Title – 6939 FIJI: Civil society group launches ‘responsible media’ plan Date – 1 August 2010 Byline – None Origin – Pacific Media Watch Source – The Fiji Times, 1/8/10 Copyright – FT Status – Unabridged
acnnews 8
Cuban Deputies to Prioritize Attention to People’s Complaints
HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 31 (acn) Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs of the Cuban Parliament José Luis Toledo Santander said today that it is a priority of his group the attention to the complaints of the population.
We have dealt with some 500 complaints since 2008, Toledo Santander reported to the National Assembly deputies gathered in the Conference Center of the Havana’s Conventions Palace.
He explained that for this purpose they had the cooperation of the organs and agencies of the Ministry of Interior and National Organization of Law Offices, and “a considerable number of complaints have been investigated by the legislators themselves,” he specified.
The disagreement with judicial decisions, decisions on housing, immigration status and management of judicial and administrative proceedings are issues of major concern among the country’s citizens, according to the official.
He noted that as far as possible there has been tracking of the responses of the organs, agencies or entities, and they even visited people to check on the stage and treatment to the complaints, requests and proposals.
He insisted that on the attention to the population “we always have the goal of eradicating deficiencies and dissatisfactions, and seek better solutions so that the results will match that our people demand and deserve.”
Deputy Armando Hart suggested marking this year the 70 anniversary of the 1940 Constitution, by the fact that the defense of the constitutional text influenced decisively in the fight against the tyranny of Fulgencio Batista.
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Cuban News Agency www.cubanews.ain.cu ainnews@ain.cu
acnnews 7
Cuban Parliament Learn Details about New Political and Administrative Division
HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 31 (acn) Members of the People’s Power National Assembly (Parliament) received information today on the proposed amendments to the Law on Political and Administrative Division (DPA), which dates from 1976 when Cuba went from having six provinces to 14.
Graciela Rodriguez Rodriguez, president of the Institute of Physical Planning, explained that for several years a committee appointed by the State Council following a proposal of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, studied the relevance of changing the current DPA.
In a meeting with parliamentarians in the Havana´s Conventions Palace, Rodriguez specified that the primary goal was to achieve greater efficiency in the performance of the government and administration structures for the benefit of the population and the economic efficiency.
The current areas of Havana city, Havana, Pinar del Rio, Camaguey provinces as well as the municipalities of Varadero, Matanzas and Cardenas, and Manuel Tames Guantanamo and Yateras would be subject to variations
Since this project would amend the 1304 Law from July 1976, it will be submitted tomorrow to the attention of the Parliament deputies in the V Regular Session of the Seventh Legislature.
If approved, each province would have its own capital, to help developing a sense of belonging, and the best performance of each of the organs, agencies and institutions.
In neither case the population will have to do any paperwork on their identity card, driving license, vehicle registration or other, nor the basic health services, education and social security available will suffer, said the officials.
The presentation included an assessment of the results of the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Matters, which last Wednesday unanimously approved a draft on the new Highway Safety Code.
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Cuban News Agency www.cubanews.ain.cu ainnews@ain.cu
acnnews 6
Cuban Parliament Discuss Quality of Services Provided to the Population
HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 31 (acn) The President of the Committee of Attention to Services of the Cuban Parliament Juan Jorge Castro Ortiz highlighted the importance of cooperation between the provincial and national entities to raise the quality of services provided to the population.
Castro Ortiz reported on what the working group has done in the last two years, and said made workshops on consumers’ protection and attention to the population, which contributed to the control and supervision of such activity.
He said that they worked along with the ministries of Internal Trade, Information and Communications, Tourism and Transport, the Civil Aeronautics Institute of Cuba, CIMEX Corporation and others, on finding ways to make the procedures faster as well as the answers to the request raised by the constituency delegates.
He said that they gave priority to the monitoring of the levels of satisfaction the people had regarding the quality of the products included in the rations, the work of repair shops, the maintenance and guarantee of the electrical appliances and the payments of the retirement pensions.
The experience of these years showed the need to further strengthen the preparation of the deputies, also the organization of work and the control of the partial and final results, said Castro Ortiz.
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Cuban News Agency www.cubanews.ain.cu ainnews@ain.cu
acnnews 5
Cuban Foreign Ministers Receives his Chinese Counterpart
HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 31 (acn) Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla received in Havana his Chinese Yang Jiechi counterpart, who arrived in Cuba yesterday on an official invitation.
We recognize in you a lifelong friend of Cuba and your visit give us great pleasure in this year that marks the 50th anniversary of relations between our two countries, said Rodriguez Parrilla upon receiving the visitor at the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry.
He recalled his visit last year to Beijing and dubbed it as fruitful, and the current progress of the ties between both nations as excellent.
Yang Jiechi said that Cuba was an important nation in the Caribbean and also in the Latin American continent, which is playing a positive role in achieving peace, stability and development.
He stressed that his visit is part of the purpose of his Government to promote further cooperation with Cuba. “China is willing to continue helping Cuba in its social and economic development”
He spoke of the decision to strengthen the high-level exchanges, strengthen bilateral economic and trade cooperation, increase cultural exchanges and advance common interests of the Third World.
After the official talks between the two foreign ministers, Chinese ambassador to Cuba Yuqin Liu and Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment first deputy Minister Orlando Hernández Guillén signed an agreement for the economic and technical cooperation between both states.
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Cuban News Agency www.cubanews.ain.cu ainnews@ain.cu
Debate Heating Up on Plans for Mosque Near Ground Zero
An influential Jewish organization on Friday announced its opposition to a proposed Islamic center and mosque two blocks north of ground zero in Lower Manhattan, intensifying a fierce national debate about the limits of religious freedom and the meaning of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The decision by the group, the Anti-Defamation League, touched off angry reactions from a range of religious groups, which argued that the country would show its tolerance and values by welcoming the center near the site where radical Muslims killed about 2,750 people.
But the unexpected move by the ADL, a mainstream group that has denounced what it saw as bigoted attacks on plans for the Muslim center, could well be a turning point in the battle over the project.
In New York, where ground zero has slowly blended back into the fabric of the city, government officials appear poised to approve plans for the sprawling complex, which would have as many as 15 stories and would house a prayer space, a performing arts center, a pool and a restaurant.
But around the country opposition is mounting, fueled in part by Republican leaders and conservative pundits. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee, has urged “peace-seeking Muslims” to reject the center, branding it an “unnecessary provocation.” A Republican political action committee has produced a television commercial assailing the proposal. And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has decried it in speeches.
The complex’s rapid evolution from a local zoning dispute into a national referendum highlights the intense and unsettled emotions that still surround the World Trade Center site nine years after the attacks.
To many New Yorkers, especially in Manhattan, it is a construction zone, passed during the daily commute or glimpsed through office windows. To some outside of the city, though, it stands as a hallowed battlefield that must be shielded and memorialized.
Those who are fighting the project argue that building a house of Muslim worship so close to ground zero is at best an affront to the families of those who died there and at worst an act of aggression that would, they say, mark the place where radical Islam achieved a blow against the United States.
“The World Trade Center is the largest loss of American life on our soil since the Civil War,” Mr. Gingrich said. “And we have not rebuilt it, which drives people crazy. And in that setting, we are told, why don’t we have a 13-story mosque and community center?”
He added: “The average American just thinks this is a political statement. It’s not about religion, and is clearly an aggressive act that is offensive.”
Several family members of victims at the World Trade Center have weighed in against the plan, saying it would desecrate what amounts to a graveyard. “When I look over there and see a mosque, it’s going to hurt,” C. Lee Hanson, whose son, Peter, was killed in the attacks, said at a recent public hearing. “Build it someplace else.”
Those who support it seem mystified and flustered by the heated opposition. They contend that the project, with an estimated cost of $100 million, is intended to span the divide between Muslim and non- Muslim, not widen it.
Oz Sultan, the programming director for the center, said the complex was based on Jewish community centers and Y.M.C.A.’s in Manhattan. It is to have a board composed of Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders and is intended to create a national model of moderate Islam.
“We are looking to build bridges between faiths,” Mr. Sultan said in an interview.
City officials, particularly Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, have forcefully defended the project on the grounds of religious freedom, saying that government has no place dictating where a house of worship is located. The local community board has given overwhelming backing to the project, and the city’s landmarks commission is expected to do the same on Tuesday.
“What is great about America, and particularly New York, is we welcome everybody, and if we are so afraid of something like this, what does that say about us?” Mr. Bloomberg asked recently.
“Democracy is stronger than this,” he added. “And for us to just say no is just, I think — not appropriate is a nice way to phrase it.”
Still, the arguments against the Muslim center appear to be resonating. Polling shows that a majority of Americans oppose building it near ground zero.
Paul Vitello contributed reporting.
Resistance is particularly strong among some national Republican leaders. In stump speeches, Twitter messages and op-ed articles, they have turned angry denunciations of the plan into a political rallying cry that they say has surprising potency.
The two major Republican candidates for governor of New York, Rick A. Lazio and Carl Paladino, are making it a central issue in their campaigns, attacking the state’s attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, who is also the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor, for not aggressively investigating the project’s finances..
In North Carolina, Ilario Pantano, a former Marine and a Republican candidate for Congress, has also campaigned on the issue, and says it is stirring voters in his rural district, some 600 miles away from ground zero.
A few days ago, at a roadside pizza shop in the small town of Salemburg, he attacked the proposal before an enthusiastic crowd of hog farmers and military veterans.
“Uniformly, there was disgust and disdain in the room for the idea,” Mr. Pantano said.
The issue was wrenching for the Anti-Defamation League, which in the past has spoken out against anti-Islamic sentiment. But its national director, Abraham H. Foxman, said in an interview on Friday that the organization came to the conclusion that the location was offensive to families of victims of Sept. 11, and he suggested that the center’s backers should look for a site “a mile away.”
“It’s the wrong place,” Mr. Foxman said. “Find another place.”
Asked why the opposition of the families was so pivotal in the decision, Mr. Foxman, a Holocaust survivor, said they were entitled to their emotions.
“Survivors of the Holocaust are entitled to feelings that are irrational,” he said. Referring to the loved ones of Sept. 11 victims, he said, “Their anguish entitles them to positions that others would categorize as irrational or bigoted.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s statement drew criticism almost immediately.
“The ADL should be ashamed of itself,” said Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, which promotes interethnic and interfaith dialogue. Speaking of the imam behind the proposed center, Feisal Abdul Rauf, he said, “Here, we ask the moderate leaders of the Muslim community to step forward, and when one of them does, he is treated with suspicion.”
C. Welton Gaddy, the president of the Interfaith Alliance, a Washington group that emphasizes religious freedom, called the decision “disappointing,” and said he read about it “with a great deal of sorrow.”
On Friday, Mr. Sultan, the programming director for the proposed Muslim center, expressed surprise and sadness at the news. Told of Mr. Foxman’s remarks about the families of Sept. 11 victims, he said, “That response is just not well thought out.” He said that Muslims had also died on Sept. 11, either because they worked in the twin towers, or responded to the scene.
“The ADL has always been antibigotry,” he said. “This just does not seem consistent with their message.”
Paul Vitello contributed reporting.
Fidel Castro: Message to the Cuban Youth
30 JULY 2010
For 57 years, two generations of Cubans, that which preceded us and ours, which led both from the First of January 1959 until today, have fought against the most powerful empire ever known to mankind.
I do not harbor any fears of sounding exaggerated, I say it with modesty, and even grief. It hurts to see how hundreds of millions of young people in the world couldn’t even learn to read and write, or are semi-literate, or lack work and ignore everything related to the inalienable rights of human beings.
A colossal crime is being committed on billions of teenagers and youths of both sexes, whose beautiful minds are manipulated by the mass media and that many of them, mostly men, are turned into soldiers to die in unjust and genocidal wars that take place anywhere on the planet Earth.
The economic system that has prevailed is incompatible with the interests of humanity. It must end, and will end.
The new generations of young Cubans will get their message through, which was born of the experience of their own homeland; they will fulfill the sacred duty imposed on them by their own time. They will do so with humility and truth in hand, without stupid belief in racial or national superiority of any kind.
I’ve often wondered: Why do our children and our teenagers have to die?
Why do our young people have to die?
Why do those minds, where so many virtues could be planted and grown, have to go?
Why do their parents have to die in fratricidal wars?
Imagine that the Global Research website deserves no credit, that the theory of Gregory Ryskin, a biochemical engineer at Northwestern University about the bubble of methane that the writer Terrence Aym associated with the oil spill of British Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico, deserves no attention at all and they invite us to sleep peacefully.
Global Research published the only possible explanation of the sinking of Cheonan, a sophisticated anti-submarine ship capable of detecting a boat of this type at 185 miles away. Obviously, it could not be sunk by an old Russian submarine, built over 50 years ago.
We prefer to cling to the hope that the arguments used in the Reflection to be published on Tuesday, August 3, conform to reality.
Otherwise, the danger of another war breaking out, which would immediately become nuclear, would be the only alternative, and therefore, this message will become more important than ever.
There is not a chance in a thousand, in ten thousand, or in any desired amount, that the United States or Israel renounce the sanctions established by United Nations Security Council, with strict time limits, or that Iran accepts that its ships be inspected.
A blind man could see that with clarity.
We will not give up, or allow the Empire to deceive the world.
Fidel Castro Ruz
July 30, 2010 Cuban News Agency www.cubanews.ain.cu ainnews@ain.cu
acnnews 3 Electrocution Ranks Fifth in Cuban causes of Death
HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 31 (acn) The Cuban Ministry of Public Health urged the population to increase their precautions to prevent electrocution, fifth among the most frequent accidents in the country.
Dr. Milagros Santacruz, head of the National Programme for Prevention of these events, noted the importance of not taking risk attitudes to prevent death caused by lightning during summer storms and electrical power, the Granma newspaper published today.
Santacruz said these events in 2009 caused the deaths of 142 people and occupied the fifth place of death by accident, preceded by the traffic, drowning and submersion, foreign bodies and falls.
The specialist noted the enormous burden of pain and suffering that result from the loss of human life and emphasized the better provision of every citizen, who before a thunderstorm should take shelter immediately and stay off the streets.
She also advise to avoid staying in beaches, rivers, pools; climbing on roofs and terraces, places where there are trees and power lines, or use the phone or take a shower when they thundering begins.
Santacruz added that when there are children in the house, electrical outlets should be protected and people should not touch fallen power lines in the streets and sidewalks.
Late Professor José Jordán Rodríguez, who was a member of the WHO’s Group of Experts on Accident Prevention, never tired of insisting on the name of the accident suggest that this is something casual, fortuitous, due to the luck (or better: to bad luck), at random.
However, when you study the causes deeply, it is discovered that a high percentage of them could have been avoided. cubanews/aga/1.55 PM/aga Cuban News Agency www.cubanews.ain.cu ainnews@ain.cu
Dear Friends,
A section of media is seriously debating on the changing face of the media in Odisha which is currently facing several threats from different corners.
Please see a report based on the interview of Mr Prasanta Patnaik, a senior journalist, to a TV channel. Please click the below link to read the detail.
*Corporate Culture Cripples Media Credibility, Says Prasanta Patnaik* Posted on July 31, 2010 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
*Subhas Chandra Pattanayak * Eminent Journalist Prasanta Patnaik participating in ETv’s popular program, Sidha Katha (Straight Conversation) telecasted last night and repeated today noon, told interviewer Deba Prasad Das that corporate culture has taken the toll of media credibility as the thirst for advertisements has been forcing major mass media organizations to vet straight reports to the detriment of journalistic ethics.
Patnaik, who had relinquished the post of lecturer in English on the very day of his joining P.N.College (now autonomous) at Khurda to join Amrit Bazar Patrika, said, he had joined Journalism as that was a mission to him. Evolution of corporate economy has corrupted that mission to a profession where money is more propelling than cause of the society.
*======================* *Dear all,
Orissa media has been accused of being passive and pro-establishment. But, there has been another side of it also. The media persons of late have been attacked by the various forces for writing reports against the powerful and mighty people in the state.
Ms Geeta Sesu from www.hoot.org has prepared a report titled: “Threat to media functioning in Orissa”. A senior journalist from Orissa Mr Prasanta Patnaik has sent us this report. The report has been pasted and attached with this mail.
Please read and offer your suggestions and comments at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com
Thanks & Regards,
Sai Prasan Member JVM*
===============================================
*THREATS TO MEDIA FUNCTIONING IN ORISSA*
* *
* A Special Report from the Free Speech Hub of the Hoot.org*
* *
*Executive summary:*
*The intimidation of journalists in the form of physical attacks, threats and initiation of legal proceedings against them has reached a peak in Orissa. There have been 12 physical attacks on reporters, stringers or camerapersons this year, and 6 cases of threat and intimidation, up from 3 attacks in 2009. Between 2004 and 2009, four cases of sedition were filed against stringers or reporters and a writer.*
The attacks occurred either in retaliation for reports written or while the media- persons were on reporting assignments. The perpetrators fall in many different categories: sarpanchs(3), politicians and their henchmen (3), a bank manager, students, Central Industrial Security Force jawans, and Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) personnel. In three cases the police were present but chose not to act. Cases filed have not made much headway. (Details of cases and the current status of police complaints filed are in the annexure below this report.)
The profession of journalism is undergoing changes in Orissa. This is partly an outcome of the rapid growth of the print and the electronic media as well as the hold that political parties and businesses have acquired over these. The most widely broadcast channels and the largest circulating daily are owned by powerful people. (See main report for details.) Given this reality, reporting the depredations caused by national and international business houses that have descended on the state to exploit its ample natural resources has become a perilous task.
As mining and industrialisation-related growth accelerates along with protests against these by the displaced populations, it is in the interest of the pro-development lobby to suppress all type of negative publicity. This is done by controlling the media through ownership, doling out largesse in the form of advertisements to others and intimidating those who cannot be neutralised by these. Among the worst affected are the faceless, and often nameless, stringers who form the feeder lines for the city-based media and have to bear the first brunt of media suppression by the powerful.
*The attacks on journalists are inextricably linked to the changing equation between the state and civil society, brought about by the triumvirate of aggressive industrialisation, political interests and competitive media houses.*
*The state government either actively supports the corporations branding the critical media as Maoists, anti-national or seditious, or plays the role of a spectator. Its failure to take swift and punitive action in these cases has sent a clear message: the messenger can be shot.*
* *
*This report by the Free Speech Hub Coordinator GEETA SESHU is based on visits to Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, and Jajpur (Kalinganagar). Telephonic interviews were conducted with journalists who were attacked in Behrampur, Angul and Athgarh. ***
*I*
*Introduction*
In recent months, Orissa has witnessed a spate of attacks on journalists and writers. There have been 12 physical attacks and six incidents of threats and intimidation from January to July 2010.
Since January this year, the Free Speech Hub has been tracking threats to freedom of speech and expression in India. We decided to document and investigate the incidents in Orissa to arrive at some understanding of their underlying causes.
Among other issues, those attacked have been reporting on the Maoist conflict, movements resisting displacement due to mining and steel projects, instances of corruption in government-sponsored projects like the NREGA, illegal activities of elected representatives, and have been covering spontaneous student protests or those of families of victims of medical negligence
These assaults on the media have been preceded by the Orissa government slapping four cases of sedition against journalists between 2004 and 2009.
*Attacks on journalists in 2010:*
– On February 9, Dinesh Das and Ashok Pradhan, journalists from *Pioneer*and a local Orissa newspaper, *Athgarh Prahari*, respectively, were assaulted by Premananda Gochchayat, the Sarpanch of Dhaipur, Athgarh, for reporting on corruption in the NREGA scheme.
· On February 20, Abhay Pati, a reporter of *OTV*, was assaulted by the Manager of Cuttack Urban Co-operative Bank, Jajpur, Gour Prasad Das, when he was covering a vigilance raid on the banker’s house.
– On March 16, journalists covering a clash between members of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the opposition Congress party were attacked allegedly by BJD workers and police personnel in Bhaapur Block of Nayagarh district.
· On April 5, three journalists – Amulya Kumar Pati of the *New Indian Express*, Manas Jena and Sujit Mullick, stringers for Oriya newspapers – were attacked by supporters of State Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei when they went to report a police lathi-charge and firing on villagers of Baligotha, Gobaghat and other villages in Kalinganagar on March 30.
· On April 22, ten journalists representing different newspapers and television channels were severely beaten up by the management and hired security guards of the privately-owned Silicon Institute of Technology in Bhubaneswar, when they went to cover students protesting the death of their colleague, Shamsuddin, allegedly due to food poisoning in the college canteen.
· On May 6, Biranjan Mallick, a journalist working for *Khabar*, an Oriya newspaper, was tied to a tree and beaten up for investigating an NREGA scam in Balanga, Puri district.
· On May 8, several jawans of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), a paramilitary force, attacked journalists and a television camera crew to prevent them from filming their assault on a truck driver who had fatally run over the young daughter of a CISF jawan in Angul.
· On May 31, journalists who went to MKCG Medical College, Behrampur, to cover a clash between relatives of a patient who had died due to the alleged negligence of the medical students in charge, were attacked by the students in full view of the police.
· On June 9, Akhand, a journalist working for Kanak TV in Pipili, Puri district, was severely beaten up by Pravakar Behera, a local politician and ward member of the ruling BJD, for writing about the latter’s illegal tree-felling.
· On July 1, Suryamani Mishra, a journalist working with *Khabar *who has written against communalism, land scams and the builder mafia, was attacked by unidentified persons in Bhubaneswar.
· On July 13, Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) personnel molested an ETV journalist (name withheld) and her cameraman, Debasis Mullick, when they were covering the ISKCON *rath yatra* in Bhubaneswar.
· On July 23, Ramnarayan Das, a reporter of *‘The Samaja,* was assaulted by the former sarpanch of Nirakapur in Khurda district when he went to report on the self-immolation bid of a social worker. The attack took place in the presence of the area tahsildar and the police.
*Threats and intimidation* :
· On January 3, 2010, Banka Bihari Bishoi, a, reporter *The Samaja*, was abused and threatened by the Nabrangpur District Collector Rupa Mishra, ostensibly because his newspaper did not give the latter adequate coverage.
– On February 13, Bolun Gangopadhyay, a freelance journalist from West Bengal, who was on her way to Niyamgiri, site of the resistance to the Vedanta Alumina refinery and bauxite mining projects, was picked up by police on suspicion of being a Maoist. – On March 11, the Chhatrapur police raided the residence of well-known journalist and writer, Dandapani Mohapatra, without a search warrant, alleging ‘links’ with Maoist leaders.
· On April 6, the Lok Pal, Justice P K Patra, was asked to take action against the media for reporting on his order on the irregularities in the acquisition of land for the Rs 15,000 crore Vedanta University project of the Anil Agarwal Foundation.
· On May 10, senior journalist and correspondent of *India TV*, Prasanta Patnaik protested the increasing surveillance and monitoring of his movements by police in Bhubaneswar and demanded security for himself and his family.
· On June 9, accomplices of a Bhubaneswar ganglord sent a dire warning to Bhabani Das, a photojournalist working for Orissa daily, *The Dharitri*, and asked him not to report on their activities.
*Sedition cases between 2004-2009*:
· In February 2004, Keerti Chandra Sahu, working for a Behrampur-based Orissa daily, *Anupam Bharat*, was charged with sedition for allegedly aiding Maoists.
· In May 2007, Khaturam Sunani, a reporter working for *OTV*channel, was charged with sedition for filing a report that Pahariya tribals were consuming ‘soft’ dolomite stones (known locally as jhikiri) in Nuapada district due to acute hunger.
· On December 8, 2008, Lenin Ray, editor of *Nissan*, a radical literary magazine in Oriya, was picked up by police after a special booklet on the Kandhamal riots entitled ‘Dharmanare Kandhamalre Raktonadhi’ (Kandhamal’s rivers of blood) was published by the magazine.
· On September 20, 2009, Laxman Chaudhary, a stringer with Oriya daily, *Sambad*, was arrested by Mohana police in Gajapati district and charged with sedition for possessing Maoist literature. Chaudhury had been writing about the involvement of local police in illegal drug trafficking.
(For more details, see Attacks on journalists in Orissa – Annexure I)
II
*Media in Orissa:*
Alongside the threats and attacks on journalists, the print and broadcast media are witnessing a major boom. Factors that have fuelled this growth include increasing urbanisation, higher literacy, access to modern printing technology and, very significantly, the entry of big business and the promise of advertising revenues.
Several new Oriya dailies and Oriya television channels have been launched over the last few years. The Eenadu-group’s ETV has an Oriya channel and the entry of big business into Orissa over the last 15 years has resulted in a marked interest of major English-language media houses too.Among the national English dailies which have an edition from the state capital Bhubaneswar, the latest is *The Telegraph*, which launched an edition on June 28, 2010. The others are the *Times of India* and the *New Indian Express*. The *Hindu* delivers an edition from Vishakapatnam with pages for Bhubaneshwar.
The first Oriya newspaper, ‘*The Utkal Deepika*’, was launched in 1866 and several newspapers in Orissa were strongly nationalist, supporting the cause of the Oriya people as well as the freedom movement. Post-independence, the strong connection between politics and the media continued, with several Chief Ministers of the state launching their own newspapers. Today, there are over 85 Oriya newspapers and the interest of politicians in the media has remained a constant factor.
OTV, the biggest Oriya television channel, is owned by Ortel Communications and its managing director is Jaggi Panda, wife of the Rajya Sabha MP from the BJD, Baijayant Panda. The latter, is also non-executive chairman of Ortel and a promoter of the Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys Limited (IMFA)group. Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, son-in-law of former Congress-I Chief Minister J B Patnaik, owns *Sambad*, Orissa’s leading ‘Odia’ daily. Another daily, * Dharitri*, is owned by Tathagata Satpathy, the son of former Congress-I Chief Minister Nandini Satpathy.
Naxatra TV is owned by businessman Pravat Ranjan Mullick, also the promoter of Bhubaneswar College of Engineering and Kaustav group of technical institutes. The well-known Oriya newspaper *Pragativadi*, is currently edited by Samahit Bal, son of the newspaper’s founder, the late Pradyumna Bal. Along with Dr Achyuta Samanta, the latter had also founded the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), which became a deemed university in 2004.
*Voices from the media*
“This phenomenon (of media growth) has been visible for the last ten years and coincides with the opening up of mining in the state,” said Sudhir Pattnaik, editor of a fortnightly news-magazine ‘*The* *Samadrusti’*.
This domination by politicians and corporations means that journalists cannot write and if they do, they aren’t sure of getting the support of the media houses they work for. It is no coincidence that most of the advertisements the media bags come from the mining industry, he said, adding that the lack of scrutiny of the operations of the industry contributed to the alienation of the media from the people of the state.
Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, also editor of ‘*The* *Sambad’*, concurs, “Odia (The Sambad has been championing the name-change from Orissa to Odisha and its news-reports religiously use ‘Odia’) media is highly politicised. The mining boom has also attracted attention and money, and the investment is huge. The media has also benefited from this money.”
The political parties control media and use media against the powers that be, he felt adding that the government is insensitive to the media because it does not depend on the media for electoral outcomes (the BJD is in its third term in power). “The Chief Minister doesn’t even speak the language of the people of Odisha and feels he can hold onto power without the media’s support,” he said.
The attacks on the media, Soumya Patnaik felt, were symptomatic of the larger state of affairs in Orissa, where corruption has reached a head and administration in several parts of the state, is practically non-existent. A divided opposition and a divided media do not help matters and the government is in a very convenient position to ignore the media, he said.
His newspaper, he added, fought for Laxman Chaudhury, along with all those who raised a voice then. Patnaik said that *Samvad* pays its district correspondents, unlike other newspapers that operate with a network of stringers, `‘because I would like him to talk to the district collector without fear or favour.’’ His newspaper and television channel are seen as part of the ‘opposition’ in the state and have been harassed in the past. The launch of its television channel was also blacked out by cable operators. “But I’m very confident the worst is over. I can afford to tell the truth, whatever the cost,” he said.
The view from the ground may, however, be quite different.* *Nigamanand Mohanty, a senior journalist and stringer for Oriya daily ‘*Surya* *Prava’*, said, “Yes, in Jajpur there are now so many district correspondents – more than 150 in number. But we have numbers, but no security. We can’t write what we want and if we do and get beaten up, you think our press or media owners support us? And even if we try to write about something illegal, we are implicated in false cases and silenced.”
Mohanty is Working President of the Jajpur District Journalists Association and is blunt about the plight of stringers: “It is very difficult to do any independent news-gathering in this situation. I am working for the last 25 years but I was with *Samvad*. I had no job security, no documents and no identification. That is the plight of so many of these stringers. The government said it would enumerate the number of stringers and identify the journalists but this process has been going on for the last two years and nothing has been done so far.
Now, when this kind of attack takes place and we see no action from the police, we do fear for our lives, he said. Protests from journalists are lodged after every attack by the Media Unity for Freedom of the Press (MUFP), an informal association of journalists formed in 2009 after two journalists were charged with sedition for allegedly supporting Maoists.
The MUFP issues statements, holds protest demonstrations and submits a memorandum to the Chief Minister or local district administration and police officials. In Behrampur, journalists sat in a dharna outside the police station and even boycotted a tour of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to the district three days after the attack on journalists by medical students. But this cuts no ice with the administration or the government and, in the absence of any concrete response, the message is clear: that the safety and security of media-persons is not a priority.
Senior journalists and civil liberties activists in Orissa are in agreement that the current spate of attacks and threats are a result of the sudden growth of the media and the entry of politicians and big business houses into the media industry, and the resistance to the rampant industrialisation in Orissa.
“I cannot state it as an empirical fact but I see a clear link between the rise in the number of attacks on journalists and the growing industrialisation in Orissa,” says Sampad Mahapatra, bureau chief of the television news-channel NDTV, in Bhubaneswar.
According to *India TV* Special Correspondent, Prasanta Patnaik, corporate houses have begun to play a major role in the state with the active support of the government and the political parties. Even media houses back corporate houses who give them advertisements. “The mining and real estate mafia was not here ten years ago, today they own media houses and have other businesses,” he says.
“This is a good time for the press. There’s a boom in revenues and advertising. The media has its own way of looking at things and it sometimes matches, sometimes there is a mismatch,” said Chandrabhanu Pattnaik, editor of one of the oldest Oriya dailies, *‘The Samaja’. *He felt the attacks on the media were professional hazards though there were a few serious cases of assault whereas others may be highly ‘overrated’! The problem of stringers, he added, was endemic and owners must sit together to find a solution, he added.
If print and broadcast media is booming, internet media is still at a nascent stage, though there are several news websites in Orissa. Apart from Orissamatters.com and Oriyadiary.com, almost all the major Oriya dailies have their own websites. Basudev Mahapatra, editor of a news features site, hotnhitnews.com, said there is a tendency to undermine journalists in Orissa. The police act as protectors of corporates and the people said to be the most powerful in a democracy are cowering in fear, he said.
He rues the fact that there is no media policy towards news-sites. News websites need not be registered in the same manner as the print media is registered with the Registrar of Newspapers, therefore the state government also does not recognise them, much less accord them accreditation.
Even a survey of journalists in the state would help, felt Sarada Lahangir, special correspondent of the news-agency Asian News International (ANI). There is so much deprivation and hardly 40 per cent of those displaced by the industrialisation projects have been properly rehabilitated, she said, adding that journalists are simply not encouraged to question whether this kind of industrialisation can be undertaken at the cost of human beings.
Lahangir would also like to see greater professionalism and better training amongst journalists in responding to changing equations in Orissa, a sentiment echoed by Elisa Patnaik, a senior journalist. “Post-industrialisation, the biggest issue apart from displacement and development, is corruption. And it is very unfortunate how this is covered, especially by regional media,” says Patnaik. Most information is hearsay and there are no reliable sources or authentic quotes. The liberal use of allegations instead of specific information that would nail someone has severely questioned the credibility of the media, she said.
*Perils of journalism*
*Most journalists work or write for media houses that are run by business groups having interests in mining, real estate or education.* While the staffers are hamstrung by these interests, the stringers who are attached in an informal manner to several newspapers or television channels are in a pathetic condition. Usually working for years with a newspaper, they are paid a fixed rate and on the basis of articles used. They are also given the task of space selling and collection of advertisements.
On several occasions, it is these stringers – in the field, closest to the scene of action in their district – who become the first targets of local powers. They have no status, documentation or identity proof of their role as journalists. Often, they get very little empathy from media-persons more professionally associated with a news organisation.
Although most attacks on journalists may look like isolated incidents, usually there is a background of some powerful person or agency being rubbed the wrong way. Akhand, who reports for *Sambad*, Kanak TV and *Anupam Bharat *, was beaten up by a local politician, Pravakar Behera, for writing about the latter’s illegal tree-felling in Pipili, Puri district. Akhand said that Behera had threatened him in 2006 over another matter and assaulted another journalist, Deenbandhu Beuria in 2008.
Some of the scribes may even be local activists who write and agitate on a host of civic, environmental and other issues. The MUFP, says Prasanta Patnaik, investigates each attack to determine whether the assault followed journalistic work or social activism. Rabi Das, for instance, is editor of *Ama Rajdhani* and an active member of the association. He is also involved in the agitation against POSCO.
“Today, the government manages media on behalf of corporate forces,” said Das, adding that most national newspapers don’t step out of urban areas to cover any issues. When journalists do go out to cover something and are attacked, their proprietors don’t back them, he pointed out.
Das, who decided to launch his own newspaper that would reach a readership beyond urban Orissa, also believes that the electronic media helps shape public opinion and has a far greater reach than print media. “Yes, they are all owned by business people with mining interests, but they have talk shows, they are competitive and need us to make their discussions lively,” he said, adding that he uses the electronic media to get a point of view across.
While corruption is a major issue, it is in the coverage of conflict and resistance to displacement or to industrial projects that the freedom to report without fear or favour has been most tested.
Most journalists stay away from venturing too deep into forest areas or conflict zones and miss out on the real story behind different conflicts. Some journalists of national newspapers rely heavily on the stringers, poorly paid and without any identity or recognition, and rarely venture out of the state capital. “They take the news and information, call up a few officials in the administration, get a few quotes and file their stories under their bylines!,” says Lahangir.
Travelling to zones of conflict is not impossible but journalists who do so must keep their wits about them, she advised. On one occasion, she went to Malkangiri for a story and passed a CRPF camp on the way. “We didn’t stop at the camp because we didn’t want the CRPF personnel to accompany us as they are a target for the Maoists much less did we want to be in a position where we would lead them towards the village and compromise the locals and our own local contact. The local contact is a crucial part of the process of sending a message to a village sarpanch that a journalist team was to visit,” she explained.
“I have been writing consistently against police repression in the area and reporting the demands of the tribals. I think they should be heard. I agree with part of the proposition – that there can no development without industrialisation – but industrialisation at gun-point? The government itself admits that it’ll take 20 years for the mineral reserves in this area to be mined. What happens afterwards?,” asks Amulya Pati, the *New Indian Express* correspondent from Jajpur who was beaten up in Kalinganagar on April 5 this year.
Other journalists, he says, don’t ask these questions and are happy with the ‘pay packets’ they get from the company. The latter is clearly on a divide and rule course, not just with the media, but also between tribals who have taken the compensation and those who are still holding out.
The website ‘hotnhitnews.com’ covers corporate affairs extensively and Basudev Mahapatra has come under pressure for his articles. “Corporate houses tried to pressurize me to remove the reports on my site. Vedanta offered me advertisements on condition I do not write anything against the company – obviously indirectly. Recently, I kept getting telephone calls from someone criticising my articles on Kalinganagar. When I asked him his name, he refused to identify himself. He kept calling from different STD booths,” Mahapatra said.
On another occasion, his site was hacked and articles he posted on issues of displacement due to industrial projects were deleted! In 2008, his site was blocked for 15 days after an article on Kashipur. Sometimes, articles come on the web as gibberish, though they were uploaded correctly. It is only after changing the web administrator and becoming more technologically savvy himself, that he has been able to counter these attempts.
Sampad Mahapatra, while acknowledging the protection his association with a national media organisation like NDTV gives him, nevertheless feels that there is an ever-present sense of danger lurking for journalists in Orissa. He said that most average people in the state believe that the media and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) criticise the government’s policies because they are against development.
“Politicians have said as much in public speeches. There’s no civil society in Orissa, there’s no debate or discussion on this ‘development’, where the entire state is being dug up and sold. Ultimately, the job of questioning will fall on the media,” he said, adding that, when the government refuses to respond to the attacks on the media, it is actually sending a clear message to the media not to mess around.
The stringers, he rues, become easy prey as they work in risky, conflict ridden areas without recognition or press cards: “They are at the end of the information chain and if they are attacked, we – sitting in the state capital – are paralysed. The government, by targeting them, is cutting at our roots.” After Laxman Chaudhury was arrested in 2009, for instance, no journalist wanted to venture into the area for at least three months, he recalled.
Sometimes, the best laid plans can go awry, as it happened with West Bengal-based journalist Bolan Gangopadhyay. She was detained on suspicion of being a Maoist near Rayaguda but didn’t have any documentation to prove her credentials as a journalist. She was also unable to disclose which village she was travelling to. She said she represented *Ananda Bazaar Patrika* but police contacted the newspaper and were told she was not a staffer. A flurry of telephone calls from civil society activists, journalists and others followed and it was established that she did in fact, freelance for the newspaper. Police decided to free her without any charge.
“But these kinds of incidents only try to paralyze us and confine us to the state capitals and urban areas,’’ felt Mahapatra, objecting to the detention of Gangopadhyay. “On what basis did they detain her? As a citizen of this country, doesn’t she have the freedom to go anywhere? Is this area a defence installation or have they put up a board that it is out of bounds?” he asked.
The local police, he added, said they had received intelligence reports that a number of Maoists were entering the state. Often, police scare journalists with threats of arrest on suspicion. But media-persons must have the freedom to venture into these areas as they act as a bridge between those in a conflict zone and the others, he felt.
III
* Economic development and a* s*ociety in transition*
Orissa’s subsistence economy has been changing rapidly ever since the economic reforms were set in place in the 1990s. The state has averaged a growth rate of 8.73 % in the first three years of the 11th Plan period, according to the Annual Economic Survey 2009-10. The service sector contributed 55 % of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), industry 25 % and agriculture 20 %. The state’s high economic growth rate is largely due to the late burst of manufacturing activity in steel and mining. Orissa manufactures 10 % of India’s steel and has 25 % of the country’s iron ore reserves. As for aluminium, Orissa tops in terms of capacity as well as output.
The worrisome sector is the stagnating agriculture, which supports more than 60 per cent of its population. Crop yields compare poorly with national averages, irrigation also lags behind and so does the use of fertilisers.
Orissa is experiencing an unprecedented pace of industrialisation, fuelled by the influx of large-scale investments by international and national corporate houses, including the Tatas, Jindals, South Korean steel giant POSCO, UK-based Anil Agarwal group Vedanta and Arcelor-Mittal. The state government has signed around 100 Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) for thermal power plants, iron and steel mills, with capacities up to 12 million tonnes, aluminium factories and mining for iron ore, coal and bauxite. Roads and rail networks are also being set up, as are a host of ancillary industries and services.
The massive scale of industrialisation has displaced scores of villagers in project-affected areas. Here, resistance movements have sprung up and people of these villages have been pitted against various agencies – the administration, the police and security personnel of the disputed industrial plants. While the role of the media in covering these conflicts has been far from uniform, almost everyone agrees that the attacks on journalists are inextricably linked to the changing equation between the state and civil society, brought about by the triumvirate of aggressive industrialisation, political interests and competitive media houses.
IV
*Role and response of state*
Despite the frequency of these attacks, some of them violent, and the constant threat to freedom that it represents, the response of the State government, headed by Naveen Patnaik, has been tepid.
Numerous representations to Patnaik don’t yield any response beyond a polite “we’ll look into it’’, says senior journalist Prasanta Patnaik, a driving force behind the Media Unity for Freedom of the Press (MUFP).
Indeed, *Man Mohan Praharaj*, Orissa’s Director General of Police, told this reporter that there may have been a few attacks “once in a while, here and there but these were not of a scale that should be of great concern.” He added, “Suddenly, there is a media explosion, especially with electronic media. Earlier, there were fewer journalists and there were a few unpleasant situations, but these were sorted out. The print media is civilized and writes in a responsible manner. But television journalists enter everywhere with their cameras and privacy issues do come up.”
When asked about the beating up of Amulya Pati in Kalinganagar, he said he had never heard of this case and did not wish to comment on individual cases. Regarding the case of Akhand in Puri where the Orissa State Human Rights Commission had directed police to take action within six weeks, the DGP said, “Offhand, I can’t respond to each and every case, but the police have limited resources and within this, we are trying to do our best.”
In Behrampur, for instance, where journalists were beaten up for covering a clash between medical students and relatives of a deceased patient, the police were working on the razor’s edge, he said. “The doctors are a powerful group and now have an act to protect them against assault while on duty. The media is all-powerful too and when journalists tried hectoring the doctors, trouble broke out,” he said.
The debate on industrialisation was a major one in Orissa, he added. “People have strong points and counter-points in this regard as a developmental model. This gets reflected in the media and journalists are on both sides of the divide. The unkindest cut is that the media becomes a pawn when two industrial houses compete for business,’’ he felt.
Competing business interests apart, what also queers the pitch is the role of the state government, perceived as supporting big business. Consider this: On March 17, 2010 Justice P K Patra, who is the state Lok Pal, passed an order on a complaint filed by Advocate Dwaraka Mohan Misra that all norms were violated when the state government handed over land to the Anil Agarwal Foundation for setting up the Rs 15,000 crore/- Vedanta University. The Lok Pal’s order, recommending a moratorium on the project was received by the complainant and covered extensively by television and print media.
On April 6, 2010, the Lok Pal received a communication from the Secretary of the Public Grievances & Pension Administration Department to initiate appropriate action as per Section 15 (5) of Orissa Lokpal and Lokayukta Act 1995 against journalists and media organizations that, according to him, have violated Section 15(4) of the said Act (No person shall publish any proceedings relating to investigation which is pending before the Lokpal or a Lokayukta, as the case may be, nor shall any person publish such proceedings after the investigation is complete) by publishing recommendations of the Lokpal on irregularities in the award of land to Vedanta University. So far, the Lok Pal has not responded to the letter.
*V*
* Response of Civil Society*
Civil society activists, writers, artists and film-makers plough a lonely furrow when they speak out and protest against police repression or express resistance to government policies and programs. When the legitimacy of protest is itself in question, legitimate forms of protests simply don’t exist, say a number of civil society activists and representatives of civil liberties organisations.
Pramodini Pradhan, a member of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) is worried at the silencing of civil society from within as well as from without. “Today, there is a fear psychosis prevalent in Orissa. Recently, a television journalist said that the phones of several civil society activists, including mine, were being tapped, so people have become overly cautious,” she laughs. But what is more serious, she feels, is the complete lack of debate or discussion on issues like displacement, development or police repression.
“School-children are taught that Orissa is a poor state and their school textbooks list out the natural resources the state has. They are taught that the only way out of this poverty is to exploit these natural resources. So when we speak out and question this model of development, we are branded as being unpatriotic,” said Surya Shankar Dash, a young film-maker who has made a series of short films on varied issues under the banner of Madhyantar.
Dash’s films on Vedanta were uploaded on Youtube last year. “I had at last 40 short videos, comprising 90 minutes of strong documentary evidence of Vedanta’s attempt to grab land from adivasis in Niyamgiri. But just before the company’s annual general meeting in London, my account was hacked into and all the videos were deleted,” he said.
Dash, who has been trying to get adivasis to shoot their own videos and record police crackdowns, finds there is less room for debate now in Orissa. Reporters from the urban centres have stopped going to Niyamgiri while local journalists are either under pressure or have been bought over, he said.
For Prafulla Sanatra, a convener of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), the media’s unwillingness to cover stories of displacement and conflict was of greater concern. Civil society initiatives on the resistance movements that have sprung up often draw a blank when it comes to media coverage. “Our press conferences are not covered, our articles not printed or even letters to the editor don’t find any space. When *Maovadis*speak of exploitation, there is no news, when adivasis say they won’t leave their land, there is no news. Is this not silencing people’s dissent?” he asked.
Prashant Paikara, a spokesperson for the POSCO Prathirodh Sangram Samiti, which has decided to reject the state government’s package declared on July 8, is battling a different kind of censorship: misrepresentation. “The media reports that we allowed the survey and are willing to take the compensation. The Chief Minister said he’d visit the site but never came. We burnt a copy of the package but this is not reported. We have a peaceful, democratic movement, but the media alleges that the Maoists are spearheading the movement. There is not a single Maoist here but the media doesn’t write that. What can you expect when 30-40 journalists are taken to South Korea by POSCO, given gifts and advertisements?’’ he asked.
The charge of being a Maoist is a familiar one for Rabi Jharika, spearheading the struggle of adivasis in Kalinganagar. “It took the deaths of 14 tribals for people to understand that we are against this kind of development. We can’t leave our land but when we resist, we are branded as Maoist and all kinds of false charges are levelled against us,” he says, pointing out that those who already gave up their lands have lost their money, have no jobs and are reduced to begging. The tribals in the transit camps are battling illness but none of this is written about, he rues.
Debranjan Sarangi, writer, film-maker and activist has faced the heat from Hindutva forces for short stories he has written against communalism in a monthly literary magazine, *Bijaya*. It is only over the last few years that people in Orissa have become more aware of issues related to displacement and rampant mining of natural resources, but the media’s branding of all movements against displacement as ‘Maoist’ is unfortunate and inaccurate, he feels. “The Maoists have not declared their position on mining and displacement. They have spoken out against police firing and repression but I haven’t read anything about their views on industrialisation,” he said.
Lenin Kumar, the editor of *Nissan*, who was arrested on charges of sedition in 2008, still finds it difficult to bring out his magazine. “No one is willing to print it. As soon as they see my name, they refuse to print it. I think even if we have Aishwarya Rai on the cover of Nissan, no one will be ready to print it,” he says wryly.
The charge of sedition, archaic though it may be, is strong enough to deter more faint-hearted people. Journalist Keerti Sahu, who was charged with sedition in 2004 for reporting on Maoists, says that several people stopped talking to him and avoided him for a few months after he was charged with sedition. “A lot of people doubted me though I’ve worked for so many years,” he said. But the experience only made him more determined. “I figured that if you write the truth, you’ll have to go to jail, one time or the other, so I’m going ahead with my writing and reporting,” he said.
*VI*
*Conclusions*
The Orissa State Government’s failure to take swift and punitive action in these cases has sent a clear message: the messenger can be shot. The government’s inaction stems from its anxiety to keep all its customers, especially big business and the upper middle-classes, satisfied.
The media’s links with big business or politicians ensures that they essentially compete rather than collaborate. The resultant fragmentation has prevented the launching of a broad and effective campaign against assaults on the media.
More often than not, stringers and freelancers are at the receiving end of these assaults, and need to be more vigorously protected and defended by newspaper companies as well as their colleagues and organisations.
The lack of a strong and united journalist organisation has facilitated the rampant attacks on the media. The formation of the Media Unity for Freedom of the Press appears to be a step in the right direction.
Contact: editor@thehoot.org , freehub@thehoot.org Telephone: Sevanti Ninan 9811126312, Geeta Seshu 919892214601
Dear Friends: Interesting news item. As usual our good friend Subhas Chandra Pattnayak comes out with a wonderful write up on the ETV interview. Unfortunately, I can’t access the ETV link to watch it myself. My request: If any one has a way of doing it through Internet – please let share it. Best wishes, Sandip