Pakistan, Russia, Iran and many more Why do governments kill journalists?

 

Sunday 12 June 2011

 There are journalists I like and some I dislike; there are those I agree with and many I profoundly disagree with. In recent years, across the globe, the more courageous ones have become an endangered species while sycophants have prospered. When governments change the sycophants of one emperor are tarred and feathered to accommodate their replacements; that’s the future beckoning the current set of toadies too. My interest today however is in those members of the fourth estate who are a threatened species. I could not have imagined a decade ago that I would speak up on behalf of journalists because my recollection is of seedy types creeping in and out of hole-in-the wall watering joints and digging dirt on quite ordinary peccadilloes like fornication or pissing on lampposts late at night. But things have changed in this country and elsewhere. Why? I think there are two reasons.  Read more...
===============================

Sri Lanka committed genocide of Tamils: Arundhati Roy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 June 2011, 03:24 GMT]
Taking part in a meeting organized by a London based Tamil media association in Southall in London on Saturday, celebrated writer Arundhati Roy termed the war on Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka as genocide that was allowed to happen by the world. "The most horrific things I have seen and testimonies I have read are from Sri Lanka," she said. Ms. Roy, known for championing the cause of the Aathivaasis (indigenous

tribes), emphasized how similar sorts of patterns of annihilation were taking place in India too. "There is a whole universe of fractured morality between what people say and what people do. As the Indian military, and platoons and platoons of policemen are displacing the Aathivaasis in the back of everyone's mind are the graves of Tamils in Sri Lanka," she said. Full story >>
==============================

Channel 4 to broadcast Sri Lanka's Killing Fields

Friday 10 June 2011

A special one-hour film showing devastating new evidence of war crimes committed during the Sri Lankan civil war is to be broadcast in the UK.

The film documents the final bloody weeks of the Sri Lankan civil war and features damning new evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The film Sri Lanka Killing Fields includes footage of apparent extra-judicial massacres of prisoners by Sri Lankan government forces, the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian hospitals and the bodies of female Tamil fighters who appear to have been sexually assaulted.
The film does not only focus on the Sri Lankan government troops - it also examines atrocities carried out by the Tamil Tigers, including the use of human shields, and footage depicting the aftermath of a suicide bombing in a government centre for the displaced.
Presented by Jon Snow, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, was shown to the United Nations Human Rights Council at the end of May.     Full Story...

Posted by Thavam