AIDC Statement on the threats to Press Freedom - 13 August 2010

Press Freedom is a right enjoyed by a privileged minority of South Africans. Our print media is controlled by a cartel of four corporations. Broadcast Media is dominated by the SABC. The profiteering of private media and commercialization of the SABC have seen the mass media catering to the expression and information needs of lucrative markets (LSM 8- 10) representing under 15% of South Africans.

Rather than striving to extend the freedoms of expression and access to information to all South Africans, the ANC government is perusing a series of reforms that will further curtail these freedoms:

• The Protection of Information Bill allows every organ of state - from government departments and parastatals to the smallest municipality - to throw a blanket of secrecy over its documents. If the law is passed whistle blowers leaking, and journalists reporting, on these documents can face up to 25 years in jail;
• The ICASA Amendment Bill gives the Minster of Communications powers to determine the functions of individual ICASA councilors and to conduct performance appraisals of councilors; 
• The Public Service Broadcasting Bill narrows the social mandate of community and public broadcasters to serve the "developmental goals of the Republic" and extends the powers of the Minister of Communications over the SABC and municipal officials over community radio; 
• The proposed Media Appeals Tribunal will introduce formal censorship to print media limiting the role of the media in ensuring transparent and accountable government.  
  

When Ordinary People Do Justice, Leaders Will Follow

By Nabeweya Malick

(source: Media Desk, Muslim Judicial Council)

International humanitarian groups led by Interpal, successfully delivered 47 vehicles loaded with food, aid and medicines on the 9th August 2010 to the suffering people of Gaza.  The people of Gaza welcomed the internationally contributed convoy with tears of gratitude and appreciation.  Amongst those who led the convoy was the South Africa represented Moulana Ihsaan Hendricks, Muslim Judicial Council and Al Quds Foundation’s President.

This has once again proved that the power of good will ultimately be victorious over the injustice of the oppressors of mankind, men who cowardly hide behind evil military machinery to oppress, starve and humiliate others in enclosed prison camps.     

Ever since a group of ordinary people from more than 40 different countries came together and set sail for Gaza we have seen various world leaders scramble to persuade Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza.  This scrambling in no way should be seen as coming from compassion for the suffering victims in Gaza, but rather their realization that when good ordinary people lead, it is time for them to follow.

It is this people power that brings joy to the heart, as we remember the spirit and strength of brave good men who rose in defense of justice in South Africa.

Today Palestine has the global support of ordinary people, a challenge for Israel propaganda machinery and their powerful army.  People from all walks of life, who through purity of heart and faith will relentlessly stand for justice against Israeli oppression.

This is proof that Palestine cannot be left in the hands of politicians; it is the ordinary people with love for humanity that will be the heroes.

The land convoys and the sea flotillas will continue until Gaza is free.

(source: Times of India)

For weeks after the Kashmir Valley erupted in anger, the stone-pelting protesters were described as semi-literate, unemployed youth being manipulated by secessionist leaders.That's just a partial truth, as TOI found out after speaking to the men behind the masks. Many of the stone-pelters are youths with college degrees, some with academic careers or once-thriving businesses.

Such is the anger in the Valley that these youths, most of them with no prior political affiliations, are now willing to throw caution to the winds and give up their career dreams for "azadi".

A final year commerce student, Atiq, a "stone-pelter" himself, calls it a "haq ki ladaai (a fight for rights)". At 21, Atiq should have been weighing career options. But he says there are can be no career without a future.

"I am not scared that I will die by a bullet. I would have died doing something good. I have lived my life in the shadow of bullets. I can die by one without any remorse," he says in chaste Urdu.

By Dr Firoz Osman

(source: Star, 12/08/2010, PG18)

The disfigured face of Aisha, ostensibly perpetrated by the Taliban, on the cover of Time Magazine (below:‘what happens if We leave Afghanistan’) is a deceitful attempt to demonise Muslims and vilify Islam.

The failure of the 28- nation member NATO invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in order to flush out Osama bin Laden (dead or alive), and crush Al Qaeda, necessitated another fabricated subterfuge to vindicate the Western world’s presence in Kabul.

Throughout history the hegemonic powers cloaked their rapacious, greedy ambitions in the guise of doing something moral and praiseworthy. The underlying purpose was always to obtain a strategic military or economic benefit.

(source: Voice of the Cape Online / Al Jazeera)

Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has implicated Israel for the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq al-Hariri.In a video address to journalists from an undisclosed location on Monday, Nasrallah said he had evidence to prove Israel's complicity in al-Hariri's assassination in a bomb explosion in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

"He has not provided undisputed, solid proof that implicates Israel," Al Jazeera's Rula Amin reporting from Beirut said.The Hezbollah leader, however, said that "there is enough evidence pointing to Israel," our correspondent said.

Al-Hariri and 22 others were killed on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005.The assassination sparked an international outcry and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.The murder has been widely blamed on Syria, but Damascus has routinely denied involvement.

Blaming Israel

Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East analyst, told Al Jazeera that Nasrallah "talked about who has the most to benefit from the assassination ... [by trying to] provide a very complex case by drawing a historical link between Israel" and the killing.

Nasrallah said Israel used spying and covert operations to attempt to drive a wedge between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government.Among the material presented was what he described as Israeli reconaissance footage intercepted by Hezbollah of areas frequented by al-Hariri.Aaron Klein, a political commentator in Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera that the contents of Nasrallah's rare speech were not surprising.

"This is exactly what everybody in Israel was expecting, which was to use the Jewish state as a scapegoat because he is up against a rock and a hard place," Klein said.

UN probe

A UN court probing the assassination of al-Haririis planning to charge Hezbollah members in the killing, Nasrallah said in July.Nasrallah criticised the UN investigation because it "does not look into the possibility that Israel is implicated, we believe it is biased".

Our correspondent said that Hezbollah considers the tribunal "an Israeli project to create strife in Lebanon".Impending charges from the international body had pushed Lebanon into a "very sensitive phase",  Klein said. Hezbollah fought a devestating war with Israel in 2006.

Klein said that a UN verdict against Hezbollah would be "devastating for them in terms of the internal politics" as it could spark anger among other sectors of Lebanese society.Rula Amin said that "Hezbollah is trying to dismiss the findings of international investigations. They want to discredit the basic information that investigators had depended on in making their conclusions".

"He is trying to say that the findings are not credible and politically motivated ... he is trying to do is build a case in which he says Israel is a legitimate suspect," our correspondent said.