CJA E-letter
from the Commonwealth
Journalists Association
Headquarters: 305
Executive director: Josanne Leonard miribai@tstt.net.tt
Newsletter editor: David
Spark david@dspark.fsnet.co.uk,
who will be glad of any e-mailed comments
The CJA thanks the Commonwealth Foundation for its financial support
Issue No
Page 2/3 Hydara’s
killers still at large/Latest from Zimbabwe Pakistan
Page 4 CJA’s founder president is 80
Page 5/6 Tamil journalists in firing line
Page 6/7 Caribbean call for
more
training
Page 7/11 Commonwealth media news in brief
Page 11/13 Books: Do interviews and learn about life/ Making myths
Editor
dies two months after attack
Harry Yansaneh, acting editor of the independent Sierra Leonean daily For Di People, died of kidney failure on July 28, two months after he was attacked by thugs. On August 2, the Sierra Leone Reporters Union members agreed to place a news blackout on the police, parliament and Vice President Berewa who chairs the Police Council until Yansaneh’s assailants are brought to book.
Police did not pursue Yansaneh’s initial complaint that he was attacked, and a police superintendent has been suspended. The thugs are alleged to have acted on behalf of a ruling party M.P, whom police have questioned.
Three journalists have
been in jail in
Hydara’s
killers still at large
Eight months after leading Gambian independent journalist Deyda Hydara was shot dead, the investigation into his death has made no progress. Reporters Sans Frontieres says that, rather than hunting his killers, the government has sought to discredit him. A National Intelligence Agency report accused him of virulent attacks on all and sundry and suggested that his murder could be the revenge of a jealous husband or a cover for financial misappropriation by a colleague.
In June RSF sent an appeal
for justice,
by Hydara’s son Baba, to radios throughout
On May 6 the Independent,
whose press was
firebombed last year, was forced to cease publication. The
pro-government
Observer declined to continue printing it. Gambians in the
In July, President Yahya Jammeh said on TV that he had introduced new press laws because “journalists are bent on character-assassination of people. My government has provided too much freedom of expression and media rights.”
Journalists
accused of doing journalism
Forty-five Zimbabwean journalists who worked for the banned Daily News will appear in court on October 12 on charges of practising journalism without accreditation. They could be jailed for two years under the notorious Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Thomas Deve, chairman, told
the annual meeting
of the Media Institute of
Misa and other organisations
are seeking
to set up an independent media council, as a counterweight to the
government-controlled media commission. The Association of Zimbabwe
Journalists
in the
A new law threatens
journalists with
up to 20 years in jail if they publish falsehoods inciting disorder,
undermining law enforcement or insulting the president. A community
newspaper
editor in Gweru has been charged with falsely reporting a woman’s
suicide after
the government’s attack on urban settlements. A Daily Mirror
photographer was
arrested on August 4 while photographing the police rounding up
destitute
people in
The Council of Pakistani Newspaper Editors protested saying that, although it strongly opposes extremism, it treasures the right to free speech. Reporters Sans Frontieres cautioned against the use of anti-terror laws to imprison the government’s critics.
Police also sealed the office of Daily Mid Special after an Islamic party complaint that it published objectionable material.
The Karachi Union of Journalists protested against police harassment of Rasheed Channa, who covers Sindh for the Daily Star and has criticised its chief minister. He was detained for over 12 hours on July 24. Channa was accused of stopping Maulana Chishtie in an alley and threatening to kill him. Channa says he does not even know Chishtie.
Bombs exploded on July 24
in a
journalist’s house in Gilgit, in the north of
Hashim Qadeer, a member of a
pious family
in Ahmedpur East (
CJA’s
founder president is 80
Derek Ingram, the CJA’s
founder
president, who has just turned 80, recalled at a birthday celebration
that he
has been a journalist for 63 years. At the age of 17 he was sub-editing
copy at
Kemsley House, headquarters of Kemsley newspapers, when a German bomb
destroyed
By the early 1960s he was
deputy editor
of the Daily Mail but after 17 years on the paper he fell out with the
owner,
the then Lord Rothermere, resigned and founded Gemini News Service with
Oliver
Carruthers. This was the time when African countries were gaining their
independence. Derek was one of the journalists who covered the story
and got to
know the new leaders. Through Gemini he gave a chance to local
journalists in
For decades he has been a vigorous campaigner for the Commonwealth, attending its conferences and pointing out what it can contribute to the world. He has a long connection with the Commonwealth Press Union and was joint founder of the CJA in 1978. Several CJA members attended his birthday celebration, along with former Mail and Gemini colleagues.
Josephine Marfo is now chairing the CJA’s UK branch, in succession to Blessing Ruzengwe. She heads a committee of five.
Whatever happened to…?
Three
bright young journalists from
Between
the devil and the deep blue sea
Champika Liyanaarachchi
explains the
plight of Tamil journalists in
During the past two years,
three
journalists from the minority Tamil community have been gunned down in
Aiyathurai Nadesan, based in the Eastern province, was killed in May last year, allegedly by a group which broke away from the LTTE. He had written articles criticising the group’s leader, Karuna, formerly the LTTE commander in the province. [The LTTE for years fought for Tamil independence, against the Sri Lankan government.]
In August last year Bala
Nadaraja Aiyar
was killed by the LTTE in
Many journalists have
received death
threats, either from the LTTE or its opponents. Two colleagues of
Nadesan,
believed to be near the top of a hit list, fled to
Tamil journalists feel they have never been in as difficult a situation as now, not even during the civil war. They have been put in this situation by the split in the LTTE, which claims to be the sole representative of Sri Lankan Tamils. In March last year, Karuna broke away and many anti-LTTE Tamil groups have joined him.
Journalists, especially in the East, were divided, some supporting the LTTE, others Karuna. A handful remained independent but were seen as supporting one group or the other. Most Tamil journalists had become passionately involved in the LTTE’s struggle. Minimum publicity was given to the rebels’ violations of human rights.
After Karuna’s breakaway,
pro-LTTE media
launched a scathing attack on him. Journalists who sympathised with
Karuna
started attacking the LTTE as never before. As a result, nearly two
dozen
journalists – not just in
Nadesan’s and Sivaram’s murders are attributed to their pro-LTTE stance. Bala Nadaraja Aiyar on the other hand headed the propaganda machine of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party, which has thrown its weight behind Karuna.
All this threatens
Twenty-one media people
attended two days
of workshops in
Rickey Singh, in the first
session, said
that the
Getting information from governments and private enterprise is a stumbling block, he said. “There are also examples of reckless journalistic behaviour that reveals contempt for the rights and intelligence of readers, listeners or viewers.”
Kirk Meighoo, speaking about good governance, said that legitimacy is most important. “Democracy isn’t simply about citizens voting for a ruling party but about a government responsible to and constantly held to account by citizens effectively represented in a vibrant parliament.”
The media often fail to live up to their responsibilities. Journalists show a poor grasp of how government works. “Yet, because of the failure of our institutions like parliament, the media become the only effective opposition.”
Harold Hoyte, editor-in-chief
of The
Nation,
Lady Simmons, a former judge who chairs the Eastern Caribbean Press Council, made the case for self-regulation of the media. She said that self-imposed rules are more likely to carry weight than legally imposed rules. Harold Hoyte said that a press council helps people offended by what the Press do. Rickey Singh explained the need for a code of practice, and the meeting recommended that the ECPC should get the code of practice out to media houses for distribution to journalists.
Several journalists were
hurt in
News
in brief
Nine photographers were
beaten up by
security agents in
Rajshahi journalist
Rafiqul Islam was
taken to hospital in July after being attacked in
Five Kushtia journalists face charges of extortion, which they deny. They allege a local politician implicated them after they reported on corruption among his followers.
Four members of an
outlawed Islamic
group attacked Shafiqul Islam who writes for Janakantha in Rajshahi..
Rodrick Mukumbira, news
editor of the
Ngami Times in North-West
Joseph Bessale Ahanda, editor of Le Front, was detained on July 6 and released on July 21 after journalists went to the justice ministry. He awaits trial concerning reports accusing the head of the postal service and the owner of a press group of embezzlement. The reports led to the post chief being dismissed. In May Ahanda was abducted and beaten.
A crew from Accra-based TV Africa were arrested by security men on July 22 when they filmed the Hotel Kufuor which is being built near President Kufuor’s private house. The hotel has been acquired by the president’s eldest son. The inspector-general of police apologised to TV Africa for the arrests. But five days later police seized and destroyed the equipment of four other journalists at the hotel.
Libel damages of £30,000 were awarded in July against the weekly National Democrat to the Minister of State for Defence. An article sought to implicate him in murders for which another man was convicted.
Ching Cheong, a 55-year-old
Seven journalists were
injured on July
29, one of them suffering critical bullet wounds, when Kashmir
militants threw
a grenade at a police vehicle, police fired indiscriminately and
another
grenade exploded as journalists arrived. Two people were killed.
Members of the Revolutionary
Writers
Association who met a Maoist party representative in
India has passed the Right
to Information
Act, which makes it easier and inexpensive for people to obtain
government
information. Campaigners insisted that the ruling Congress Party keep
an
election promise.
The International Federation
of
Journalists has protested against the banning of several editions of
the
Chinese-language Epoch Times, which is imported into
On July 12, police closed
after two
years their inquiry into the website Malaysiakini and returned the last
two of
its computers. Two days later they seized two computers from another
website,
Luis Mulanga of the weekly
Zambeze was
beaten by police after taking pictures of officers chasing street
vendors in
Police and security agents in Kogi state occupied the local Nigeria Union of Journalists office in June after three leading Nigerian dailies reported the humiliation of Kogi’s police chief by armed robbers. The NUJ’s state chairman was detained overnight when he took up a police invitation to talks. Two journalists who wrote the police chief story went into hiding.
Security men stopped
Ezuiche Ubani of
Thisday from leaving
Security men in
A newsletter in Urdu,
Sadiq News, is
being launched with Unesco’s help to report
on
violations of freedom of expression in the
In
A new law in
Deputy Prime Minister Albert Shabangu won £80,000 libel damages in July from the Times of Swaziland. An article four years ago implied that he was a member of a political party. All parties were banned in 1973.
The government in
semi-autonomous,
politically divided
Bizarre rules for those
seeking to cover
European events in the
Commentator Anthony Mukwita was dismissed by Radio Phoenix in June after reading an anonymous fax during a phone-in. In the fax ‘Annoyed Zambians’ accused the government of failing to crack down on corruption. Police threatened Mukwita with a sedition charge.
Assailants claiming that
The Post had
insulted
Books
Do
interviews, and learn about life
One of the privileges of being a journalist, according to Susan Pape and Sue Featherstone, is that you can conduct interviews. Thereby you meet a diversity of human experience.
Pape,
a writer, and Featherstone, a teacher of journalism, have written
Newspaper Journalism - A Practical Introduction. It is practical
indeed. Almost
everything a newcomer needs to know from first stepping into the office
of a
newspaper in and around
There
is a useful chapter on on-line journalism, which needs to be even
clearer and simpler than a newspaper. People find it more difficult to
read
from a screen than from a printed page.
Page
and Featherstone advise using dashes rather than colons or
semi-colons. These are hard to spot on screen. Aim for no more than 40
words
per sentence and three sentences per paragraph. Re-read
your
copy carefully.
Present
a long story in separate chunks, not more than a page and a
half long. If you are up to it, put in hypertext links, so readers can
move
from one chunk to another without reading straight through your work.
Include
your e-mail address for readers’ comments.
Pape
and Featherstone are rightly against clichés and jargon in
newspaper stories. But journalists can use a jargon of their own
without
realising it. It is only in newspapers that people “go to investigate”.
In real
life they go to find out what happened. In the
Newspaper
Journalism, A Practical Introduction
by Susan Pape and Sue Featherstone (Sage Publications £18.99 janey.walker@sagepub.co.uk)
Journalism’s
cultural influence
Why, in the British media, is every dispute bitter and every cancer victim brave? Why did the media repeatedly cover the slow but remarkable recovery of a young woman paralysed by a stabwound? Who and what made Princess Diana, Pope John-Paul II, Nelson Mandela and David Beckham into international superstars?
A new book, Key Concepts
in Journalism
Studies, points out that journalists perform a cultural as well as
a
reporting role. They reflect, help to create and are constrained by the
myths
and stories with which societies interpret the world - the drama of
great
events, the reign of beautiful people, triumph
over
tragedy. Myths seek to explain and simplify the world. They can
reassure (
Journalists must not let them get in the way of fair and accurate reporting and sound judgment. As one columnist pointed out, the British media have come close to accepting that it is OK for police to shoot someone who might just possibly be a bomber.
After the
Key Concepts is a book for students used to scanning computer screens rather than reading books. It divides journalism into 230 concepts, with a page or so for each – gatekeeper, globalisation, gonzo journalism, guard-dog theory, hard news, hypertext and so on.
Gonzo, if you wondered, is about writers (especially Hunter S.Thompson) who put themselves in the centre of the story as participants, not mere observers. Thompson’s recent death was much noticed in the British press, which thus confirmed the classic definition of news as reporting someone is dead to people who never knew he was alive.
Key Concepts in Journalism Studies, by Bob Franklin and others: Sage £15-99 Contact janey.walker@sagepub.co.uk
Our
thanks
Many thanks to the International Freedom of Expression Exchange and associated organisations for news in this newsletter