Reactions to story from Time

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  Nguyen Van Hai and Nguyen Viet Chien - do the names ring a bell?

  http://sylwiapresley.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/nguyen-van-hai...
  48 days ago in Sylwia Presley · Authority: 22

  Nguyen Van Hai and Nguyen Viet Chien - do the names ring a bell? October 15, 2008 by sylwiapresley (pix: Rueters) ‘The two reporters, Nguyen Van Hai and Nguyen Viet Chien, are charged with “abusing freedom and democracy,” even after their reports led to the conviction of nine people and forced the Vietnamese transportation minister to step down.’ Arrested in May…so I cannot even imagine what they experienced so far…and now - they are facing two days of trial and possibly seven years in prison. More on this from AP here. It’s happening in Vietnam, it’s happening now. Did you know? Are you interested? [IMG Reblog this post [with Zemanta]] Posted in Amnesty International, Human rights | Tagged Journalism, Freedom of speech, Vietnam, Vietnamese people, Nguyen Viet Chien, Nguyen Van Hai, sentence, corruption
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  Two Vietnamese Reporters Will Be Tried For Writing About Corruption

  http://ethisphere.com/two-vietnamese-reporters-will-be-tried...
  50 days ago in Ethisphere™ Institute · Authority: 72

  Two journalists who were arrested last May after reporting on corruption within the Vietnamese government are set to go on trial next week. The two reporters, Nguyen Van Hai and Nguyen Viet Chien, are charged with “abusing freedom and democracy,” even after their reports led to the conviction of nine people and forced the Vietnamese transportation minister to step down. Two police officers who allegedly gave information to the journalists are also going on trial for “deliberately revealing state secrets,” according to an AP report on the story. The Economist has a good description of the corruption that the reporters uncovered, saying the “case was a scandal at the transport ministry in 2006 in which newspapers revealed how officials had gambled around $750,000 of public money on the outcomes of football matches. In the clean-up that followed, the head of a road-building department at the ministry was jailed, along with seven others.” In a related story, The China Post reports that seven journalists had their press cards taken away in retaliation for covering the corruption story. Media watchdog groups rightly argue for the release of the two journalists, arguing that jail time will discourage other would-be whistle-blowers and investigative journalists from reporting on government crimes. The trial could last two days according to a court official, and the charge of “abusing freedom and democracy” has a maximum sentence of seven years in jail.
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  When journalists go to jail

  http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2008/when-journalists-go-to-ja...
  175 days ago in Teaching Online Journalism · Authority: 276

  When journalists go to jail Tuesday, June 10, 2008 (9:37 am) Some Vietnamese journalists have asked my opinion about the arrest and detention of two of their own. Nguyen Viet Chien, 56, a reporter for Thanh Nien, and Nguyen Van Hai, 33, reporter for Tuoi Tre, were jailed last month, according to the Vietnam Journalism site. VietNamNet reported that the two will be in “temporary detention for four months”; the charge is “abuse of power.” The reasons are opaque to me in part because the reporting — about a political corruption case called PMU 18 — took place in 2006, and journalists here have said that most newspapers published a lot of stories about it. More than U.S. $1 million was apparently involved, as well as gambling, foreign aid, and high-up officials. Journalists said the two newspapers (Thanh Nien and Tuoi Tre) did write a lot on the case, and possibly they were the most aggressive in pursuing the story, but it remains unclear exactly why Chien and Hai would be singled out. Time magazine described the story this way: A scandal started brewing in early 2006 with the arrest of Bui Tien Dung, the former director of PMU18, a state road and bridge building division with a $2 billion annual budget that is largely funded by the World Bank and Japan. Dung and others were accused of embezzling millions of dollars, most of which was gambled away on European football matches, and spent on prostitutes and luxury cars, according to government investigators. (May 16, 2008) I am reminded of an equally recent situation in Malaysia — renowned Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin (a k a RPK) was jailed in May for raising questions about an ongoing court case concerning the 2006 murder of a woman known as Altantuya. Although Raja Petra has been released on bail, he is scheduled to be tried in October on a sedition charge. When I discussed Raja Petra with Malaysians, it was clear to me that they are proud of him. One man called RPK “courageous” and said Malaysia needs more journalists like him. Why? Because he writes what the newspaper journalists in Malaysia are afraid to write. Officially, Raja Petra is not a journalist — but Chien and Hai are. Does it make a difference when the government puts you in jail for what you have written? The blogs in Vietnam have apparently kept the public informed about the journalists’ situation — although many of the related Yahoo 360 blog posts from May 2008 (written in Vietnamese) have been deleted. Can the government subdue journalists and keep them quiet and docile? Yes, it’s possible. But can the government silence everyone — once the public has access to fast, cheap Internet services? It’s going to get a lot harder. Posted in journalists, free speech, international, malaysia, journalism
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  Cables, dispatches and memoranda

  http://peacelikeariverblog.com/?p=233
  197 days ago in Peace Like A River · Authority: 27

  A brief world news roundup for 19 May 2008. United States & the Americas McClatchy - A military commission judge Friday delayed the scheduled trial of Osama bin Laden’s driver until after the U.S. Supreme Court has decided another key detainee case. NY Sun - As an African American politician is set to assume for the first time in the country’s history the leadership of a major political party, a Geneva-based United Nations human rights investigator plans to come here next week to investigate whether racism plays a role in the presidential campaign, according to a statement released yesterday. New Zealand Herald - The Mexican army says it has captured a man it describes as a top lieutenant of the Carrillo Fuentes border drug cartel. The army has said Saturday that soldiers captured Pedro Sanchez Arras, also known as ‘The Tiger’ on May 13 in the city of Hidalgo del Parral, in the northern state of Chihuahua. LA Times - The recent killing of the country’s top drug cop has prompted a crackdown, but the cartels have struck back. To strike back at narcotics traffickers suspected of ordering the assassination of Mexico’s top drug cop, President Felipe Calderon dispatched 2,000 army troops and federal police to the gang’s home base, the western state of Sinaloa. France24 - Sixty Colombian soldiers were allegedly stopped within Venezuelan borders Friday, drawing official protests. The Venezuelan government said Colombian President Uribe was “seeking to destabilize the region.” Hudson Institute - It only took 61 years, but Paraguay’s conservative Colorado Party finally lost an election. In last month’s presidential poll, a plurality of voters cast ballots for Fernando Lugo, a left-wing candidate who does not belong to an organized political party. Lugo focused his campaign on poverty, rural land reform, and energy policy. Now comes the more difficult task of actually governing. Will Lugo favor pragmatic, market-friendly initiatives designed to boost Paraguay’s economy and ensure stability? Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia BBC - Georgia has shown the BBC footage which it says proves Russian troops are deploying heavy military hardware in the breakaway region of Abkhazia. An interior ministry official in Tbilisi said the video footage was from an unmanned Georgian spy plane. RussiaToday - Six Russian peacekeepers have been released following their detention by Georgian police. This follows an incident on the border with Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia. The exact circumstances of the incident are still unclear. Moscow Times - Georgia said Friday that it would block negotiations on Russian entry to the World Trade Organization until Moscow reverses a decision last month to step up ties with two breakaway Georgian provinces. Telegraph - The battle for “ownership” of the polar oil reserves has accelerated with the disclosure that Russia has sent a fleet of nuclear-powered ice breakers into the Arctic. Kavkaz Center - The AlKavkaz website has reported that on 11 Jumada Al-’Awwal 1429 (16 May 2008), a mobile unit of Mujahideen of Eastern Front of Armed Forces of the Caucasus Emirate under command of Amir Dr. Muhammad detonated an explosive device on a military convoy of Russian infidels in Nozhai-Yurt district of Wilayah Nokhchicho, destroying a BTR armored personnel carrier, damaging an Ural military truck, killing at least five Russian kuffar and wounding an unknown number of others. EurasiaNet - Mystery continues to engulf Tajikistan’s first family, which appears preoccupied with a destabilizing power struggle. The continuing uncertainty surrounding the president and his close relatives suggests that a bout of instability could be in the offing for Central Asia’s poorest nation. Silk Road Intelligencer - Almost a year after the adoption of the EU Strategy on Central Asia, the prioritization of issues within EU-Central Asian cooperation have become clearer. Hence, the strategy paper represented the minimal consensus among member states. Today, in spite of rhetoric, it has become clearer that in the implementation stage of the strategy the proponents of realpolitik have prevailed. On closer inspection of the strategy paper and its annexes one cannot help but noticing that rather than a fully-fledged political strategy, one is looking at a framework paper outlining a handful of issues that are deemed to be of some importance. Middle East ABC - Nearly 1,000 people have been detained in a sweep to break al-Qaida in Iraq’s sway in Iraq’s third largest city, Mosul, but many of the fighters have fled to nearby areas, where troops are hunting for them, Iraqi officials said Saturday. AINA - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Friday offered amnesty to Sunni Arab militants in the northern city of Mosul and financial compensation for their surrendered weapons. UPI - Overnight fighting between Shiite rebels and U.S. and Iraqi soldiers in Baghdad killed four people and left 38 people injured, authorities said Sunday. MNF Iraq - Two female suicide bombers attacked the Sons of Iraq and the Iraqi Security Force in the Diyala Province, killing one and wounding 23, May 17. BBC - An American sniper has been sent home from Iraq for using a copy of the Koran for target practice at a shooting range near Baghdad, the US military says. CentCom - The security environment in Basra, Iraq, has improved dramatically since 1st Iraqi Army Quick Reaction Force fought its way into the city April 1. INN - Representatives of the Lebanese government and Hizbullah traded accusations and reported almost no progress on the second day of discussions between them in Doha, Qatar. Hizbullah’s chief negotiator at the talks, Mohammed Ra’ad, refused the government’s demand that the Iranian-backed group’s weapons be discussed at the talks. Michael Totten - Lebanon will not become the next Gaza. Commenters both inside and outside the country compared Hezbollah’s invasion of West Beirut last week to the Hamas takeover of Gaza last year, which is perhaps understandable: that’s what it looked like. If Lebanon’s mainstream Sunni-dominated party—Saad Hariri’s Future Movement—has a militia that is able and willing to fight, it didn’t make much of an appearance. Hezbollah seized the western half of the city in a walk. Far less attention has been paid to Hezbollah’s military and strategic failure in the Chouf mountains southeast of Beirut where Lebanon’s Druze community lives. Haaretz - Assailants detonated a bomb outside a popular cafe in Gaza City early Sunday morning, apparently part of a campaign by shadowy extremists to eliminate perceived symbols of Western influence. Jerusalem Post - Unknown assailants detonated a bomb outside a Christian school in Gaza City before dawn Friday, causing no injuries. AKI - An al-Qaeda cell in Yemen has issued a threat against non-Muslim foreign tourists, particularly those from the West, who visit the Arabian Peninsula. AP - Kuwait’s parliamentary elections showed strong gains for Muslim hardliners, official results found Sunday, but women candidates failed to win a single seat. Macleans - Turkey’s state-run media say six Kurdish rebels have been killed in a clash with soldiers in eastern Turkey. The Anatolia news agency says the clash erupted in Van province near the border with Iran Saturday. Iran NY Times - Iran’s president faces growing criticism from Shiite clerics, who accuse him of using religion to distract attention from his government’s failures. Payvand - After the southeast province of Sistan Baluchestan, Tehran ranks second in illiteracy among 30 provinces of the country, the state Literacy Movement Organization announced in Tehran on Sunday. Press TV - Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says Iran and Senegal are two strategic countries which enjoy good bilateral ties at all levels. MEMRI - In his Friday sermon, Tehran interim Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani said that the recent victories of Hizbullah in Lebanon against the Zionist regime belonged to the whole Islamic world, not just the Shi’ite community, and that all Muslims should be proud of Hizbullah. He said Hizbullah owes its victory today to unity among all Muslims, and that Muslims in turn must take that into consideration.”To Iran, there is no difference between Shi’ites and Sunnis.” Mianeh - Following the resignation of a key minister in April, the Iranian government continues to be dogged by rumours of impending changes. The rate of turnover has evoked protests from many significant religious and political players, from the reformist and fundamentalist factions alike. Critics argue that too many changes, carried out too fast, have left the government weak and unstable. Ray Takeyh - As President Bush addressed the Israeli parliament last week, denouncing negotiations with recalcitrant regimes as the “false comfort of appeasement,” his diplomats, in conjunction with their European counterparts, offered Iran another incentive package to stop enriching uranium. Even though they are making another effort to disarm Iran through mediation, the administration’s approach is hopelessly defective. Southeast Asia BBC - At least 13 people are killed in a bomb attack in the north-western Pakistani town of Mardan, police say. CBS - Pakistan”s top military commander for the country”s Afghan-border region promised to keep his troops deployed in the area after last week”s peace agreement between the newly-elected government and a hardcore pro-Taliban tribal militant. BBC - Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan, who was abducted by suspected Taleban militants in February, has been freed. Tariq Azizuddin was seized in the border area between the two countries, en route to the Afghan capital, Kabul. The News - The body of a soldier, kidnapped from the area a week ago, was found near Pusht Bazaar in Bajaur Agency on Friday. He was identified as Aftab Gul of Bajaur Scouts. Elders of Salarzai tribe formed a Jirga, which failed to secure the release of the kidnapped man. Political Tehsildar Mawaz Khan also confirmed that the body of the kidnapped scout was recovered near Pusht Bazaar. A note left on the body warned tribal elders against supporting the government or opposing ‘Mujahideen’, otherwise they would face the same fate. Daily Star - Pro-Taliban militants occupied a lawmaker’s house in a Pakistan tribal area Sunday, taking his relatives and servants hostage, witnesses and officials said. Shaukatullah Khan was out of town when up to 40 armed militants stormed his house in the restive Bajaur tribal district that borders Afghanistan. Macleans - A police chief says a suicide bomber has killed four civilians and wounded eight others in southern Afghanistan. Helmand provincial police Chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal says the target of Sunday’s attack was a district police chief in the town of Musa Qala. Dawn - Fifteen Taliban rebels were killed in an operation by the Afghan military in Ghormach district of Badghis province on Saturday, colonel Ghulam Sakhi told AFP Sunday. NY Times - The Pentagon is moving forward with plans to build a new, 40-acre detention complex on the main American military base in Afghanistan, officials said, in a stark acknowledgment that the United States is likely to continue to hold prisoners overseas for years to come. US News - Two new problems are plaguing the U.S.-backed recovery of Afghanistan. Said Jawad, the Afghan ambassador in Washington, tells us that the Pakistan-based Taliban is recruiting and training the handicapped and kids as young as 4 to be suicide bombers. Javno - Indian soldiers shot dead six separatist militants on Saturday in a gun battle, army officials said. The firefight broke out in Tral area, about 40 km (20 miles) south of Srinagar, Kashmir’s summer capital. Times of India - Gujarat police also recently added four new names to its list of 16 “recognized” terror outfits. Indian Mujaheedin is the 20th name to be added to this list. “The new names include Lashkar-e-Qahar, the organization responsible for the Mumbai train blasts on July 11 in 2006; Jamaat-ul-Mujaheedin, the front organization that carried out the Lumbini Park blasts in Hyderabad under HuJI; Dargah-Jihad-o-Shahadath and Indian Mujaheedin, the newest group which took responsibility for the Jaipur blasts,” said a state IB official. Intellibriefs - The public e-mail message from the Indian Mujahideen and a not so public e-mail from a section of the Psuedo-intellectual brigade bear an eerie similarity. It is this expose that Offstumped is focusing on in this post. So who exactly are these “Useful Idiot” Apologists for the Indian Mujahideen ? The Hindu - Eight persons were killed and 25 others injured in Murshidabad district as party supporters fought each other with guns and bombs during the third and final phase of the panchayat elections in West Bengal on Sunday. VOA - A Bangladesh court indicted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for alleged graft on Sunday, and police arrested the head of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh party, Matiur Rahman Nizami, on similar charges. AKI - At least nine people have been killed in a suicide attack in the heart of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Friday, the army says. Six police officers and three civilians, including the bomber, were killed when a motorcycle packed with explosives rammed into a bus carrying police officers. Bloomberg - Sri Lankan soldiers captured a key town from the Tamil Tigers in the country’s north as heavy fighting killed at least 34 rebels, the government said. Strategy Page - The LTTE is declining and the economy is growing. The fighting has left over 4,000 dead so far this year, about 80 percent of the them LTTE fighters. The army is fighting a cautious war, using its greater numbers and firepower to destroy the LTTE defensive positions, without exposing itself to the kind of commando type attacks the LTTE has used in the past. Far East & Pacific BBC - A UK minister, who is in Rangoon to press Burma’s leaders to do more for Cyclone Nargis victims, says the aid operation “is now starting to move”. His comments came just before a UN humanitarian envoy arrived in Burma for talks about widening the relief effort. Air Force - A total of six Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft have delivered more than 400,000 short tons of relief supplies to Burma as part of the ongoing U.S. relief efforts following Cyclone Nargis. Newsweek - Two weeks on, the scene suggests a halfhearted official relief effort at best. The junta’s strategy: keep it an internal affair—even if that triggers what the U.N. Office of Humanitarian Affairs calls “a second wave of deaths.” Yet the generals’ strategy implies a trade-off. Because government agencies have fallen so far short, various community networks, NGOs and religious groups are scrambling to fill the void. Javno - Thousands of Chinese fled to the hills on Saturday amid fears a lake formed near the epicentre of this week’s earthquake would burst its banks. The water level at the lake formed after aftershocks blocked a river was rising rapidly in Beichuan and “may burst its bank at any time”, the official Xinhua news agency said. MSNBC - A fire official says more than 16,000 people were evacuated from a Tokyo suburb while an unexploded 1-ton bomb believed was defused. The bomb was believed to have been dropped by the U.S. military during World War II. Radio Australia - United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice has agreed to a request from Tongan Prime Minister Fred Sevele to establish a consular office in the island kingdom. Washington Times - The United States will give North Korea 500,000 metric tons of food aid over the next year after the countries agreed on a “substantial improvement in monitoring” the food’s distribution, administration officials said yesterday. TIME - The jailing of two reporters for “abuse of power” is a blow to press freedom in Vietnam. Dawn - A policeman was killed and 14 other people injured when two bombs exploded in Thailand’s deep south, where authorities are battling a bloody separatist rebellion, police said Sunday. The first blast hit a busy night market in Narathiwat province on Saturday evening, injuring nine diners, local police said. A few hours later, a second bomb exploded in a car park near a police station in neighbouring Pattani province, killing one policeman instantly and injuring five of his colleagues. Bangkok Pundit - Thai journalist sentenced to nine months in prison on terrorism charges. He was charged with a terrorist offence for distributing pro-democracy fliers. Isn’t that an overreach? news.com.au - East Timor’s army will receive military training from Portuguese-speaking countries such as Brazil and Portugal as part of a military pact signed between the countries. The Australian - Six Australian-based Muslim clerics who are leaders of the Islamic community in the country are on the payroll of the Saudi Government, receiving allowances of up to $2000 a month. The Strategist - It’s well known that the British army has its own foreign legion in the form of the Gurkhas - Nepalese soldiers who have fought for the British since the early 19th century. At present, around 3500 Nepalese serve in the Brigade of Gurkhas. What’s less known is that over 2000 Fijians are also serving in the British army (h/t Glamdring). Europe Spiegel - The Dalai Lama is currently visiting Germany. Only one member of the government is prepared to meet with him, sparking a storm of unrest within the government. “These days, being courageous means not meeting the Dalai Lama,” commented Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. AKI - Police in France, Germany and the Netherlands have arrested 10 people suspected of financial links with an Uzbek organisation linked to al-Qaeda. UPI - The German government has accused foreign intelligence services, blaming mainly Russian agents, of having spied on German companies. Syria Comment - Here is a fascinating personal account of recent events in Lebanon from a German journalist and political analyst who resided in Beirut for the better part of the past fourteen years. He would like to share it with readers of Syria Comment. Canada.com - All eyes may not be on the beautiful bride Saturday when Autumn Kelly becomes the first Canadian to marry into the Royal Family before 300 witnesses at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. Global Voices - With the first of the semi-finals in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, Serbia, just days away, the countries of the South Caucasus are becoming increasingly excited about the international song contest and how their representatives will fair. What makes the situation all the more interesting is that this year will be the first time when all three republics will compete. Africa BBC - East African maritime officials say pirates have hijacked a Jordanian ship off the coast of Somalia. The Victoria, sailing from India with 4,000 tonnes of sugar donated by Denmark on board, was seized early on Saturday as it neared Mogadishu. AIR - In somalia Islamic insurgents have seized a major agricultural centre sending hundreds of people fleeing. A human rights leader said in Mogadishu that fighters from the Islamic Courts Union ousted militiamen loyal to Somalia’s fragile government in Jilib on Friday night and were patrolling the southern town. Press TV - At least six civilians have been shot dead by Ethiopian forces near Baidoa, Somalia and their vehicle set alight after the shooting. Press TV - Roadside bombs and heavy clashes have reportedly killed at least 91 Ethiopian troops near Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region, Weyne town. Ethiopian soldiers, leaving Afgoye and Baidoa towns were targeted by roadside bombs planted earlier by the fighters of the Union of Islamic Courts, Press TV correspondent reported on Sunday. Garowe - Unidentified gunmen have shot and killed a Somali aid worker in the southern port city of Kismayo, underscoring the continued dangers humanitarian aid workers face in the chaotic Horn of Africa country. Ahmed Bariyow, the director of Somalia’s Horn Relief aid agency, was shot and killed Saturday night by three masked men armed with pistols, a relative confirmed to Garowe Online.  NY Times - Somalia — and much of the volatile Horn of Africa, for that matter — was about the last place on earth that needed a food crisis. Even before commodity prices started shooting up around the globe, civil war, displacement and imperiled aid operations had pushed many people here to the brink of famine. But now with food costs spiraling out of reach and the livestock that people live off of dropping dead in the sand, villagers across this sun-blasted landscape say hundreds of people are dying of hunger and thirst. Reuters - Khartoum must sit down to Darfur peace talks by the end of the year or face all-out war, the leader of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) who launched an unprecedented attack on the capital this month said. Global Buzz - People to know: Hassan al-Turabi; Turabi is notable for his extreme Islamist views… ABC - Weekend attacks in Johannesburg on foreigners left at least 12 dead. “It’s spreading like wildfire and the police and the army can’t control it,” Ziso said, as he tried to help register about 500 people who sought refuge at the police station in Johannesburg’s Cleveland area. It was a scene repeated in other poor suburbs around the city. Angry residents accused foreigners of taking scarce jobs and housing, many of them Zimbabweans who had fled their own country’s economic collapse. AFP - Fears of an assassination plot against Zimbabwe’s opposition leader delayed his long-awaited homecoming on Saturday ahead of an election showdown with veteran President Robert Mugabe on June 27. New Vision - More than a third of the anti-malarial medicines sold in Kampala are either counterfeit or are not strong enough to cure the disease, a survey has revealed. Because of this, scientists warn, malaria could easily become resistant to the new generation of medicines that have replaced chloroquine. The Global War ABC - The media wing of al-Qaida says Osama bin Laden soon will issue a new message addressed to the Islamic world. Al-Sahab posted a banner Sunday on a militant Web site known for carrying the terror network’s messages. It said a “powerful speech to the Islamic nation,” will be issued soon. NY Times - This is a stark example of the many problems that are coming to light in the world’s agricultural system. Experts say that during the food surpluses of recent decades, governments and development agencies lost focus on the importance of helping poor countries improve their agriculture. NPR - President Bush returns to the U.S. Sunday after a five-day visit to the Middle East. The aim of the trip: to reinforce Middle East peace process. Winding up the tour with a speech at the World Economic Forum in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, he got a frigid reception, however. Linda Chavez - President Bush gave a stunning speech at the World Economic Forum meeting in Sharm el Sheikh today in which he said, among other things: Too often in the Middle East, politics has consisted of one leader in power and the opposition in jail. Nosint - Two weeks after photographs of China’s nuclear submarines set alarm bells ringing for the Indian authorities, a commercial satellite has revealed a launching site for over 50 nuclear ballistic missiles, capable of striking all north Indian cities. IWPR - Syria’s growing relationship with Russia has given it a rare ally in its generally isolated position. However, Moscow plays only a limited role in supporting Damascus internationally, say Syrian analysts. Syria has built stronger relations with Russia in the past few years. Moscow has refurbished some of its old military bases in the country, and has written off 70 per cent of Syria’s debt. Russia is rebuilding a base in the port of Tartus for use by its Black Sea fleet. Stars and Stripes - Air Force Staff Sgt. Travis Griffin was only 15 days from returning home on leave at the midway point of his Iraq tour when he was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Baghdad. He was on his fourth Iraq deployment — his seventh to the Middle East. Stephen Johnson - Dust off the tinfoil hats: the 40-year-old USS Scorpion conspiracy theory has been revived. David Milband - I will be in the US Sunday through Friday… I want to say to my American and international counterparts that the UK has been a winner from globalisation; that along with other European countries we see the downsides of unsustainability and inequality; that the answer is not a retreat from international engagement; and that Britain wants to be part of a strengthened transatlantic partnership dedicated to building international rules and institutions that minimise the risks and maximise the gains of globalisation. Jules Crittenden - New Republic’s Scoblic beats conservatives with conservatives to defend Obama’s talk about talk with dictators. Talking worked with the Soviets, Scoblic opines, variously using a magnifying glass and a funhouse mirror to examine history’s miniscule details undistracted by any large inconvenient objects. Sharon Chadha - My colleague and the founder of Kabul Center for Strategic Studies, Wailiullah Rahmani, sent me a link to a fascinating study by RFE/RL senior analyst Daniel Kimmage, on Al-Qaeda’s media entities and the insurgents who operate in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sights & Sounds Lebanon or Hizbullahstan? Mohit Satyanand presents excerpts from several articles from the May 2008 issue of Pragati in the second podcast. A special feature in this edition is an excerpt from an interview with K Subrahmanyam. Hear what he has to say about 21st century geopolitics and the Indian national interest—in his own voice Comments on President’s Middle East Trip: Anthony Cordesman President Bush’s comments about “appeasement” of dictators touched off a firestorm on the presidential campaign trail this week. Mark Shields and David Brooks discuss the remarks, as well as Hillary Clinton’s West Virginia win and recent GOP losses in state contests. Iran is on track to store up to a week’s worth of national oil production offshore. There are signs that, rather than a strategy to benefit from record prices, the move reflects a drop-off in demand for Iranian crude — something with serious domestic implications. CSM: In today’s podcast, we hear about Chinese citizens volunteering to help earthquake victims, a potential breakthrough in Zimbabwe, Lebanese fighters using cell phones to videotape the violence and the children at the heart of the Texas church cult
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  Top Vietnamese Journalists Arrested

  http://tinquehuong.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/top-vietnamese-j...
  198 days ago in Tin Quê Hương · Authority: 6

  Top Vietnamese Journalists Arrested Posted on May 19, 2008 by tinquehuong It is a classic case of shooting the messenger. On May 12, government security officers showed up at two of Vietnam’s most popular newspapers. They searched the offices and when they were done they led away two prominent Vietnamese journalists. Both were well known for their coverage of an embezzlement and bribery scandal that brought down a top government minister and put several people behind bars. Now Nguyen Van Hai and Nguyen Viet Chien are in jail themselves, ironically on charges similar to those filed against the officials they investigated: “the abuse of power for personal gain.” The journalists’ newspapers quickly denounced the arrests. The daily Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper charged in an editorial that their reporter, Chien, is the victim of a witch hunt—an unusually confrontational tone for a communist country where the press is controlled by the state. Over the past year, Chien was repeatedly questioned about his sources by police “who twisted his reports,” the paper said. “(Chien) was not motivated by any personal motive or interest,” the paper said. “His motive was completely pure.” The Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper said that after the arrest of its reporter it was besieged by a record number of phone calls and e-mails from outraged readers. The allegations lodged against the journalists are vague. But the real crime they committed was crossing an ever-shifting line of what the country’s media can and cannot report, says Shawn McHale, a professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University who is in Vietnam on a Fulbright-Hays fellowship. Vietnam’s economy has been growing rapidly for the last several years as the authoritarian government gradually embraces free-market reforms. Institutions like the press would like to see a similar lifting of controls and have increasingly been pushing the limits of government tolerance. A key source of friction between the press and the powerful has been Hanoi’s drive to root out rampant corruption among government officials. A scandal started brewing in early 2006 with the arrest of Bui Tien Dung, the former director of PMU18, a state road and bridge building division with a $2 billion annual budget that is largely funded by the World Bank and Japan. Dung and others were accused of embezzling millions of dollars, most of which was gambled away on European football matches, and spent on prostitutes and luxury cars, according to government investigators. Dung’s arrest and the sensational details of the case—even the Prime Minister’s office was at one point under investigation—provided a field day for newspapers eager to give their readers something more than bland propaganda. Suddenly journalists were camped out at the homes of the accused, asking unauthorized questions and printing stories that they knew would embarrass the bureaucracy. But while the Vietnamese press has enjoyed greater freedom of late, “The question is, how high up can you go?” says McHale. Apparently, not that high. Displeased with the coverage during the scandal, then-Prime Minister Phan Van Khai in 2006 called for news outlets to be prosecuted for “going too far.” And today, many see the hand of a higher power in the recent acquittal of the country’s deputy transport minister, the highest-ranking official charged in the Dung investigation, as well as in the arrest of the two reporters who wrote about him. That’s not to say the press is blameless. Several senior journalists have raised questions about the ethics and reporting standards of Vietnam’s fledgling media. Veteran journalist Huy Duc condemned the arrest of his colleagues, but also noted in his popular blog that the careers of at least two officials in the Communist Party were damaged because of unfounded allegations raised by the press in their PMU18 coverage. “A lot of information printed in newspapers at the time had been made up,” Duc claimed, adding that reporters were used by party sources to destroy their political opponents. Duc blamed journalists for not verifying the accuracy of their information. Says Nguyen Van Phu, managing editor of the English-language Saigon Times: “Many so-called investigative stories were in fact written based on information fed to the reporters on purpose.” The newspapers of the arrested reporters are urging government investigators to go after the police and officials who provided spurious information. That’s unlikely to happen. At best, the arrests will encourage reporters to “be more careful to double-check sources and do adequate attribution,” says Phu of the Saigon Times. At worst, the incident will discourage media coverage of corruption scandals in the future—which won’t help Vietnam’s leaders in their anti-graft campaign. McHale calls corruption a “cancer” that threatens to eat away at the country’s economic gains. “Billions of dollars of FDI (foreign direct investment) is going to go away” if the problem is not attacked and corrupt officials remain unexposed, McHale says. “There is an interest in having a press that addresses these issues.” http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1807113,00.html Filed under: Media, Pro-democracy | Tagged: Arrested, Journalists, Nguyen Van Hai, Nguyen Viet Chien, PMU18, scandal |
• 

  Vụ bắt giữ hai ký giả tại Việt Nam

  http://hoilatraloi.blogspot.com/2008/05/v-bt-gi-hai-k-gi-ti-...
  199 days ago in hoilatraloi · Authority: 2

  Vụ bắt giữ hai ký giả tại Việt Nam http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1807113,00.html (www.tiengnoitudodanchu.org) Martha Ann Overland. Time 16/5/08. Minh Phong lược dịch Ðây là một trường hợp cổ điển của câu chuyện chém đầu sứ giả. Vào ngày 12/5, an ninh nhà nước xuất hiện ở tòa soạn của hai trong những tờ báo được nhiều người ưa chuộng nhất Việt Nam. Họ lục soát toà soạn và bắt đi hai nhà báo nổi tiếng. Cả hai nhà báo này được dư luận biết đến nhiều vì các bài phóng sự của họ về một vụ xì-căng-đan tham ô hối lộ đã đánh đổ một bộ trưởng trong chính phủ và đưa nhiều nhân vật vào tù. Bây giờ chính Nguyễn Văn Hải và Nguyễn Việt Chiến cũng đang ở trong tù, điều trớ trêu là họ cũng bị truy tố về các tội danh giống như các cán bộ viên chức nhà nước mà họ đã điều tra trước đây: “lợi dụng chức vụ và quyền hạn trong khi thi hành công vụ" Hai tờ báo nơi hai ký giả này công tác đã nhanh chóng phản đối kịch liệt vụ bắt bớ này. Tờ Thanh Niên lên tiếng mạnh mẽ trong bài bình luận của họ rằng, ký gỉa của họ, ông Chiến, là một nạn nhân của một sự trả thù - một giọng điệu có tính chất chạm trán đương đầu bất bình thường ở trong một quốc gia cộng sản, là nơi báo chí bị đặt dưới quyền kiểm soát của nhà nước. Tờ Thanh Niên cho biết, trong suốt năm qua, ông Chiến đã liên tục bị công an tra hỏi về các nguồn gốc tin tức, và bóp méo các bài tường thuật của ông. “Ông Chiến không bị thúc đẩy bởi bất cứ động cơ hay quyền lợi các nhân nào. Các lý do của ông Chiến hoàn toàn trong sạch”. Tờ Tuổi Trẻ còn cho biết rằng sau vụ bắt bớ họ đã bị tràn ngập bởi một con số kỷ lục các cú điện thoại và email từ các đọc giả bày tỏ lòng phẫn nộ. Những cáo giác đưa ra để buộc tội hai nhà báo này thì không rõ ràng. Nhưng cái tội thực sự mà họ đã phạm phải là dám vượt qua lằn ranh cố định của những gì mà truyền thông báo chí có thể và không có thể tường thuật, theo ông Shawn McHale, một giáo sư về Lịch sử và Quốc tế vụ của Ðại học Washington, hiện đang ở Việt Nam trong chương trình tu nghiệp Fulbright-Hays. Kinh tế Việt Nam đã gia tăng nhanh chóng trong nhiều năm qua khi nhà cầm quyền độc tài đã dần dà ôm chặt lấy chính sách cải cách kinh tế thị trường tự do. Các cơ quan như ngành truyền thông báo chí muốn thấy có một sự nới lỏng kiểm soát tương tự và càng ngày càng gia tăng việc đẩy mạnh cái giới hạn được nhà nước cho phép. Một nguồn gốc trọng yếu của sự xích mích giữa ngành báo chí và giới quyền lực là chiều hướng của chế độ Hà Nội nhằm nhổ tận gốc nạn tham nhũng đang hoành hoành trong tầng lớp cán bộ nhà nước. Một vụ xì-căng-đan bắt đầu nổi lên vào đầu năm 2006 với việc bắt giữ Bùi Tiến Dũng, cựu giám đốc PMU18, một cơ quan của nhà nước đặc trách xây dựng đường xá cầu cống có một ngân sách hàng năm là 2 tỷ Mỹ kim, phần lớn được tài trợ bởi Ngân hàng Thế giới và Nhật Bản. Bùi Tiến Dũng và những người khác đã bị cáo buộc là biển thủ hàng triệu đô la, phần lớn số tiền này được dùng để đánh cá trong các trận đấu túc cầu Âu Châu, phung phí vào gái mãi dâm và xe cộ sang trọng, theo các nhân viên điều tra của nhà nước cho biết. Việc bắt giữ Bùi Tiến Dũng và những chi tiết làm náo động dư luận trong vụ này—thậm chí cả văn phòng Thủ tướng cũng có lúc nằm dưới sự điều tra— đã giúp cho báo chí có một cơ hội để hăng hái cung cấp cho đọc giả của họ các tin tức khác hơn là những tuyên truyền nhàm chán. Bỗng nhiên các ký giả đóng đô trước cửa nhà của những kẻ bị tố cáo, hỏi những câu hỏi không được phép và đăng tải những bài báo mà họ biết rằng sẽ làm cho nhà nước phải mất mặt. Nhưng trong khi báo chí Viêt Nam đang thưởng thức một sự tự do hơi muộn màng, thì theo ông McHale, “Câu hỏi là tầm cao đến cỡ nào thì họ có thể vươn tới”. Rõ ràng là không cao như thế. Không hài lòng với việc báo chí tường thuật trong lúc vụ xì-căng –đan đang xảy ra, vị Thủ tướng lúc đó là ông Phan văn Khải vào năm 2006 đã kêu gọi cho các cơ quan báo chí bị truy tố vì dám “đi quá xa”. Và ngày hôm nay, nhiều người đã nhìn thấy bàn tay của giới quyền lực cao hơn trong việc tha bổng viên thứ trưởng bộ giao thông Nguyễn Việt Tiến, là cán bộ nhà nước cao cấp nhất bị truy tố trong vụ điều tra Bùi Tiến Dũng, đồng thời là việc bắt giữ hai ký giả đã viết những bài điều tra về ông ta. Nhưng điều đó không có nghĩa là giới báo chí không có lỗi. Nhiều ký giả kỳ cựu đã nêu lên các câu hỏi về đạo đức và tiêu chuẩn nghề nghiệp của giới truyền thông báo chí còn non nớt tại Việt Nam. Nhà báo thâm niên Huy Ðức đã lên án việc bắt giữ hai đồng nghiệp của ông, nhưng cũng ghi nhận trong trang blog khá phổ biến của ông rằng sự nghiệp của ít nhất hai cán bộ đảng viên Ðảng cộng sản đã bị thiệt hại vì có nhiều cáo buộc không bằng chứng được báo chí nêu ra trong việc tường thuật về vụ PMU18. Ông Ðức cho rằng, “Nhiều thông tin đăng tải trên báo chí vào lúc đó đã được bịa đặt”, và cho biết thêm là các phóng viên đã bị một số các thế lực trong đảng lợi dụng để triệt tiêu các đối thủ chính trị của họ. Ông Ðức đổ thừa cho các ký giả là không chịu kiểm tra cho chính xác các nguồn tin của họ. Theo ông Nguyễn văn Phú, giám đốc kiêm chủ bút tờ báo Anh ngữ Saigon Times thì, “Nhiều bài báo gọi là điều tra thật ra đã được viết dựa trên những thông tin cung cấp cho các phóng viên với một dụng ý”. Các tờ báo có hai viên ký giả bị bắt giữ đang kêu gọi các điều tra viên của nhà nước hãy nhắm vào những công an và cán bộ đã cung cấp những thông tin giả mạo. Ðiều này không chắc sẽ xảy ra. Cao lắm thì việc bắt giữ sẽ khuyến khích các nhà báo “hãy cẩn thận hơn trong việc kiểm chứng các nguồn tin và làm việc cho phù hợp với chức năng của mình”, theo ông Phú của tờ Saigon Times. Còn tệ hơn thì sự kiện này sẽ làm ngã lòng giới báo chí trong việc tường thuật các vụ xì-căng-đan tham nhũng trong tương lai—không giúp ích được gì cho giới lãnh đạo Việt Nam trong công cuộc vận động phòng chống tham nhũng. Ông McHale gọi nạn tham nhũng là một “căn bệnh ung thư” đang đe doạ ăn mòn vào những thành quả kinh tế ở Việt Nam. “Hàng tỷ đô la của đầu tư trực tiếp nước ngoài (FDI) sẽ ra đi” nếu vấn đề tham nhũng không được giải quyết và các cán bộ viên chức tham ô của nhà nước vẫn không bị vạch trần, ông McHale cho biết. “Có một tầm quan trọng về việc có một nền báo chí để đối phó với các vấn đề này”. Posted by CoVang
• 

  Vietnamese Journalists arrested

  http://thoughtsofnigel.blogspot.com/2008/05/vietnamese-journ...
  199 days ago in Thoughts of Nigel · Authority: 14

  Two Vietnamese journalists have been arrested.Nguyen Van Hai and Nguyen Viet Chien are in jail facing charges of the abuse of power for personal gain. It seems that Vietnam is in a similar positio to China a few years ago where a growing economy is struggling to match similar reforms in democratic freedoms The journalists had been foremost in the investigation of a recent bribery scandal that brought down a member of the government.via Time Magazine The report goes onto say that their real crime was crossing an ever-shifting line of what the country's media can and cannot report, says Shawn McHale, a professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University who is in Vietnam on a Fulbright-Hays fellowship. Vietnam's economy has been growing rapidly for the last several years as the authoritarian government gradually embraces free-market reforms. Institutions like the press would like to see a similar lifting of controls and have increasingly been pushing the limits of government tolerance.

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