Nexus - 1101 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

OB tes Ny E\N? WORLD PRESS FREEDOM RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST Rees Without Borders recently published its second world press freedom ranking for the year ended | September 2003. Like last year, the most cata- strophic situation is to found in Asia, with eight countries in the bottom 10: North Korea, Burma, Laos, China, Iran, Vietnam, Turkmenistan and Bhutan. Independent news media are either nonexistent in these coun- tries or are constantly repressed by the authorities. Journa there work in extremely difficult conditions, with no freedom or security. A number of them are imprisoned in Burma, China and Iran. Cuba is in 165th position, second from last. Twenty-six independent journalists were arrested there in the spring of 2003 and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 14 to 27 years, making Cuba the world's biggest prison for journalists. Eritrea, in 162nd position, has the worst situation in Africa. Privately owned news media have been banned there for the past two years and 14 journalists are being held in undisclosed locations. The ranking distinguishes behaviour at home and abroad in the cases of the United States and Israel. They are ranked in 31st and 44th positions respectively as regards respect for freedom of expression on their Ss sure on journalists, who are forced to use self-censorship. The situation remains worrying a in Russia (148th), Ukraine (132nd) and Belarus (151st). A truly independent press exists in Russia, but Russia's poor ranking is justified by the censorship of anything to do with the war in Chechnya, several murders and the recent abduction of the Agence France-Presse correspon- dent in Ingushetia. Press freedom is virtually nonexistent in much of central Asia, especially Turkmenistan (158th) and Uzbekistan (154th). No criticism of the authorities is tolerated. To compile this ranking, Reporters Without Borders asked journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists to fill out a questionnaire evaluating respect for press freedom in a particular country. In all, 166 countries are included in the ranking. As a matter of interest, the press free- dom ranking of countries (other than the US) where NEXUS has an English-lan- guage edition has Canada in 10th place, New Zealand in 17th, the UK in 27th and Australia in 50th place. (Source: Reporters Without Borders; for the full report, go to http://www.rsf.fr/ article. php3?id_article=8247) own territory, but they fall to the 135th and 146th positions as regards behaviour beyond their borders. The Israeli Army's repeated abuses against journalists in the occupied territories and the US Army's responsibility in the death of several reporters during the war in Iraq constitute unacceptable behaviour by two nations that never stop stressing their commitment to freedom of expression. The war in Iraq played a major role in an increased crackdown on the press by the Arab regimes. Concerned about maintain- ing their image and facing public opinion largely opposed to the war, they stepped up control of the press and increased pres- SOLAR ACTIVITY GREATER THAN A MILLENNIUM AGO lhe Sun is more active now than it has been for over a millennium. The reali- sation, which comes from a reconstruction of sunspots stretching back 1,150 years, comes just as the Sun has thrown a tantrum. Over the last week [late October/early November], giant plumes of material burst out from our star's surface and streamed into space, causing geomag- netic storms on Earth. The dark patches on the surface of the Sun that we call sunspots are a symptom of fierce magnetic activity inside. Ilya Usoskin, a geophysicist working with col- leagues from the University of Oulu in Finland and the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, found that there have been more sunspots since the 1940s than for the past 1,150 years. Sunspot observations stretch back to the Secret life of words eo eS sf INCURSION MANDATE Mio BILE (mob +vile) (mangle + ovtdate) (invasion + excursion) 6 = NEXUS Seren the www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2003 — JANUARY 2004