Saturday 11 December 2010

Wikileaks and media in general

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Julian Assange: To Catch a Somewhat Pasty Predator
www.thedailyshow.com
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The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
International Manhunt for Julian Assange - Daniel Ellsberg
www.colbertnation.com



The New York Times published some Wikileaks that came as a surprise to many people, specially in the English speaking world. One of the items was about the "Yemeni situation".

Here you can watch one of the many videos one of Germany's state channels broadcasted months ago about the situation in Yemen. That channel, ZDF, is not news-only. Still, you will find more in-depth news there about foreign countries than at many 24-hours a day "news channels" in other regions.

And here you can read in a well-known German newspaper an even older article about the drones and the children and the women killed in Yemen and how the Yemeni president "pretended" (don't know who believed it in Yemen) they were the ones who did it (my translation):

"the government in Sanaa tried to cover up with the own air force attacks the latest attacks of US drones against supposed separatist South Yemenite provinces of Abian and Schabwa, which in December led to the death of dozens of people. And it's that the fact Saleh lets the US Americans act in his land makes him incredibly unpopular. Defence minister Rashid al-Alimi was criticized in parliament for the death on those attacks of 40 women and children."

I am not saying German media is out of this world. It is not and you will find a lot of problems there as well. I do think journalists abroad spend a little bit more time asking normal people (not politicians with some interests) in their languages and have a little bit more knowledge about the recent and general history of the countries they are working in. And I would say the average citizen has a little bit more exposure to those ideas.

And about the Wikileaks proper? I tell you: I don't see the sense of indiscriminately publishing about anything. That can put innocent people in difficulty. Now: who can be against publishing material that reveals crimes of war or violations of human rights? What about corruption in Nigeria? What about cover ups of crimes under any jurisdiction? Where do we draw the line? How can the world learn something out of this all?






Sanah

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