas de deux, Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled Uighur leader, stepped off a plane in Tokyo on Tuesday and immediately began accusing the Chinese government of secretly executing members of the Uighur minority and illegally detaining hundreds of others.
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Chinese democracy activist sentenced for subversion
By: New Tang Dynsasty TV, October 20, 2009
A former Chinese judge and university professor has been found guilty of “subversion of state power” and given a 10-year prison sentence. Guo Quan had challenged China’s one-party rule. Guo had been detained several times since 2007 for things like posting articles on the Internet that called for a democratic system in China. In 2008, he founded the New Democracy Party of China. Guo’s online postings eventually became a target of China’s Internet police.
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China, Tibet and human rights
By: David Fernández-Barrial, NY Times, October 16, 2009
To take its place among nations, China must confront its own recent past and acknowledge the real crimes committed against Tibetans, other so-called “nationalities” and its own dissidents. Our president would do well to pay heed to Mr. Havel’s warning that coddling of rights-abusing nations is a “road to hell.”
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OCEANIA
Australia: Arrest the whalers, activist demands
By: News.com, Australia, October 21, 2009 Authorities should arrest Japanese whalers if they hunt in Australian waters this summer, a protest group says. Japan is expected to target Australia’s Antarctic waters for its annual whale hunt. Captain Paul Watson cited an Australian federal court ruling in 2008 which ordered a Japanese whaling ship out of Australian waters because it had unlawfully slaughtered whales. “All Australians should expect the Australian Government to enforce the law,” Capt Watson said from the US. Read full article… Papua New Guinea: Opposition boycotts recall of parliament over legal issues By: RNZI, October 21, 2009 Papua New Guinea’s opposition has boycotted a parliamentary session to protest against the government’s decision to recall parliament earlier than scheduled. In July, parliament was adjourned until November 10th before the opposition was able to table a no-confidence motion in the prime minister. The government has decided to recall parliament early to attend to pressing issues but the opposition deputy leader Bart Philemon says they won’t attend this week’s special sessions because there are outstanding issues. Read full article… Fiji’s press restrictions criticised By: ABC Radio Australia, October 21, 2009 An international report on the media finds Fiji has lost more ground than any other country when it comes to press freedom. Reporters Without Borders, on Wednesday published its in an international press freedom index. It says media restrictions enforced by Fiji’s military regime have seen the Pacific nation fall 73 places to 152 on its 2009 index. Read full article… |
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Women journalists risk lives to shine light on conflict, corruption
By: Adam Taylor, Huffington Post, October 21, 2009 On Monday the International Women’s Media Foundation convened at New York’s Waldorf Astoria to honor the 2009 winners of the Courage in Journalism Awards. One thing seemed clear, that while the financial troubles facing the western journalism market may be in the spotlight, the exciting and courageous journalism taking part in other parts of the world should not be overlooked. Read full article… Climate change – global issue spurs global protest By: Marlowe Hood, AFP, October 21, 2009 Could climate change spark the first worldwide grassroots movement? Even as politicians dial down expectations for the December 7-18 UN climate talks in Copenhagen, analysts and activists detect a groundswell of anger, channeled through the Internet and voiced especially by the young, demanding action on global warming. Read full article… Trick or treat for climate change By: Amy Goodman, Truthdig, October 20, 2009 Halloween is around the corner, and children will soon be dressing up and chanting “trick or treat.” Climate-change activists, from pranksters to presidents, are doing the same. This past Monday, the activist-artist group The Yes Men staged another of its hoaxes, with one member posing as an official from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, leading what appeared to be a legitimate press conference and stating the chamber’s complete reversal on its historically adamant opposition to climate-change legislation. Read full article… The Power in 11/9
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Badshah Khan and the world’s first nonviolent army
By: Tim Finders, Hope Ummid, October 2, 2009 This year marks the 75th anniversary of an unprecedented yet almost entirely unknown event in the history of nonviolent resistance. In the main square of the city of Peshawar, in modern day Pakistan, several hundred nonviolent Pashtun resisters were shot and killed by British-led troops as they peacefully protested the arrest of their leader, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known as Badshah Khan to his followers, and later known in India as “the Frontier Gandhi.” Read full article… Iranian women receive Lech Walesa Prize By: AWID, September 29, 2009 On September 28, 2009, Shadi Sadr was among three Iranian women human rights activists to be awarded the Lech Walesa Prize, which honours those “who work for understanding and cooperation among nations in the name of freedom and the values of solidarity.” Ladan Boroumand and Roya Boroumand were also honoured for their leadership of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, which works to promote public awareness of democracy and human rights issues in Iran. Read full article… |
By: Al Giordano, Narco News, October 21, 2009
It is a herald of the hour we live in that the New York Times has to lay off eight percent of its news reporters but the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism is out scouting and recruiting for a different kind of journalism that is growing and on the ascent.
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International day of climate action
By: 350, October 2009
Click here to see where climate actions are taking place in areas near you.
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Turning information into action- 10 tactics coming up
By: Masha Medvedkov, The Hub, October 22, 2009
10 tactics for turning information into action shows how rights advocates around the world have used the internet and digital technologies to create positive change. The 50 minute film will be launched at the Front Line Club in London, in December 2009 with a series of screenings worldwide. It is accompanied with a deck of cards featuring tools, tips and advice to help you plan your Info-activism action.
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