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LY DD © oF VEN? Group because of the environmental devastation it has caused—particu- larly in southern Nigeria's Ogoniland. Since the executions, Shell has also managed to keep the United States media from informing the public of its actions. Project Censored is a media analysis and research program based out of Sonoma State University, California. Its stated goal is to "explore and publicise the extent of censorship in our society by locating stories about significant issues of which the public should be aware, but is not, for one reason or another." Following are the 10 most cen- sored stories for 1996, according to Project Censored: #3: Big Perks for the Wealthy Hidden in Minimum Wage Bill On 20 August 1996, President Clinton signed into law the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996, ostensibly geared to aid small business owners and their employ- ees. The publicised intent of the bill was to raise the minimum wage from US$4.25 to $5.15 an hour. However, according to John Judis, senior editor of the New Republic, the minimum wage bill included at least 10 other significant provisions aimed at neither small business owners nor their employees. Indeed, Judis charges, these unpublicised provisions may negate whatever good the bill may do. #1: Risking the World: Nuclear Proliferation in Space While much press coverage was devoted to the failed Russian space probe that crashed into the South Pacific in November 1996—along with its payload of 200 grams of plutoni- um-238—virtually no attention has been paid to the 1997 launch of NASA's Cassini probe which will be carrying 72 pounds of the same deadly substance. The plutonium in the Cassini probe will sit atop a Lockheed Martin-built Titan IV rocket, which has been involved in a series of mishaps including a 1993 explosion which destroyed a US$1 billion spy satel- lite system and sent fragments falling into the Pacific Ocean. #2: Shell's Oil, Africa's Blood In the wake of Nigeria's execution of nine environmental activists, including Nobel Prize winner and leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ken Saro-Wiwa, evi- dence has indicated that the Shell oil com- pany has fomented civil unrest in Nigeria, contributed to unfair trials and failed to use its leverage to prevent the unjustified exe- cutions. The executed activists were involved in massive protests against Royal Dutch Shell #4: Deforming Consent: The PR Industry's Secret War on Activists Exposed are the multi-million-dollar clients of major public relations firms that are behind the creation of false non-profit organisations which target activists and proposed legislation that threaten big busi- ness. Most of these organisations focus on environmental, consumer and labour issues. The strategies of these powerful media manipulators include the defamation of activists and their ideas and the decep- tion of American citizens. Through the PR industry and the enor- mous financial resources of their corporate clients, these organisations mobilise pri- vate detectives, lawyers and undercover spies; influence editorial and news deci- sions; launch phony ‘grassroots’ cam- paigns; and use high-tech information sys- tems to influence and manipulate public opinion and policy. With its array of sophisticated, persuasive weaponry, the PR industry can out-manoeuvre, overpower and outlast citizen reformers. #5: White-Collar Crime: Whitewash at the Department of Justice While white-collar crime costs America 10 to 50 times more money than street 6 = NEXUS JUNE - JULY 1997 PROJECT CENSORED 1996