[hr-media] Index on Censorship e-bulletin 22 September 2003

An occasional e-mailing of weblinks to news, opinion, features and analysis
covering all aspects of the free speech debate, and monitoring threats to
free expression worldwide. Compiled by the editors, reporters, contributors
and researchers of Index on Censorship, the award winning magazine of free
expression founded in 1972.

Recent stories from the website

Algeria: Tensions surrounding the run-up to next year's Algerian
presidential elections have fuelled government hostility to the local press.
On Monday 22 September the country's leading newspapers expressed their
frustration with the state's petty harassment by going on strike for a day.
James Badcock reports on the background to Algeria's Day Without Press, and
a cartoon comment by Ali Dilem of Liberte in Algiers, one of the striking
dailies.
http://www.indexonline.org/news/20030922_algeria.shtml

United States: 'War whores' on tour. CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour says
the media was 'intimidated' into following the official line in Iraq.
Veteran journalist Nicholas von Hoffman takes a tougher view... Simply put,'
he argues, the US mass media 'put itself at the service of the state'.
http://www.indexonline.org/news/20030919_unitedstates.shtml

Bulgaria: The killing of Georgi Markov. Twenty-five years ago, on 11
September 1978, Bulgarian émigré writer and broadcast journalist Georgi
Markov was murdered by a killer armed with a 'poisoned umbrella'. Richard H.
Cummings looks back on a significant anniversary.
http://www.indexonline.org/news/20030911_bulgaria.shtml


 >From Index Index

Iraq: CNN's Amanpour on US media war record -
http://www.indexonline.org/indexindex/20030918_unitedstates.shtml
Burundi: Another private radio station shut down -
http://www.indexonline.org/indexindex/20030918_burundi.shtml
International: Free press groups in WSIS protests -
http://www.indexonline.org/indexindex/20030918_international.shtml
Zimbabwe: Daily News still closed despite appeal ruling -
http://www.indexonline.org/indexindex/20030918_zimbabwe.shtml
International: Journalists' safety tops Budapest agenda -
http://www.indexonline.org/indexindex/20030919_international.shtml
Iraq: US army pleased with media management -
http://www.indexonline.org/indexindex/20030908_unitedstates.shtml


 >From the magazine Index on Censorship

Index on Censorship: Comment. "It seems especially poignant that I should be
addressing this topic at a time when the conflict between Israelis and
Palestinians is descending so tragically into a moral abyss and when, for me
at least, the very essence of Judaism, of what it means to be a Jew, seems
to be descending with it." Writer and academic Sara Roy reflects on her
journey as a child of Holocaust survivors.
http://www.indexonline.org/news/303_20030912_roy.shtml

United States: The trials of liberty. US Attorney General John Ashcroft has
launched a PR blitz in defence of his tough anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act.
Michael McClintock explains how the Act is just part of a general weakening
of human rights in the United States since September 11.
http://www.indexonline.org/news/20030618_unitedstates_mclintock.shtml

Iraq: US troops must hold their fire. The death of journalist Mazen Dana has
raised demands for action to stop the killing of journalists by US soldiers
in Iraq. Index on Censorship suggests that the answer to the problem can be
found in the US Army's own field manuals.
http://www.indexonline.org/news/20030818_iraq.shtml