The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has moved quickly to connect with and help Haitian journalists impacted by the recent earthquake there.

CPJ has responded with direct assistance for basic daily needs to “get them on their feet again”, according to the organization.

CPJ’s Journalist Assistance program is cooperating with Jean Roland Chery. He is a reporter for Radio Haiti-Inter who lives in New York, but maintains an outstanding network of contacts on the ground in Haiti. Through Chery, the CPJ has been able to develop a network of on-the-ground contacts to reach journalists, see what they need, and find out whether partnering with local organizations is possible.

Chery’s blog about Signal FM tells about the only Haitian radio station to have broadcast continuously before and after the Jan. 12 earthquake.

The organization is also in touch with Guylar Delva, Haiti’s leading press freedom advocate, and head of SOS Journalistes, which protects local reporters and promotes professional journalism.

You can read about his experience in the earthquake on the CPJ Blog.

THE FULL REPORT CAN BE READ HERE

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and other members of an international solidarity mission that investigated the November 23 massacre of 57 people in the southern Philippines is saying that Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her government must take all necessary measures to provide local media with protection ahead of upcoming elections.

32 journalists and media workers were among those killed.

“The massacre underlines the terrible dangers that Filipino journalists face. It also highlights the inability and unwillingness of the State to ensure the protection and safety of journalists who are seeking to perform their duties,” the mission members say in their report, Massacre in the Philippines: International Solidarity Mission Rapid Assessment, released today.

In a newsletter also sent out today, the IFJ said that the mission conducted its investigations in the Philippines from December 5 to 10 in association with the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), an affiliate of the IFJ. The team included representatives from leading journalists’ rights and press freedom organizations, including the IFJ, Indonesia’s Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), International Media Support (IMS), International News Safety Institute (INSI), the Institute for Studies on the Free Flow of Information (ISAI), Australia’s Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance, the Southeast Asia Press Alliance (SEAPA), the Thai Journalists’ Association (TJA), and Union Network International (UNI).

“Power-holders in the Philippines must act urgently on all the recommendations of the mission’s report to reverse once and for all the country’s shameful culture of impunity for the murders of journalists, tragically underscored on November 23,” IFJ General Secretary Aidan White stated in the release.

As the mission report went to press, the toll of media personnel killed in the massacre was revised up to 32, as it was confirmed that Saksi News photographer Jepon Cadagdagon was among the victims in Maguindanao province, Mindanao. The toll of 32 media personnel includes 31 whose bodies were recovered, as well as Reynaldo”Bebot” Momay who remains missing.

The mission team says that it holds grave concerns for the safety of Filipino journalists as the investigation and prosecution of the accused take place in a tense environment ahead of national and presidential elections due on May 10.

“This massacre, coming at the very beginning of the 2010 election process, not only undermines that process but has dealt a cruel blow to democracy and free media in the Philippines,” the mission members say in the report.

The groups are calling on the government to ensure media is able to report fairly and freely on the election campaign without undue risk. They are also stressing concerns about judicial and forensic processes in view of the political ties between the Arroyo administration and the Ampatuan family in Mindanao.

At least 100 gunmen are believed to have been involved in the massacre, but Andal Ampatuan Jr, the son of the clan patriarch, is the only person to be charged and brought before a court because of his direct connection, and he has pleaded not guilty.

Among other significant concerns highlighted in the report is the role of Major General Alfredo Cayton, the Commander of the 6th Infantry Division in Maguindinao at the time of the massacre.

Cayton, who denied requests for a military escort to accompany the convoy that was attacked on November 23, was stood down immediately after the massacre. He has since been promoted to Vice Commander of the Philippine Army.

The mission is calling for an investigation into reports that several members of the Philippine National Police were involved in the massacre.

The mission, which Arroyo declined to meet, further recommends:

• ­The Government and local authorities must undertake all necessary measures to fully investigate the massacre and to ensure all evidence is properly preserved and available.

• ­The Government and local authorities must provide all necessary measures for the protection and safety of witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, lawyers and judges.

• ­    Families must be provided with legal support to pursue the prosecution of perpetrators.

• ­ Observers and human rights groups must have full open access to legal proceedings.

• ­ The Government is urged not to reimpose martial law ahead of the May 10 elections.

The mission report will be officially released in the Philippines today at the launch of an organization of families of journalists killed in the massacre, Justice NOW! The NUJP and Justice NOW! will conduct a press conference in Koronadal City, South Cotabato, where many of the families live.

In Quezon City, the November 23 Movement, which has been convened by the NUJP, will hold a candlelight vigil, among other activities to mark two months since the massacre.

THE FULL REPORT CAN BE READ HERE

*Note: The contents of this blog posting are portions of a newsletter/press release distributed by the International Federation of Journalists*

Impoverished Ethiopians search a city trash dump site for food and items that they can sell or barter in the capital city of Addis Ababa. (photo by Zoriah, www.zoriah.com)

Zoriah Miller, who publishes photographs of the name Zoriah, is an award-winning independent journalist who travels the globe, photographing and telling stories about the people and places he sees. The insight of the lone journalist, not tied to, bound–or protected–by major media interests, provides valuable insight.

From one of Zoriah’s recent blog postings about his time in Ethiopia:

“I am in Ethiopia working on several projects, including one on the lives of the impoverished people of this country. The government goes to great lengths to keep stories like these from being told, including arresting journalists, spying on photographers, etc. What is life without a few challenges right? I do feel it is important to capture such issues and bring them to light, especially when there has been little captured here in these regards. Assuming I don’t “disappear” over here, I hope to bring you more images on these subjects soon.”

A virtual wall created for Twitter users to express their thoughts and hopes on the 20 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has been blocked in China.

The “Berlin Twitter Wall,” as it’s called, is an initiative of KulturProjekte Berli, a not-for-profit organization that promotes networking and mediation of art and culture.

Launched on October 20, according to the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the virtual wall was blocked by Chinese authorities after almost 2,000 Chinese Internet users left Twitter messages there.The wall currently has just over 4,000 tweets posted on it, mostly in Chinese.

“Chinese Internet users must not be prevented from accessing the Berlin Twitter Wall,” said Reporters Without Borders in a statement released this morning.  “Initiatives like these are important platforms for the promotion of freedom of speech as well as for critical voices and protest.”

RSF added that many foreign news outlets and social-networking sites remain inaccessible to Chinese users.

Twitter account holders can post comments that appear automatically on the berlintwitterwall.com site by using the hashtag #fotw (fall of the wall) .

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) will release their annual Press Freedom Index tomorrow. The report ranks 174 different countries by their committment to press freedom. The Annual World Press Freedom Index for 2009 will include details on progress made by the U.S., alongside a number of high-profile journalist kidnappings.

RSF will hold a press conference at the Overseas Press Club to go over details of the report and what it calls “the precarious situation for journalists covering sensitive and often censored issues by governments.”

During the press conference, RSF will also look at how journalists maintain their safety while detained, some circumstances surrounding arrests, the role of the journalist as “neutral” observer, ethical dilemmas in getting the underreported story and the changing landscape of media in the new online social media age.

Clothilde Le Coz, Reporters Without Borders’ Washington Director,
will present the main findings from the 2009 INDEX

John R. MacArthur, president and publisher of Harper’s Magazine, Moderator

Guest speakers will include:
A video of Euna Lee
Producer for Current TV and held in North Korea in 2009
Angela Korchega
Reporter at the US-Mexico border
Ali Alnaemi
Former newsroom manager for the New York Times bureau in Baghdad
John Solomon
Executive editor of The Washington Times

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Press Freedom Worldwide

Launch of the

Reporters Without Borders’
ANNUAL WORLDWIDE PRESS FREEDOM INDEX 2009

Time: 11am – 1 pm
Location: Overseas Press Club
40 West 45 Street - New York, NY 10036

According to confirmed reports from Newsweek, their own reporter and filmmaker, Maziar Bahari, has been released from Iran. Mr. Bahari, who was detained in Iran since the June elections, was released from Evin Prison on bail on Oct. 17.

Read the Newsweek online article about Bahari’s release here

The 42 year-old reporter is expecting his first child later this month, and his mother is in poor health. Newsweek speculated he was released on “humanitarian” reasons.

In a statement on Bahari’s release, the magazine said:

“We are relieved that NEWSWEEK journalist Maziar Bahari is home with his family today. We would like to thank all of those who supported Maziar through this long and uncertain period.”

Not to be missed on tonight’s Frontline–the newest from correspondent Martin Smith and RAINmedia on the war in Afghanistan. “Obama’s War” airs on Frontline on Tuesday, October 13 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings).

According to RAINmedia:

“Three years ago, a small cadre of US army officers huddled at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to re-write the service’s long-neglected counterinsurgency manual. Under the direction of General David Petraeus, the effort brought the battle for “hearts and minds” to the forefront of American strategic thinking. First tested in Iraq, the new approach is now being rolled out in Afghanistan on a grand scale. The stakes are huge for both sides. And the war promises to be longer and harder than most Americans understand. FRONTLINE investigates the fight on the ground and in Washington.”

For a preview of “Obama’s War”, click here.

In a country that has seen years of war and experienced a painful shift to democracy, it’s heartening to know that some of the people are using their voices to call for justice for the free press.

Articles from several major media organizations show photographs of the peaceful protest.

Iraqi civil society protests for greater press freedom. (source: AFP)

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a protest of “hundreds of journalists, academics, performers, politicians and ordinary Iraqis” took place earlier today in Baghdad’s for journalist Ahmed Abd Al-Hussein of the newspaper Al-Sabah. RSF says he’s been the target of death threats from a Shiite political party.

The protest was organized by the Journalistic Freedom Observatory and covered by local and international media. The organization, according to its website:

“We are a group of journalists and media men bearing the responsibility of monitoring all kinds and reasons of the violations against the journalists and media men, and taking all possible measures to confront the reasons of those violations not only through the statements of denouncement, but through taking constants steps to stop those violations through commissioning lawyers and legal men to pursue the violations and to sue the violators regardless of their ranks or positions, even though, we can sue them to the international courts. The JFO will follow up the violations through its wide network of observers on the countrywide.”

RSF said that a statement issued at the end of the demonstration called for:

• Respect for the Iraqi constitution, especially article 38 concerning freedom of thought and expression
• Abolition of censorship of print and online media
• Respect for journalists doing their work and a ban on violence against journalists by the security forces and by all kinds of security services.

Read the 11 June release about the threats against Ahmed Abd Al-Hussein from RSF here.

A new multimedia report worth taking the time to look at is GlobalPost’s “Life, Death, and the Taliban”, now on GlobalPost’s website.

“It’s an ambitious multimedia project that brings together a team of writers, photographers and videographers reporting from on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan as the battle against the Taliban heats up on all fronts and the Afghan election looms next week amid increased violence,” says Charles Sennott, GlobalPost founder and executive director.

Sennott returned to Pakistan and Afghanistan to work with Jean MacKenzie in Kabul and Shahan Mufti in Islamabad to find what he calls the “groundtruth” about America’s misunderstood enemy, the Taliban.

Visitors to GlobalPost’s website can join the conversation about this important issue by posting a comment.

You can  also hear Sennott talk about the project and his recent trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan on NPR.

One American woman’s personal battle to turn back the tide on the Taliban

Sonia Nassery Cole visits the Children's Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Iqbal Ahmad)

Sonia Nassery Cole commands a room no matter what the size, and it’s for a good cause.

Cole, who has both Afghan and American citizenship, is founder and CEO of the Afghanistan World Foundation (AWF). The non-profit organization works to assist the humanitarian needs of Afghans and rebuild their country. AWF was founded in the wake of 9/11 in 2002, but its roots go back to the 1980s when Cole became a vocal advocate for her home country. She started by writing a letter to then-President Ronald Reagan to ask for his help.

“I never dreamed that he wouldn’t answer my letter,” says Ms. Cole, recalling her first step into what has become a lifetime of advocating on behalf of those who have no voice.

But Reagan did respond, and invited the young refugee to the White House. She organized congressional testimony to arm legendary Afghan rebel commander Ahmad Massoud and his Northern Alliance Freedom Fighters. Massoud, who was later assassinated, was nicknamed the lion of Afghanistan. He called Cole his “lioness” for her work and spirit on behalf of their country. It’s a nickname she has lived up to, and then some.

Cole is as unfailingly polite as she is incomparably passionate about rebuilding Afghanistan from decades of war and the poison grip of the Taliban. And she knows how to be genuinely charming when describing deadly serious situations.

Case in point was a recent screening and presentation in New York City of a documentary she produced about an 8 year-old Afghan boy who is the sole income-earner in his family, called “The Bread Winner”. Cole surprised the audience by stepping out from behind the podium to give a heartfelt explanation of the story behind the making of the documentary.

But if Ms. Cole has mastered the art of charming an audience, she also knows how to keep the focus on the urgent situation in Afghanistan.

“The country is falling apart because of the Taliban,” said Ms. Cole during the presentation.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE