The Lahore High Court has ordered that several websites, including Google, Yahoo, Amazon and YouTube should be blocked by the government. The move came after the court found that the sites carried and promoted “blasphemous” material .
Earlier this year, Pakistan blocked Facebook in protest against the “Let’s Draw Mohammed Day” group that appeared on the social networking site.
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Serbian broadcaster B92 serves as an example of the vitality and evolution of radio.
This is exactly why today it is under siege.
As a leading investigative journalist in Serbia, B92’s Brankica Stanković has been under heavy police protection since December last year, due to threats from neofascist criminal groups masquerading as sports fans.
They have been terrorising the country for years, but first made their notorious reputation as members of paramilitary formations during the outbreak of war in the Balkans in the nineties.
A greater problem, however, are the “big shots! who have been exposed in recent years by this courageous woman on her show Insider, a B92 series of investigative journalism akin to MacIntyre’s hard-hitting UK investigations.
For over two years, the B92 building has been under permanent police protection to guard against possible attackers who appear to have issues with B92’s unbiased, professional and in-depth coverage of controversial issues affecting Serbian society.
B92 representatives frequently go to court to answer accusations in libel cases levelled against the broadcaster by criminals exposed by our investigative journalism.
Our radio network has brought about the creation of a network of independent TV stations; it has forged ahead with Internet convergence and spawned a network of networks involving non-governmental institutions and free-speech movements.
One important member of the B92 family, originating from Radio B92’s PSA campaigns and socially responsible initiatives, is the B92 Fund.
Some of the most successful projects of the B92 Fund include: campaigns promoting breast cancer prevention, including the purchase last year of a mobile digital mammograph thanks to donations by B92 partners; the construction of 4 safe houses in Serbia for victims of family violence, and Food for All — the collection of food for soup kitchens and donations to open new soup kitchens to alleviate the impact of the financial crisis.
B92 is innovative in using social networks and citizen journalism. When combined with the experience, mettle and audacity of B92 journalists acquired during the Balkan wars under Milošević’s totalitarian regime, this yields quality both in mainstream and new media programme content.
Next year, the production basis for all B92 media outlets, particularly B92 Radio and TV B92, will be the multimedia web platform. B92 has always made every effort to remain one step ahead of the media crowd, relying on fresh ideas and an innovative approach to broadcast operations.
B92 has been hit particularly hard by the crisis, which is further compounded by a growing reluctance on the part of media-buying agencies and clients representing local tycoons to advertise on B92 in retaliation for the investigative shows that expose their shady dealings.
Neither investigative journalism nor socially responsible programmes can compete with light entertainment or reality shows in generating audience ratings and market share. Advertising agencies, therefore, show far less interest in such content.
Other countries of the Balkans have similar media companies, which is why we have turned recently to European institutions for assistance.
For over two years we have been calling on the international community to show solidarity with media that are crucial for the development of civil society in their respective countries.
The idea would be to set up a loan fund which would grant favourable loans to broadcasters and print media in the region in order to help them survive the crisis and continue performing their key role as public interest watchdogs.
Unfortunately, it is the tendency of the international community not to recognise a problem until after its escalation, i.e. the point at which it becomes much harder to make a difference.
In the case of independent media, this might well spell disaster.
Not only did such media outlive the criminal and totalitarian regimes, but they made crucial contributions to the overthrow of such regimes and to halting the brutal wars of the nineties. Their survival is key to European integration and to the democratisation of the Balkans. The fate of these societies depends on the fate of such media.
Veran Matic is president of the board of directors of B92
For more on B92, get Radio Redux, the new issue of Index on Censorship, out now
Solicitor Mark Lewis has issued a libel writ against the Press Complaints Commission.
Lewis, a highly-regarded defamation lawyer, claims the PCC libelled him, after evidence he gave to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee concerning the News of the World phonetapping scandal was allegedly disputed by senior members of the Commission.
Read more here
So, not to pretend to be one of those girls who likes football, I hate it. Stupid, boring, annoying football where the scoreline can be exactly the same at the end as it was at the start and people can then describe that as “a good game”. And stupid world-cup football is my least favourite kind, walking its weird patriotism/xenophobia tightrope. I know it’s my hang-up, but when I was a child, England flags were scary. Even Union flags were scary — they mean fascism, skinheads, and aggression. And although I am glad that the flags have been rehabilitated and now sit perkily on windows and dog-collars (actual dog collars. Not the ones vicars wear), they still give me the slight heebs.
But mainly, I resent the disruption to my routine. I like a routine above all things. And in the list of things I dislike above all things, change (of almost any kind) is right up there. So when the BBC abandon the 1 o’clock news to show a football match, I feel a bit like Director General Mark Thompson has come round to my house, punched me in the face, moved my things around and then fucked off. And I don’t like it. Sure, I can watch it on News 24 (which I persist in calling News 24, even though the BBC treacherously changed its name some time ago), but it isn’t the same. Louisa Preston doesn’t come on and do the local news. Peter Cockroft doesn’t appear with my local weather. I hate that.
And I thought my irritation with the BBC’s crush on the World Cup had reached its pinnacle last week, with the vuvuzela story. They ran a piece for five minutes on the 6 o’clock news about the racket these horns make. A racket which apparently makes it impossible for our brave fans to sing their chants. This news story could be distilled into precisely one sentence: People making annoying noise prevent other people from making different annoying noise.
The catchphrase of this world cup, at least in my house is, “That’s not news!” It’s yelled with some fury at the television, so I guess I do have something in common with football fans after all.
But now the BBC has genuinely raised its annoying-ness game, running a piece on North Korea’s role in the world cup. They excitedly report today that this week’s match against Brazil was broadcast live in North Korea, unlike their first match which was shown after a 12-hour delay. To be honest, if I were Kim Jong-il (a fantasy I like to indulge in briefly each day), I would just tell them we’d won. What’s the point in controlling all the state’s media if you don’t pretend to have won everything from the World Cup to Eurovision? He’s missed a trick there.
But that isn’t why the BBC were being annoying. The BBC were being annoying because they reported that the fact that the match was being broadcast live was a big risk to the North Korean authorities, because people might wave placards and protest against them. The report goes on to remind us of how grouchy people were about the path the Olympic torch took in 2008, and how much protesting went on. It then mentions that no placards or protests happened at the North Korea match.
“It is interesting,” proclaims their website, “to ponder why this might be”. The author then spends precisely no time pondering why this might be. Were protests organised but stopped? Have the South African authorities prevented something? Has FIFA? I mean, look how cross they got with the orange Dutch beer ladies. Do people who care about human rights not care about football? Or did they try and fail? Could they just not get the tickets, or are placards removed at the entrance to the stadium?
I don’t know, and if you read the BBC’s website, nor will you. But don’t worry, they’ve wrapped up the story neatly: “Perhaps those who claim that sporting events of this kind can break down barriers and cultural divides have a point.”
And it’s at this point that I am now having to shout at the internet as well as at the telly. That’s right, BBC. A sure sign of the breaking down of barriers and cultural divides is a lack of protests about North Korea. There were no protests because no one wants to protest about them. Hey, I guess instead of worrying about those imprisoned or killed in this secret state, we’ve just learned to get along. Ebony, ivory, and so on. I think this may be the stupidest sentence I’ve read all year, and am officially cross. I’m off to watch the tennis instead.