http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=2437
Building on the global outreach of current CGI members, supported by the Annual Meetings in New York, CGI has created a new membership opportunity to engage business, government, civil society, and philanthropic leaders across Asia. This week, the 2008 CGI Asia Meeting in Hong Kong provides an opportunity for Asia’s most influential leaders to come together and take action to solve the region’s most pressing issues. As an integral part of membership, each CGI Asia participant must make a Commitment to Action—a new, specific, and measurable initiative that addresses a social, economic, or environmental problem of the member’s choosing. CGI Asia will catalyze innovative solutions and cross-sector partnerships among regionally based members in Asia and CGI’s global community to address critical challenges with global implications. Many commitments already in action are featured in the Commitments section of the website.
Beyond transforming the global economic landscape, growth in Asian countries is expanding the capacity of Asian leaders to address contemporary challenges at the local, regional, and international levels. Corporations, governments, and non-governmental organizations in Asia continue to increase their engagement on climate change, education, health, and other pressing issues. In December 2008, President Clinton will travel to Hong Kong to join several hundred Asian leaders from a wide variety of backgrounds to further strengthen social and global responsibility in Asia, and move toward the benefits achieved through collaboration.
This meeting will be similar in format to the Annual Meeting in New York. In Hong Kong, President Clinton will engage a distinguished group of leaders for two days of panel discussions and interactive working sessions, each of which will examine specific challenges and opportunities for action. The meeting will focus on three primary areas of discussion: education, energy & climate change, and public health.
The complete 2008 Asia Meeting schedule is available here. To read more about CGI Asia, download the complete CGI Asia Info Kit and the CGI Asia Program Update.
To apply to become a volunteer at CGI Asia, click here.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Clinton global initiatives -ASIA
Opposition, coalition parties in Thailand to form govt
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2008-12/07/content_7278895.htm
Xinhua/Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-07 14:36 Comments(0) PrintMailBANGKOK -- Thailand's former opposition Democrat Party and four former coalition parties announced on Saturday that they would form a coalition government which holds at least 250 MPs and will support Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as the new prime minister.
At a press conference in Bangkok in the evening, Democrat Party secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban announced the formation of a new coalition. Also present were representatives from the former Chart Thai and Matchima Tipataya, both just recently disbanded, Ruamjai Thai Chart Pattana, Puea Pandin and the "Friends of Newin" faction, a defector group from the former ruling People Power Party (PPP).
Members of five political parties and one faction, including Democrat Party's secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban (C), join hands after forming a new coalition which hopes to create Thailand's next government, after a news conference in Bangkok December 6, 2008. Thailand's opposition Democrat Party said on Saturday that several parties in he ruling coalition would switch sides and for a government with it, but it was far from clear that horse-trading had finished. Standing from L to R are Ruamjai Thai Chartpattana Party executive Wannarat Charnukool, Matchima Thipataiya Party secretary-general Porntiwa Nakasai, Puea Pandin executive Rarnongrak Nuanchawee, Democrat Party secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban, Senior executive of now defunct Chart Thai Party Sanan Kachornprasart, representatives from Newin faction of the People Power Party Boonjong Wongtrirat and Sophon. [Agencies]
Sanan Kachornprasart, caretaker deputy prime minister who represented the Chart Thai, said the coalition of the defunct PPP could not run the country so the Chart Thai decided to switch side for the sake of the country.
Sanan said the Chart Thai made a decision to switch side from the PPP partners to form a coalition with the Democrat in response to "calls from all walks of life" in order to tackle the divisiveness among Thais and economic woes.
All other representatives of the joining parties explained that they have switched side as "the best way" out of the country's current crisis.
Boonjong Wongtrairat, a representative of the "Friends of Newin " faction, a group of MPs loyal to Newin Chidchob, banned executive of the former ruling Thai Rak Thai party, read from a prepared statement that MPs of his group would vote for Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as the next prime minister before deciding to join a new party later.
Suthep said that all the parties were forming the coalition " not for personal or vested interests," but to cooperate to solve the country's problems."
The PPP, before the looming disbandment verdict, had registered a new Puea Thai Party, which many former PPP have joined.
Also on Saturday, a group of leading members of the Puea Thai Party held a press conference to announce that it could still contest against the Democrat to form a coalition government.
Deputy House Speaker Apiwan Wiriyachai, seen as a leading contestant to become the PM candidate from the former PPP side, told the press conference that his group was informed by members of the Friends of Newin faction and by Chart Thai leader Banharn Silapa-Archa that they would still support the Puea Thai to form a new coalition.
Members of five political parties and one faction hold a meeting in Bangkok, before announcing they formed a new coalition in hopes to create Thailand's next government on December 6, 2008. Thailand's opposition Democrat Party said on Saturday that several parties in he ruling coalition would switch sides and for a government with it, but it was far from clear that horse-trading had finished. [Agencies]
The PPP, Chart Thai and Matchima Tipataya parties, all in the former six-party coalition government led by the PPP since its first formation in February, were altogether disbanded on electoral fraud charges by the Constitution Court on last Tuesday. All executives of the three disbanded parties were banned from electoral process for five years as punishment. Somchai Wongsawat, as PPP's acting leader, was disqualified as prime minister immediately.
A new PM must be elected in a special parliamentary session expected on Monday to form a new government.
The 480-seat House of Representatives has 441 active MPs after some executives MP of three disbanded parties were disqualified. The non-executives MPs have 60 days after the party disbandment to switch to another party in order to stay in post.
Among the 441, 213 are from the now defunct PPP. The Democrat Party, formerly the only opposition party in the House, has 166 seats. The laws require that a party or coalition of parties must enjoy a simple majority of the House seats to form a government.
The conflicting information from each side has added unclearness as to which side will get to form the new coalition government and produce a new PM.
The pro-government Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship ( DAAD), or so-called "red-shirt group", called off its plans to rally in front of the parliament on Sunday and Monday, awaiting to see who will be the next prime minister.
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Singapore : Nuclear power not ruled out
http://www.post1.net/lowem/entry/singapore_nuclear_power_not_ruled_out
Airborne over Nuclear Power Plant Isar II, Bavaria, Germany
straitstimes.com :
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong does not rule out the possibility of Singapore having a nuclear power plant in the long term. There would be difficulties, he acknowledged, because of the scale of such a project. At the same time, there would be safety issues. But technology may evolve so that such challenges can be resolved. "I would not rule it out for the long term," he said. "I would not say never, because if global warming is a serious problem, if energy prices in the long term continue to rise, fuel prices continue to rise, and if you are worried about a carbon tax on top of that, then you have to seriously consider nuclear."
Mr Lee's comments yesterday [5 Dec 2008] - in response to a question on whether Singapore has plans for nuclear power - are more positive than his stance a year ago, when he ruled it out as an option. During the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali in December last year [2007], he said nuclear energy was out because of the lack of a minimum 30km safety distance, an issue in small countries like Singapore, which stretches about 40km from east to west. But Mr Lee said yesterday that technology may evolve, mitigating this consideration. "Safety rules may evolve, there might be other possibilities such as putting it (a nuclear plant) underground," he said.
He noted that nuclear power is an issue that "many countries don't want to think about". "But we cannot put it off our mental map," he said. Last month, a high-powered panel set up by the Trade and Industry Ministry to examine Singapore's energy policies said nuclear research, and even a nuclear power plant, could not be dismissed from Singapore's range of long-term solutions. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew had also revealed that the Government had thought about possible locations for such a plant: Pedra Branca island east of Singapore, or on a floating platform out at sea.
- I have a couple of friends who will only say "boom" whenever I mention that given the realities of peak oil and gas, and ongoing climate change, Singapore needs to go nuclear. They seriously misunderstand. Here's why :
1. "You need a huge exclusion zone." Not really. The exclusion zone around a typical nuclear power plant is actually quite small : Usually nuclear plants have very compact sites of 500 to 1000 acres including the exclusion area around the plant. That works out to only 2-4 square km or 0.7-1.5 square miles.
2. "It is safest to stay more than 30 km away from a nuclear power plant". It doesn't have to be that far. Nuclear plants are engineered with a model of a "fencepost man" in mind. This is also publicly available elsewhere, and like this commenter said : [the] legal limit for exposure to a person living near a nuclear power plant is ... 15 millirem and has been for decades. In fact, that is the exposure limit for a so-called "fencepost man" who lives right at the fence of the power plant, gets his water from a well drilled at the fence line, and grows his food on a plot of land adjacent to the plant. Compared to this, according to the Washington State Department of Health, the average cosmic background radiation is 360 millirems per year, a figure which concurs with other sources I have come across.
3. "Chernobyl shows that nuclear power is not safe". Chernobyl was an old Soviet-era design without a containment structure, which every modern Western design has. The crazy part of the story was, the Russian engineers were conducting a dangerous experiment by removing the control rods to see what would happen. Sure enough, it blew up. You couldn't make up stuff like this. It was bad comedy. No nuclear engineer would run things like the Soviets did.
4. "You can't possibly be safe anywhere near an operating nuclear power plant". Not true. The US Navy has operated nuclear power plants (supplied by my former employer, Lockheed Martin) on their submarines and aircraft carriers for decades with an impeccable safety record. Given the cramped confines within ships and especially submarines, American sailors routinely walk literally within feet of these operating nuclear power plants with no ill effects.
So, never say never. Given current technology and Singapore's geography, there are exactly two choices for base-load electricity generation that could possibly complement the existing natural-gas power plants : coal and nuclear. We do not have the geography for hydro or geothermal. Renewables such as wind and solar, while clean and interesting, are intermittent sources at best. And with Singapore's Kyoto Protocol commitment, it had better not be coal. The conclusion is self-evident. I am glad that Singapore's leaders are starting to see things this way as well.
North Korea: We don't want Japan at nuclear talks
A satellite view of the North Korean nuclear facility at Yongbyon, on which talks have centered.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea will reject Japan's continued participation in the six-party disarmament talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programs, an official warned Saturday ahead of the latest round of negotiations in Beijing.
"We will neither treat Japan as a party to the talks nor deal with it even if it impudently appears in the conference room, lost to shame," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in comments carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.
The move was apparently in response to Japan's refusal to provide aid to North Korea under a disarmament-for-aid pact.
The comments came two days before negotiators of the six nations prepare to meet Monday in Beijing to advance the stalled talks.
Japan has refused to join four other countries -- South Korea, the United States, China, Russia -- in providing aid to North Korea as a reward for disarmament until Pyongyang addresses the kidnapping of more than a dozen Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s.
North Korea in 2002 acknowledged kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens, and allowed five victims to return home, saying the remaining eight had died.
Japan, however, has demanded proof of the deaths and a probe into additional suspected kidnapping cases.
Japan and North Korea struck a breakthrough deal in June under which North Korea pledged to finally resolve the abductions of Japanese citizens, an emotional issue that slowed progress in nuclear talks. But no major progress has been made since then.
Japan "has neither justification nor qualification to participate in the talks. On the contrary, it only lays a hurdle in the way of achieving the common goal," the North Korean official said.
Other countries beside the six parties have expressed willingness to give economic aid to North Korea in place of Japan, the official said without elaborating.
Sarkozy defies China with Dalai Lama talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081206/wl_nm/us_poland_dalai_2
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) is welcomed by Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Gdansk, December 6, 2008.
(Eric Feferberg/Pool/Reuters)
By Yann Le Guernigou and Gareth Jones Yann Le Guernigou And Gareth Jones – Sat Dec 6, 1:52 pm ET
GDANSK, Poland (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy defied China on Saturday by meeting the Dalai Lama and said Europe shared the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's concerns over the situation in his homeland.
China called the meeting an "opportunistic, rash and short-sighted approach to handling the Tibet issue," despite Sarkozy saying he regarded Tibet as part of China and that there was no need to "dramatize" his encounter.
"The meeting went very well ... The Chinese authorities knew perfectly well this meeting would take place before the end of the year," Sarkozy told reporters after his talks, which lasted about 30 minutes.
China called off a summit with the European Union last Monday in protest against Sarkozy's plan to meet the Dalai Lama, branded by Beijing as a "splittist" for advocating self-determination for his mountain homeland.
On Saturday, China condemned the meeting. "This development is indeed an unwise move which not only hurts the feelings of the Chinese people, but also undermines Sino-French ties," its official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary.
"The French side ... took an opportunistic, rash and short-sighted approach to handling the Tibet issue."
Sarkozy said the Dalai Lama, who welcomed him by draping a 'kata' or traditional Tibetan white scarf on his shoulder, had said at the meeting that he does not seek independence for Tibet. "I told him how much importance I attach to the pursuit of dialogue between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese authorities."
Asked about the situation in Tibet, Sarkozy said: "The Dalai Lama shared with me his worries, worries which are shared in Europe. We have had a wide discussion of this question." The Dalai Lama and other supporters of Tibetan self-rule say China is strangling the mountain region's cultural and religious traditions and subordinating Tibetans to an influx of Han Chinese migrants and investment, charges Beijing rejects.
STAYING CALM
The two met in the Polish port of Gdansk where they joined 25th anniversary celebrations of Polish pro-democracy leader Lech Walesa's winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Playing down any possible negative impact on Sino-French ties, Sarkozy said: "There is no need to dramatize things."
Beijing's unusually vocal criticism of Sarkozy's plan to meet the Dalai Lama is linked to the fact that Paris holds the European Union's rotating presidency, diplomats say.
In Paris, an official said there had been no sign yet of any Chinese boycott of French products. The EU is China's biggest trade partner and supermarket chain Carrefour employs tens of thousands of people in China and is the biggest purchaser of Chinese goods in France.
French companies were subjected to Chinese boycotts and demonstrations earlier this year after the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay was disrupted by anti-China protesters.
Earlier on Saturday, the Dalai Lama called for dialogue and compassion to solve the world's problems.
"Warfare failed to solve our problems in the last century, so this century should be a century of dialogue," he told delegates, including Walesa, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The Dalai Lama, who met Tusk privately on Saturday, praised Polish courage in resisting past oppression.
The 73-year-old monk is a popular figure in Poland, where some see in his struggle with China's communist authorities echoes of their own battles under Walesa against Soviet-backed communist rule that ended in 1989.
The Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959 after a failed insurrection against Chinese rule in Tibet, occupied by People's Liberation Army troops from 1950.
(Additional reporting by Francois Murphy in Paris)
(Writing by Gareth Jones, editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Bloggers More Likely To End Up In Jail Than Print Journalists
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/bloggers-more-likely-to-end-up-in-jail-than-print-journalists
Eric Krangel | December 4, 2008 4:13 PM
If you live in or travel to a country without press freedom, make no mistake: Big Brother reads blogs. Of 125 journalists in jail worldwide, 45% of them write for online media, says the Committee to Protect Journalists. That's more than any other type of media, with print in second place with 42% of the total.
China earns the dubious distinction of being the world's worst jailer of journalists, a position it's held for ten consecutive years. Other danger areas for journalists: Cuba, Burma, Eritrea, and Uzbekistan.
http://cpj.org/imprisoned/cpjs-2008-census-online-journalists-now-jailed-mor.php
CPJ's 2008 prison census: Online and in jail
Also: See capsule reports on journalists in jail as of December 1, 2008
New York, December 4, 2008--Reflecting the rising influence of online reporting and commentary, more Internet journalists are jailed worldwide today than journalists working in any other medium. In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, released today, the Committee to Protect Journalists found that 45 percent of all media workers jailed worldwide are bloggers, Web-based reporters, or online editors. Online journalists represent the largest professional category for the first time in CPJ's prison census.
Abdel Karim Suleiman, an Egyptian blogger, is one of 56 online journalists jailed worldwide. (Reuters)CPJ's survey found 125 journalists in all behind bars on December 1, a decrease of two from the 2007 tally. (Read detailed accounts of each imprisoned journalist.) China continued to be world's worst jailer of journalists, a dishonor it has held for 10 consecutive years. Cuba, Burma, Eritrea, and Uzbekistan round out the top five jailers from among the 29 nations that imprison journalists. Each of the top five nations has persistently placed among the world's worst in detaining journalists.
At least 56 online journalists are jailed worldwide, according to CPJ's census, a tally that surpasses the number of print journalists for the first time. The number of imprisoned online journalists has steadily increased since CPJ recorded the first jailed Internet writer in its 1997 census. Print reporters, editors, and photographers make up the next largest professional category, with 53 cases in 2008. Television and radio journalists and documentary filmmakers constitute the rest.
"Online journalism has changed the media landscape and the way we communicate with each other," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "But the power and influence of this new generation of online journalists has captured the attention of repressive governments around the world, and they have accelerated their counterattack."
In October, CPJ joined with Internet companies, investors, and human rights groups to combat government repression of online expression. After two years of negotiations, this diverse group announced the creation of the Global Network Initiative, which establishes guidelines enabling Internet and telecommunications companies to protect free expression and privacy online. Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft have joined the initiative.
Illustrating the evolving media landscape, the increase in online-related jailings has been accompanied by a rise in imprisonments of freelance journalists. Forty-five of the journalists on CPJ's census are freelancers; most of them work online. These freelancers are not employees of media companies and often do not have the legal resources or political connections that might help them gain their freedom. The number of imprisoned freelancers has risen more than 40 percent in the last two years, according to CPJ research.
"The image of the solitary blogger working at home in pajamas may be appealing, but when the knock comes on the door they are alone and vulnerable," said CPJ's Simon. "All of us must stand up for their rights--from Internet companies to journalists and press freedom groups. The future of journalism is online and we are now in a battle with the enemies of press freedom who are using imprisonment to define the limits of public discourse."
Antistate allegations such as subversion, divulging state secrets, and acting against national interests are the most common charge used to imprison journalists worldwide, CPJ found. About 59 percent of journalists in the census are jailed under these charges, many of them by the Chinese and Cuban governments.
About 13 percent of jailed journalists face no formal charge at all. The tactic is used by countries as diverse as Eritrea, Israel, Iran, the United States, and Uzbekistan, where journalists are being held in open-ended detentions without due process. At least 16 journalists worldwide are being held in secret locations. Among them is Gambian journalist "Chief" Ebrima Manneh, whose whereabouts, legal status, and health have been kept secret since his arrest in July 2006. From the U.S. Senate to the West African human rights court, international observers have called on authorities to free Manneh, who was jailed for trying to publish a critical report about Gambian President Yahya Jammeh.
Nowhere is the ascendance of Internet journalism more evident than in China, where 24 of 28 jailed journalists worked online. China's prison list includes Hu Jia, a prominent human rights activist and blogger, who is serving a prison term of three and a half years for online commentaries and media interviews in which he criticized the Communist Party. He was convicted of "incitement to subvert state power," a charge commonly used by authorities in China to jail critical writers. At least 22 journalists are jailed in China on this and other vague antistate charges.
Cuba, the world's second worst jailer, released two imprisoned journalists during the year after negotiations with Spain. Madrid, which resumed cooperative programs with Cuba in February, has sought the release of imprisoned writers and dissidents in talks with Havana. But Cuba continued to hold 21 writers and editors in prison as of December 1, all but one of them swept up in Fidel Castro's massive 2003 crackdown on the independent press. In November, CPJ honored Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, who at 65 is the oldest of those jailed in Cuba, with an International Press Freedom Award.
Burma, the third worst jailer, is holding 14 journalists. Five were arrested while trying to spread news and images from areas devastated by Cyclone Nargis. The blogger and comedian Maung Thura, who uses the professional name Zarganar, was sentenced to a total of 59 years in prison during closed proceedings in November. Authorities accused Maung Thura of illegally disseminating video footage of relief efforts in hard-hit areas, communicating with exiled dissidents, and causing public alarm in comments to foreign media.
Eritrea, with 13 journalists in prison, is the fourth worst jailer. Eritrean authorities have refused to disclose the whereabouts, legal status, or health of any of the journalists they have imprisoned. Unconfirmed online reports have said that three of the jailed journalists may have died in custody, but the government has refused to even say whether the detainees are alive or dead.
Uzbekistan, with six journalists detained, is the fifth worst jailer. Those in custody include Dzhamshid Karimov, nephew of the country's president. A reporter for independent news Web sites, Karimov has been forcibly held in a psychiatric hospital since 2006.
Here are other trends and details that emerged in CPJ's analysis:
In about 11 percent of cases, governments have used a variety of charges unrelated to journalism to retaliate against critical writers, editors, and photojournalists. Such charges range from regulatory violations to drug possession. In the cases included in this census, CPJ has determined that the charges were most likely lodged in reprisal for the journalist's work.
Violations of censorship rules, the next most common charge, are applied in about 10 percent of cases. Criminal defamation charges are filed in about 7 percent of cases, while charges of ethnic or religious insult are lodged in another 4 percent. Two journalists are jailed for filing what authorities consider to be "false" news. (More than one type of charge may apply in individual cases.
Print and Internet journalists make up the bulk of the census. Television journalists compose the next largest professional category, accounting for 6 percent of cases. Radio journalists account for 4 percent, and documentary filmmakers 3 percent.
The 2008 tally reflects the second consecutive decline in the total number of jailed journalists. That said, the 2008 figure is roughly consistent with census results in each year since 2000. CPJ research shows that imprisonments rose significantly in 2001, after governments imposed sweeping national security laws in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Imprisonments stood at 81 in 2000 but have since averaged 128 in CPJ's annual surveys.
The United States, which is holding photographer Ibrahim Jassam without charge in Iraq, has made CPJ's list of countries jailing journalists for the fifth consecutive year. During this period, U.S. military authorities have jailed dozens of journalists in Iraq--some for days, others for months at a time--without charge or due process. No charges have ever been substantiated in these cases.
CPJ does not apply a rigid definition of online journalism, but it carefully evaluates the work of bloggers and online writers to determine whether the content is journalistic in nature. In general, CPJ looks to see whether the content is reportorial or fact-based commentary. In a repressive society where the traditional media is restricted, CPJ takes an inclusive approach to work that is produced online.
The organization believes that journalists should not be imprisoned for doing their jobs. CPJ has sent letters expressing its serious concerns to each country that has imprisoned a journalist.
UN chief turns heat on Burma
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5g1Pfc8-NTDqwtRpqAVXkwbkG8zGg
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said there is "growing frustration" around the world with Burma's ruling generals.
He spoke to reporters after emerging from a closed-door meeting during which he spent more than an hour trying to get 14 nations to exert more influence on Burma.
The so-called Group of Friends on Burma, which Mr Ban created a year ago, includes both Western nations pushing for human rights reforms and Southeast Asian trading partners, chiefly China, with different priorities.
All share "not only a higher expectation but also a growing frustration that our efforts have yet to yield the results we all hope for. I share this sense of expectation and frustration," Mr Ban said.
Mr Ban also received a letter signed by 112 former presidents and prime ministers urging him to return to Burma and to press its military junta to free all political prisoners.
Burma's military, which has ruled since 1962, tolerates no dissent and crushed pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks in September 2007. It holds more than 2,100 political prisoners, up sharply from nearly 1,200 before the demonstrations, human rights groups say.
Mr Ban travelled to Burma last May after Cyclone Nargis devastated coastal areas.
He was able to meet with the junta's top leader, Senior General Than Shwe, and persuade him to ease access for foreign aid workers and relief supplies.
Post Online Video and Risk Going to Jail
http://newteevee.com/2008/12/06/post-online-video-and-risk-going-to-jail/
Written by Janko Roettgers
Posted Saturday, December 6, 2008 at 12:00 AM PT
Post Online Video and Risk Going to Jail
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) this week published its annual prison census, which puts the spotlight on imprisoned journalists from around the world. 2008 marks the first year in which the report is dominated by online journalists, with 45 percent of those jailed bloggers, online reporters or editors. And the report makes clear that repressive regimes are increasingly targeting online video makers.
The findings serve to show how quickly online all forms of online media are gaining importance. When it comes to online video, many repressive regimes are afraid of the worldwide audience garnered by sites like YouTube, using the same laws meant to control state-run TV stations to crack down on video bloggers and video journalists.
CPJ found that there are some 125 journalists imprisoned for their work worldwide, 56 of which are classified as online journalists by the organization. It’s a little harder to tally the exact number of online video makers because many journalists and bloggers obviously try to use all the media at their disposal, but it appears that at least five people were imprisoned for reasons related to their online video work. A spokesperson of CPJ told us that seven of the jailed journalists are traditional TV reporters.
One of those punished for producing online video was Maung Thura, a Burmese comedian who videotaped the relief efforts after Cyclone Nargis hit the impoverished country earlier this year. He circulated his footage through DVDs and on the Internet, according to CPJ, and was imprisoned on June 4th. Thura, along with another freelance journalist and two local activists were charged with violation of the 1996 Television and Video Act, a local law that apparently makes it necessary to get the government’s approval for every single video recording before it gets published.
Laws like these were obviously written with traditional TV journalism — not YouTube, video blogs and cell-phone cameras — in mind. When thousands of monks and protesters took to the streets in the late summer of 2007 to demand regime change in Burma, the world was able to watch because so many people were uploading pictures and videos to Flickr, YouTube, Facebook and opposition-run web sites. The country’s military regime was apparently perplexed by the situation; it wasn’t until days later that they moved to prevent additional images or video from being broadcast — by completely shutting down the country’s Internet access.
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Thailand Slides Toward Civil War
http://www.newsweek.com/id/172612
The public siege of its airports may be over, but the country's political crisis is just heating up.
By George Wehrfritz and Jaimie Seaton | NEWSWEEK
Published Dec 6, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Dec 15, 2008
Last week, after Thailand's high court disbanded the country's ruling party and antigovernment demonstrators finally ended their weeklong occupation of Bangkok's two airports and their three-month siege of Government House, weary stranded travelers could have been forgiven for thinking that the political crisis was over. The estimated 350,000 foreigners who'd been trapped by the blockage have begun their journeys home. Yet for Thailand's citizens, its politicians, its business community and its foreign investors, nothing concrete has been resolved. Thailand remains a nation divided. Its beloved 81-year-old king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, is in decline and had to unexpectedly cancel his annual birthday speech last Thursday due to illness. King Bhumibol had never previously missed his birthday address, and his absence dashed hopes that he would use the occasion to help resolve the crisis. Instead, political extremism is now mounting, and a frightening new phrase has slipped into the political lexicon: civil war.
Most analysts acknowledge that a civil conflict in the strict military sense—with rival armies fighting over territory and national control—is unlikely. Yet a uniquely Thai version, featuring extreme political violence and dividing the nation into rich vs. poor, urban vs. rural, north vs. south and pro- vs. antiglobalization, has already begun to play out. Its salient aspects include a winner-take-all political culture, a rising authoritarian bent among the country's traditional elite and the erosion of democratic institutions. "Who will fight? All of the above," warns Sunai Phasuk, Thailand representative for Human Rights Watch. "It will be both a horizontal and vertical conflict, like a football game that goes very nasty and eventually the crowd jumps in."
That football match reached fever pitch last week when, for the second time in three months, Thailand's constitutional court toppled a democratically elected government. A nine-judge panel removed Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat from office, dissolved three political parties central to his coalition and banned a handful of top officials for allegedly permitting fraud during the December 2007 election. The ruling came just three months after the same court ousted then Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej for briefly hosting a televised cooking show while in office (which violated a no-moonlighting rule he was unaware of). The latest decision was an attempt to strike out at "dishonest political parties [that] undermine Thailand's democratic system," said Court President Chat Chalavorn. Critics called the decision a "judicial coup."
The new verdict was widely anticipated, partly because Thailand's judiciary is increasingly seen as a tool of an old ruling troika comprised of the military, the monarchy and the Bangkok-based national bureaucracy. Since democracy was restored last year, the judiciary has flagged the government for even the tiniest infractions while refusing to rein in an antigovernment pressure group calling itself the People's Alliance for Democracy as it sought to impose mob rule. In August, the PAD's yellow-clad supporters occupied the prime minister's office, and late last month they shut down both of Bangkok's civilian airports. Yet the judiciary did nothing. It is also legally proscribed from bringing criminal charges against any participant in the 2006 coup that ousted populist firebrand Thaksin Shinawatra from power. Michael Montesano, a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, says Thai politics have polarized to such an extreme that even the king—who intervened to stop political violence in 1992—might be unable to broker a lasting truce this time. "That's not how Thailand works anymore," he argues. "Each side sees so little reason to compromise that any deal wouldn't last very long."
The roots of today's strife stretch back to 2000, when tycoon turned politico Thaksin engineered a sweeping election triumph by pledging to elevate the country's rural majority out of poverty. Once in office, he funded village-level development projects, offered nearly free health care and made Thailand's economy the envy of the region by delivering high growth and reducing the income gap. His economic model played well in the largely rural country and made Thailand an emerging-market star, yet Thaksin's populism, charisma and superior political skills also made him powerful enemies among Thailand's traditional power brokers: the military, Bangkok's political clans, the business elite and the monarchy. Those groups supported Thaksin's 2006 ouster "because the logical conclusion of his programs would be a transformation of Thailand's sociopolitical hierarchy [that] would threaten many, many people close to the top," says Prof. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute for Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.
More than two years later, the old elite is still struggling to exorcise Thaksin's ghost. The man himself now lives in exile in Dubai to avoid jail following his conviction this year on corruption charges. But he speaks frequently to supporters by video link and claims fealty from the coalition elected in a landslide in late 2007 led by remnants of his Thai Rak Thai Party. Now officially banned twice, it has again begun to reconstitute itself, this time as Puea Thai, and likely will maintain its sway over Parliament's powerful lower house. This resilience has broken a historical pattern whereby democratic movements crushed by Thailand's military stayed down. "The rural grassroots have been awakened," says Thitinan, "and they are not going back to sleep."
Unable to reassert authority over the hinterland, the old guard seems bent on retaking command through a platform it calls "new politics," which would roll back one-person, one-vote democracy. The PAD, which counts among its supporters retired military officers, opposition political parties and Bangkok's business community, and also enjoys cozy ties with elements of the monarchy, advocates the transformation of Parliament to one dominated by appointed lawmakers because, as PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul told NEWSWEEK a few months ago, the rural masses "lack intelligence and wisdom" to vote responsibly. The group's guards carry guns, knives and explosives and have fought pitched battles with riot police. During the airport siege Sondhi incited his supporters to "shed your blood if that is necessary," telling them: "If you have to die, so be it."
Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a foreign-policy specialist at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, says the PAD vision for Thailand is "scarily analogous" to the political system Burma's generals are constructing to perpetuate their own monopoly on power. Rural Thais resent it so viscerally that they're rallying around Thaksin's allies as a point of pride. Upcountry constituencies have steadfastly stuck to their guns by replacing banned lawmakers with loyal pro-Thaksin surrogates. As Banharn Silpa-Archa, leader of the newly dissolved Chart Thai Party, put it last week: "If a husband is banned, his wife or offspring will replace him."
If that pattern holds, Thailand's Parliament will reconvene next week and, under a coalition led by Puea Thai, select the next prime minister from within its ranks. If that happens and "Thaksin's puppet government returns," PAD leader Sondhi has threatened to go back onto the streets and reoccupy airports. The court could still block this by appointing a "national unity" government in defiance of the Constitution, which makes no provision for such a move. This would turn back the clock to when the military imposed martial law back in 2006. But this time around, the pro-Thaksin camp has readied a pressure group of its own, the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, which has vowed to take up arms to defend the ruling coalition. Popularly known as the "red shirts," the UDD's rank and file is every bit as thuggish as the PAD's yellow-clad toughs.
The nightmare scenario has color-coded hooligans fighting in the streets even as the monarchy enters its own transition. As Thitinan writes in the Journal of Democracy's current issue: "The setting sun of the King's long reign is the background against which the battle of attrition for Thailand's soul is taking place." That contest, he argues, pits "opposing webs of partisans and vested interests both for and against what Thaksin has done to Thailand." His fear: "What happens after the current king leaves the scene could be the most wrenching crisis yet." Observers are following events closely. "This is not civil war in the way we talk about civil war," says a foreign diplomat in Bangkok. "They're talking about mass unrest, but whether it will happen or not is yet to be determined." The only certainty, it seems, is uncertainty.
© 2008
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