We begin today’s headlines from the worlds of cloaks, daggers, and militarism with a story close to home via the Oakland Tribune:
Nuclear law again threatens Oakland surveillance hub
Once again a Cold War era law prohibiting Oakland from contracting with firms that work on nuclear weapon projects is threatening to derail completion of an intelligence center whose surveillance capabilities have spurred opposition from privacy advocates.
The City Council will meet Tuesday to decide whether to contract with Schneider Electronic Inc. to complete the Domain Awareness Center. The joint city and Port of Oakland project would establish a data hub where feeds from street cameras, gunshot sensors and other surveillance tools would be broadcast on a bank of constantly monitored television screens.
Should the council determine that Schneider violates the Oakland’s Nuclear Free Ordinance, the city and port most likely would lose $1 million in federal grant funding that is tied to the project being completed by the end of May, officials said.
And on to the latest Edward Snowden revelation from The Guardian:
Snowden revelations of NSA spying on Copenhagen climate talks spark anger
Documents leaked by Edward Snowden show NSA kept US negotiators abreast of their rivals’ positions at 2009 summit
Developing countries have reacted angrily to revelations that the United States spied on other governments at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009.
Documents leaked by Edward Snowden show how the US National Security Agency (NSA) monitored communication between key countries before and during the conference to give their negotiators advance information about other positions at the high-profile meeting where world leaders including Barack Obama, Gordon Brown and Angela Merkel failed to agree to a strong deal on climate change.
Jairam Ramesh, the then Indian environment minister and a key player in the talks that involved 192 countries and 110 heads of state, said: “Why the hell did they do this and at the end of this, what did they get out of Copenhagen? They got some outcome but certainly not the outcome they wanted. It was completely silly of them. First of all, they didn’t get what they wanted. With all their hi-tech gizmos and all their snooping, ultimately the Basic countries [Brazil, South Africa, India and China] bailed Obama out. With all their snooping what did they get?”
Confrontation from the McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Senators grill spy chiefs, accuse them of lies
Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee lambasted the nation’s top intelligence chiefs on Wednesday, complaining of lies about gathering the phone records of Americans and failing to cooperate with Congress in an investigation of the CIA’s controversial interrogation programs.
Committee members grilled Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan at the first intelligence committee hearing since President Barack Obama proposed reforms to the spy program.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told them an ongoing “culture of misinformation” has undermined the public’s trust in America’s intelligence leadership.
Whistyleblower hate from the Los Angeles Times:
Intelligence leakers pose ‘critical threat’ to U.S., say spy chiefs
Insiders such as Edward Snowden who leak secrets about sensitive U.S. intelligence programs pose a “critical threat” to the United States, America’s spy chiefs warned Congress in their annual report on global national security risks.
For the first time, the threat of unauthorized disclosures from “trusted insiders” was ranked as the second greatest potential threat to the country, after cyberattacks but ahead of international terrorism, in the document prepared by the 16 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community.
Those individuals aren’t necessarily working with foreign intelligence agencies, the document says. Some members of Congress have all but accused Snowden of working for Russia’s spy service, but no clear evidence has emerged to support the contention.
“The capabilities and activities through which foreign entities — both state and nonstate actors — seek to obtain U.S. national security information are new, more diverse and more technically sophisticated,” the document says.
The Washington Post offers a plea:
U.S. intelligence director calls on Snowden to return NSA documents
The head of the U.S. intelligence community on Wednesday called on Edward Snowden, a former contractor with the National Security Agency, to return the massive trove of documents in his possession.
Speaking before a Senate panel, James R. Clapper Jr., delivered blistering criticism of Snowden, describing him as a hypocrite who has severely harmed national security.
Clapper said the materials exposed by Snowden have bolstered adversaries, caused allies to cut off cooperation with the United States, triggered changes in communications by terrorist networks and put lives of intelligence operatives and assets at risk.
RT gets hyperbolic:
US officials say Snowden disclosures will lead to deaths, plead for an end to leaks
Revelations made possible through documents leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden could cause the deaths of United States diplomats, citizens and soldiers, government officials said Wednesday, and remaining files should be surrendered immediately.
US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper implored Mr. Snowden during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in Washington, DC early Wednesday to hand over what remains of a trove of top-secret documents allegedly still in his possession after fleeing the country last year with a cache of classified material. Officials have claimed the total number of stolen documents could exceed 1.7 million.
Speaking before the committee, DNI Clapper and his colleagues testified that the documents that have already been released to the media by Snowden during the last seven months have caused a significant blow to national security because they exposed an array of sensitive intelligence gathering tactics that have been jeopardized as a result.
Nomination from the London Daily Mail:
Edward Snowden is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for ‘restoring balance between national security and individual freedom’
Norwegian members of parliament nominate Snowden for Peace Price
Socialist Left Party politicians say he has made world ‘a safer place’
Nobel Peace Prize committee accepts nominations until February 1st
Two Norwegian MPs have nominated NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize 2014.
Bård Vegar Solhjell and Snorre Valen, both parliamentary representatives of Sosialistisk Venstreparti, the Socialist Left Party, argue that Snowden’s release of classified documents has made the world a safer place.
The Project On Government Oversight plotting a coup:
Six House Members Seek to Oust Intelligence Director
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should be removed because of untruthful statements he made before Congress concerning the intelligence community’s use of bulk data collection programs, six members of Congress said this week in a letter sent to President Obama (pdf).
The letter—signed by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Ted Poe (R-Texas), Paul Broun (R-Ga.), Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) and Walter Jones (R-N.C.)—refers to testimony Clapper gave the Senate Intelligence Committee in March, when Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked him whether the NSA collects “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.” Clapper’s responded without hesitation: “No, sir. Not wittingly. There are cases where they could, inadvertently perhaps, collect – but not wittingly.”
Justification from the McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Attorney General Holder defends legality of surveillance program
Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday aligned himself with the conclusions of judges who found the mass collection of telephone data to be constitutional.
But that legal conclusion, Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee, is not the end of the debate over the so-called Section 215 program.
“I believe (the judges) are correct that it is constitutional,” Holder said, under questioning by a skeptical committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. “The question is, just because we can do something, should we do it?”
Tokenism from Network World:
NSA gets its first civil liberties and privacy officer
Former Homeland Security official Rebecca Richards is said to have new role
The National Security Agency has reportedly appointed Rebecca Richards, a former deputy privacy official at the Department of Homeland Security, as its first privacy officer.
Richards will start her new role next month, according to a blog post Tuesday by former deputy assistant secretary at the DHS Paul Rosenzweig.
An NSA spokeswoman would neither confirm nor deny Rosenzweig’s report. Instead, she pointed to comments by President Obama last August about the NSA’s taking steps to install a full-time civil liberties and privacy officer following NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s leaks about the agency’s surveillance practices.
The NSA spokeswoman confirmed that the appointee would start in the new role next month. Additional details would become available today, she said.
Boing Boing gets ominous for the Fourth Estate:
US intel chief James Clapper: journalists reporting on leaked Snowden NSA docs “accomplices” to crime
In a Senate Judiciary Hearing on NSA surveillance today, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper insinuated dozens of journalists reporting on documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden were “accomplices” to a crime. His spokesman further suggested Clapper was referring to journalists after the hearing had concluded.
If this is the official stance of the US government, it is downright chilling.
Clapper is engaged in the same treatment of journalists that the Justice Department allegedly repudiated just months ago.
Wired gets legal:
Terror Defendant Challenges Evidence Gathered by NSA Spying
A U.S. terrorism defendant who was formally notified that he was spied on by the NSA filed a challenge to the constitutionality of the surveillance today, in a case likely to be litigated all the way to the Supreme Court.
Jamshid Muhtorov, a native of Uzbekistan who immigrated to Colorado, is one of only two criminal defendants the government has conceded was charged on the basis of evidence scooped up by the NSA’s surveillance programs. The spying was authorized by the controversial FISA Amendments Act.
The Supreme Court last year rejected a suit challenging the law because the civil rights groups and others who brought the case could not prove their communications were intercepted, and hence didn’t have “standing” to sue. That issue won’t come up for Muhtorov, says the Americans Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Muhtorov.
“For five years the government insulated this statute from judicial review by concealing from criminal defendants how the evidence against them was obtained,” says Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU’s Colorado chapter. “But the government will not be able to shield the statute from review in this case.”
From The Guardian, Trans-Atlantic ornamental blowback:
Angela Merkel warns US over surveillance in first speech of third term
‘A programme in which the end justifies all means … violates trust,’ German chancellor says
Angela Merkel has used the first, agenda-setting speech of her third term in office to criticise America’s uncompromising defence of its surveillance activities.
In a speech otherwise typically short of strong emotion or rhetorical flourishes, the German chancellor found relatively strong words on NSA surveillance, two days before the US secretary of state, John Kerry, is due to visit Berlin.
“A programme in which the end justifies all means, in which everything that is technically possible is then acted out, violates trust and spreads mistrust,” she said. “In the end, it produces not more but less security.”
Network World offers the symbolic:
Hackers deface Angry Birds website following NSA spying claims
The hackers placed an image with the message ‘Spying Birds’ on the site’s home page
The official Angry Birds website was defaced by hackers following reports that U.S. and U.K. intelligence agencies have been collecting user information from the game and other popular mobile apps.
Some users trying to access the http://www.angrybirds.com website late Tuesday were greeted by an image depicting the Angry Birds game characters accompanied by the text “Spying Birds.” The U.S. National Security Agency’s logo was also visible in the image.
The NSA and Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have been working together to collect geolocation data, address books, buddy lists, telephone logs and other pieces of information from “leaky” mobile apps, The New York Times reported Monday based on documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
From the Washington Post, cause for real insecurity:
Officials: 92 Air Force officers involved in test cheating scandal
At least 92 Air Force officers assigned to the nation’s nuclear arsenal have been implicated in a proficiency test cheating scandal and temporarily relieved of their duties, officials said Thursday, announcing they had temporarily taken out of commission nearly one-fifth of the nuclear force.
The widening scandal, which came to light after a probe into alleged drug use by nuclear operators, has exposed systemic integrity lapses in one of the Pentagon’s most critical, albeit largely unseen, missions.
The 92 personnel who were decertified are based at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. Officers at the base oversee 150 Minuteman 3 nuclear missiles, one-third of the nation’s Minuteman 3 arsenal. The base is one of three where America’s 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles are kept. Officials on Thursday did not say whether they are reviewing the possibility that cheating has been commonplace at the other facilities.
RT strikes a trans-English Channel drone deal:
Entente Lethal: Britain, France to sign military drone development deal
Britain and France are set to develop a new generation of armed drones which will free them of their dependence on US-manufactured unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
President François Hollande will arrive in Britain on Friday for a summit with David Cameron at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. The two leaders, flanked by their foreign, defense, and energy ministers, are set to ink multiple deals for developing combat drones, missile systems and submarines. There are also plans to establish a joint expeditionary force which will be applicable for a wide range of scenarios, including high intensity operations.
Friday’s summit stems from the Lancaster House Treaties of 2010, in which Cameron and then-French President Nickolas Sarkozy agreed on a raft of measures in defense and security cooperation.
And from intelNews.org, the old school method:
Israel jails Orthodox Jew who offered to spy for Iran
An Israeli citizen, who belongs to an Orthodox anti-Zionist Jewish group that rejects the existence of the state of Israel, has been jailed for offering to spy for Iran. Yitzhak Bergel, 46, a father of eight, who resides in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Mea She’arim neighborhood, is a member of the Neturei Karta —which translates in English as “Guardians of the City”.
The Jewish group opposes Zionism —the belief that a state-sanctioned Jewish homeland ought to be created in the territory described as “Land of Israel” in Jewish scriptural texts. The group, which was founded in the 1930s and has thousands of adherents in Israel, the United States and Europe, is one of several branches of conservative Judaism whose members believe that Jews are forbidden by the Torah to create their own state before the coming of the Jewish Messiah.
After the jump, the escalating Asian zonal and historic crises, a Chinese web crackdown, journalism under siege on four continents, some newpaper hackery in Old Blighty, and more. . .
Our first Asian headline from NHK WORLD covers an ominous escalation in the creation of the new Japanese national security state:
Abe: New rules eyed to relax weapons export ban
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says his government will relax Japan’s decades-old arms export ban and replace it with a new set of rules.
Abe was answering a question in the House of Councilors on Thursday about the government’s plan to revise the arms export ban.
The question was asked by Natsuo Yamaguchi, the leader of New Komeito, the coalition partner of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. Yamaguchi suggested the government should uphold the philosophy of a peaceful nation when revising the arms export ban.
And other armaments anxiety from the Japan Times:
We’re losing time’: Pentagon weapons buyer
China threatens U.S. military’s tech edge: official
China poses an increasing challenge to the U.S. military’s technological edge while budget pressures are hampering Washington’s effort to stay ahead, a senior defense official warned Tuesday.
Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, told U.S. lawmakers that when it comes to “technological superiority, the Department of Defense is being challenged in ways that I have not seen for decades, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.”
Citing China’s major investments in anti-ship missiles, stealth fighter jets, hypersonic vehicles and other high-tech weaponry, Kendall said the United States could lose its dominant position if it failed to respond to the altered strategic landscape.
From the Japan Daily Press, now for a word from their sponsor:
Japan commended by U.S. intel official for passing secrecy law
A high-level intelligence official from the United States lauded Japan for passing the controversial state secrecy law last year. James Clapper, director of national intelligence said that the law would spur the US to share more classified information with Japan, which it deems one of its closest allies, given their so-called Asian pivot.
Japan’s secrecy law, which was passed last December 13, will hand out a harsher punishment for those who violate the law and share information which are considered classified by the government. Some have protested the law, as they believe that the lack of definition of what would be classified as state secrets will leave the information subject to the officials’ decision. Many fear also that it would violate the public’s right to know. But Clapper praised the Japanese for “emerging as great intelligence partners, and this extends to the prime minister.” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a previous statement, maintained that the secrecy law is vital for Japan, which looks to exchange sensitive information with other countries to counter various security threats.
Not a-Biden with Jiji Press:
Abe Rejected Biden Request over Yasukuni Shrine
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last month rejected a request by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that he cautiously consider a visit to Yasukuni Shrine, Japanese government sources said Wednesday.
The request was made during telephone talks between Abe and Biden on Dec. 12, about two weeks before the Japanese prime minister visited the controversial war shrine in Tokyo.
On Dec. 10, Kurt Tong, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo, relayed Washington’s concerns about Abe’s possible visit to the shrine to aides to the prime minister.
Takin’ it to a higher venue with BBC News:
Asia history tensions flare at UN debate
Tensions between Japan and its neighbours over historical issues have flared at the UN Security Council, with strong words from top envoys.
Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi said the Japanese prime minister’s recent visit to the controversial Yasukuni shrine had “closed the door to dialogue”.
South Korea’s envoy, meanwhile, accused Japan of having a “distorted view” of history.
The Mainichi spots blowback:
Abe’s remarks on WWI parallels in Davos cause ripples overseas
The remarks Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made to journalists at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week in comparing the ongoing tensions between Japan and China to the relationship between Britain and Germany in the years before World War I have caused controversy abroad.
The prime minister’s office argues that Abe’s remarks were distorted when reported by some foreign media because of an inaccurate translation by a simultaneous interpreter. But the foreign media say that the problem lies in the very fact that the prime minister cited as an example the relationship between Britain and Germany that eventually fought in World War I.
And from the Japan Daily Press, the latest defense of forced prostitution:
Osaka Mayor Hashimoto defends NHK head’s statement about ‘comfort women’
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto knows first hand how it is to be under fire for comments made about “comfort women,” or those who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. So it comes as no surprise that he is out to defend embattled new NHK chairman Katsuto Momii, who has courted controversy over his own expressed opinion about the sensitive topic.
“It’s not a problem that the head (of NHK) made such a comment. All countries did similar things and have unfortunate histories regarding war and sex,” Hashimoto said. He also says that the logic behind Momii’s argument is “sound” and has been trumpeted by other politicians like himself for some time now. While the NHK chair has publicly expressed regret over his comments and said they were “extremely inappropriate,” the public outcry over the statement has not died down. The public broadcaster has been reportedly inundated with over 1,000 critical comments over the incident, and some South Korean politicians calling for his resignation.
Still more from the Asahi Shimbun:
Lawmaker defends ‘comfort women’ remark, cites sex industries in S. Korea, China
An opposition lawmaker cited the sex industries in South Korea and China in defending the recent remarks about “comfort women” by the new chairman of Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK).
“Fifty thousand South Korean women are working in the sex industry now. That’s what (the South Korean government) has said unambiguously,” sources quoted Masashi Nakano as saying Jan. 29. “In China, you are asked for a ‘takeout’ for $100 or $200. (I don’t understand) why they continue to bring up things about Japan before the war.”
Nakano, a member of the Japan Restoration Party, made the remarks during a closed-door meeting of Diet affairs committee leaders representing the Upper House caucuses of seven opposition parties.
NHK WORLD encourages:
Experts urge more dialogue between Japan and China
A group of experts from Japan and China is urging their governments to take steps to avoid unintended clashes near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
The 18-member panel spoke to reporters on Monday. Since last August, the group has held 3 rounds of talks in Tokyo and Beijing to devise ways of preventing clashes between the maritime authorities of the 2 nations.
The panel says both sides need to acknowledge that their interpretations of international law are different. They also suggest that a hotline be set up to enable emergency contact between Japanese and Chinese vessels navigating near the islands.
Professor Zhu Feng of Peking University School of International Studies says the group analyzed ways of looking at the situation in a practical and rational manner in order to settle problems. He also says the 2 sides must engage in active dialogue to avoid a crisis.
Jiro Hanyu, the chairman of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, reports that the panel members acknowledged their differences and discussed how to ensure the safety of navigation. He says the group is considering whether to submit formal proposals to the 2 governments.
The Global Times gets studious:
China backs study on Japan’s aggression history
China supports the Republic of Korea (ROK)’s decision to push for a joint international study on Japan’s aggression history, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday.
The ROK plan is for a joint study with China and Southeast Asian nations on Japan’s invasion during World War II (WWII). The proposal is in response to frequent provocations from Japan.
“We are willing to keep in touch with all victim countries in Asia, to safeguard historical justice and the conscience of mankind, as well as protect the post-war international order,” Hua told a daily news briefing.
China and the ROK advocate that Japan has to face up to and reflect on its history, admit and correct its mistakes to gain trust from neighbors and the international community, Hua said.
Takin’ it online with the Japan Daily Press:
Japanese government creates website for the country’s disputed territories
Japan is clearly hedging up its claims to sovereignty, especially in the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, and the Takeshima Islets in the Sea of Japan. The Japanese government has apparently launched a website where it discusses what it claims as pertinent and comprehensive information about Japan’s claims on these territories, which are disputed respectively by China and South Korea. This information campaign seems to be the latest effort of the government in making clear its territorial claims, not unlike the controversial move to add this information to high school textbooks.
The new website includes information on Japan’s claims, especially in light of international law, as well as efforts made by government organs to protect the territories. As of the moment, the site is rendered in the Japanese language only, but the Japanese authorities also plan to launch an English-language version of the website next month. This really aims to strengthen Japan’s capacity to communicate with the rest of the world, and of course, not to lose out to China and South Korea in terms of public relations strategies.
The Japan Times goes under:
MSDF admits losing submersible in Tsugaru Strait
The Maritime Self-Defense Force admitted Wednesday that it lost a $5 million unmanned submersible during a seabed study last year, with a nine-day search of the ocean floor yielding nothing.
The MSDF said it did not disclose the incident earlier because it judged there would be no impact on the environment.
According to the MSDF, the submersible, equipped with a camera and other functions, was being remotely controlled from its ocean research ship, the Nichinan, around 2 p.m. on Nov. 30 in the Tsugaru Strait between Aomori and Hokkaido when the cables connecting the device with the vessel broke.
“The vehicle was being used to survey the underwater terrain as well as water currents and temperatures,” an official at the Defense Ministry explained.
NHK WORLD crosses the line:
3 Chinese patrol boats enter Japanese waters
The Japan Coast Guard says 3 Chinese patrol boats entered Japan’s territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands, in Okinawa Prefecture, in the East China Sea, for about 2 hours on Monday.
The coast guard says the 3 vessels entered Japanese waters off Uotsuri Island around 9 AM on Monday. The 3 ships had been circling the islands since having been spotted last Thursday in the contiguous zone.
This is the second time official Chinese ships have entered Japan’s territorial waters this year. The first one occurred on January 12th.
SINA English takes it to school:
S.Korea summons Japan envoy over revision of teaching manuals
South Korea called in the Japanese ambassador to Seoul on Tuesday to lodge a formal protest over school teaching manual revisions bolstering Tokyo’s claim to a set of disputed tiny islets.
In a separate statement, the foreign ministry threatened unspecified “reciprocal countermeasures” if the revisions are not withdrawn immediately.
The Dokdo islands, known as Takeshima in Japan, are controlled by South Korea but claimed by both countries. The Japanese education ministry has instructed teachers in junior and senior high schools to use amended manuals stating that the islands belong unequivocally to Japan.
SINA English refutes another line-crossing:
Malaysia navy chief denies Chinese incursion
Malaysia’s navy chief has denied a report that three Chinese navy ships patrolled an area claimed by the Southeast Asian country, saying the Chinese exercise took place hundreds of miles to the north in international waters.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that an amphibious landing craft and two destroyers patrolled islets 50 miles off the coast of Malaysia’s Sarawak state, and held a ceremony in which they swore to safeguard Chinese sovereignty.
Royal Malaysian Navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar, in comments published by the New Straits Times on Wednesday, said the Chinese exercise, involving its newly commissioned aircraft carrier and a submarine, took place 1,000 nautical miles away from Malaysia’s 200 nautical mile economic exclusion zone.
Another country, another spat from South China Morning Post:
Hong Kong cancels visa-free privileges for Philippines officials and diplomats
Government cancels diplomatic passport privileges in retaliation for Manila’s failure to meet demands over 2010 tourist bloodbath
Hong Kong will cancel visa-free arrangements for Philippine official and diplomatic passport holders in its first sanctions against a foreign state.
The measure, imposed in retaliation for the country’s failure to respond all of the city’s demands after the 2010 Manila hostage bloodbath, takes effect on Wednesday.
While Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said it came after discussions between the two governments this week bore no fruit, international-relations experts said the cancellation could be related to tension between Beijing and Manila over the South China Sea.
Web crackdown from the London Telegraph:
China kills off discussion on Weibo after internet crackdown
Exclusive: An aggressive crackdown on Sina Weibo has seen numbers of postings on the Twitter-like microblogging site plummet according to research commissioned by the Telegraph
China has succeeded in neutering the country’s most free-flowing and important source of news and opinion according to new research which shows a dramatic drop in activity on the online phenomenon Sina Weibo.
Research commissioned by the Telegraph shows that the number of posts on the hugely successful Twitter-like microblog may have fallen by as much as 70 per cent in the wake of an aggressive campaign by the Communist party to intimidate influential users.
Once an incalculably important public space for news and opinion – a fast-flowing river of information that censors struggled to contain – it has arguably now been reduced to a wasteland of celebrity endorsements, government propaganda and corporate jingles.
MercoPress sounds a warning:
Ecuador readies witch hunt against certain journalists, claims NGO Fundamedios
Ecuadorean non-governmental organization Fundamedios claimed that President Rafael Correa is trying to stop it from operating normally after the government announced that the “administrative control” of the NGO would be transferred to the national Communications Secretariat.
Fundamedios has frequently criticized the government for restricting freedom of press in the country and is integrated by several well-known journalists and receives funding from US government agencies.
On Tuesday NGO’s director César Ricaurte gave a press conference in which he showed documents sent by the Communications Secretariat and said that he was informed that Fundamedios “would be put under the administrative control of its main aggressor, the state’s institution (the Communications Secretariat) that has designed, produced and ordered huge propaganda campaigns against many Ecuadorean journalists and the institutions they defend, with Fundamedios among them.”
Another crackdown from News Corp Australia:
ABC Asian broadcasting service may be axed
THE Abbott government could axe the ABC’s Australia Network Asian broadcasting service in the May budget.
Cabinet has discussed ending the public broadcaster’s contract to provide Australian news and entertainment to the region, The Australian reports.
The network provides television services across the Asia-Pacific region, but also is used as a vehicle for “soft diplomacy’‘ – building goodwill overseas through news and entertainment.
But the newspaper reported that cabinet ministers believe the ABC’s coverage of Australia in the region is overly negative and fails to promote the nation as originally intended in the Australia Network’s charter.
The Guardian protests:
New York Times journalist forced to leave China after visa row
Austin Ramzy is third of newspaper’s staff not to get journalist visa since it ran story on wealth of former premier’s family
A New York Times correspondent will be forced to leave China on Thursday because Beijing has not issued him a visa, despite pressure from the US vice-president over the handling of American media.
Austin Ramzy, who has reported from the country for six years, is the third of the paper’s staff not to receive a resident journalist visa since it ran a story on the wealth of the former premier Wen Jiabao’s family in 2012.
“It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the authorities are punishing the New York Times [for the reports] … Such behaviour falls well short of international standards,” the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) said in a statement strongly regretting Ramzy’s departure.
More from Reuters:
White House protests China’s treatment of foreign journalists
The White House on Thursday sharply criticized China’s treatment of foreign journalists and noted specifically the case of a New York Times reporter whose visa was not extended.
In a statement, White House spokesman Jay Carney said foreign journalists faced impediments to their ability to do their jobs. Such conditions include extended delays in processing journalist visas, restrictions on travel to some locations deemed “sensitive” by Chinese authorities, and sometimes even violence from local officials.
“These restrictions and treatment are not consistent with freedom of the press and stand in stark contrast with U.S. treatment of Chinese and other foreign journalists,” Carney said.
Another crackdown from The Guardian:
Egypt to charge al-Jazeera journalists with damaging country’s reputation
Rights groups says move to indict 20 employees of news channel marks escalation in state’s campaign against foreign media
Egyptian prosecutors say they will charge 20 al-Jazeera journalists, including two Britons, an Australian and a Dutch citizen, with fabricating news and tarnishing Egypt’s reputation abroad. The 16 local defendants are also accused of belonging to former president Mohamed Morsi’s now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.
The journalists include the Australian former BBC correspondent Peter Greste, and the al-Jazeera’s Canadian-Egyptian bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy, who has worked for CNN and the New York Times. The identities of the other defendants, including the two Britons, are not stated, and some of them are understood to have been accused in absentia.
In a statement, prosecutors said the defendants aimed “to weaken the state’s status, harming the national interest of the country, disturbing public security, instilling fear among the people, causing damage to the public interest, and possession of communication, filming, broadcast, video transmission without permit from the concerned authorities”.
The Verge covers another kind of censorship:
US government blocks students in Iran, Cuba, and Sudan from taking free online classes
Coursera, one of the leading providers of massive open online courses (MOOCs) has cut off access for students in Iran, Cuba, and Sudan after learning that it was in violation of US trade sanctions.
The interpretation of export control regulations for MOOCs has been unclear until now, Coursera says, and the startup believed the classes would not be restricted. That changed when executives were informed that the service was in fact noncompliant with the law.
At first, Coursera also cut off students in Syria. Access was restored there after the company found out that it falls under an exemption for nongovernmental organizations.
“The number of students who lost access is less than 2,000″
“Since last week, we’ve unfortunately had to block logins from 2,000 IP addresses in US sanctioned countries, although we’re happy to report that Syrian students have now regained access,” Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng says in an email. “This is an extremely important issue to us, and we’re doing all we can, in partnership with the State Department, to free up learning to students everywhere.”
And for our final item, CNN covers MSM hacking:
Even ‘office cat’ knew about hacking, ex-journalist testifies
Even “the office cat” knew about phone hacking at News of the World, a former journalist at the tabloid insisted in court Wednesday, testifying that his phone hacking skills were the main reason former Editor Andy Coulson hired him.
“Coulson knew it,” said Dan Evans, who confessed on the stand this week to hacking into actor Daniel Craig’s voice mail and finding out that actress Sienna Miller was having an affair with the James Bond star. She was seeing actor Jude Law at the time.
Coulson, who became British Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman after resigning from the tabloid over an earlier hacking scandal, is one of seven people on trial accused of phone hacking and related crimes in London. He denies the charges.
