Bloggers and Journalists, time to fight back against oppression
UNESCO extends its call for proposals: Research on the Safety of Online Media Actors Doing Journalism
12.07.2013 – Communication & Information Sector
Image source ; http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2280613/gchq-prism-allegations-to-be-investigated-by-the-intelligence-and-security-committee
UNESCO launches a call for research proposals in order to produce a qualitative picture of cases around the world linked to guaranteeing the safety of journalists using digital media. The research will analyse the role of governments, intergovernmental organizations, civil society and the media in the protection of online media actors. It will also provide guidelines, good practices and policy recommendations on how to respect the right to freedom of expression in the digital environment.
Image source ; http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/web/microsoft-reportedly-provided-outlook-skype-encryption-workarounds-for-prism-1165334
Interested researchers and organizations are invited to submit their proposals by 31 July 2013.
Parallel to unprecedented diffusion of online media and digital communication worldwide, there is a worrying trend that websites of news media, human rights organizations, critical bloggers, and other individuals or organizations disseminating information have increasingly become targets of illegitimate surveillance, hacking and attacks from various sources ranging from State-based actors to third parties.
Image source ; http://godhelpusall.com/prism-government-surveillance-humor-funny-true/10106
More extremely, some media actors are being killed for their online journalism. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists out of 50 of those journalists who were killed in the first part 2012, a total of 17 were online journalists. In turn, Reporters without Borders has registered the killing of 39 netizens and citizen journalists by late 2012.
The UN Human Rights Committee in its general comment No. 34 has defined journalism as “a function shared by a wide range of actors, including professional full-time reporters and analysts, as well as bloggers and others who engage in forms of self-publication in print, on the Internet or elsewhere.” The term “journalists” in this envisaged research includes, therefore, all online media actors who do journalism while not ignoring differences amongst them.
UNESCO is concerned about the online safety of journalists and its significant human rights implication, particularly on freedom of expression and related privacy protection. This research fits within the Organization’s on-going efforts to implement the UN Inter-Agency Plan on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity. At the same time, it is clear that there is only limited information available about the extent of online threats and the digital safety literacy of journalists. To that end, UNESCO perceives a need to collect more information on the safety situation of online journalists across the globe.
UNESCO, therefore, invites interested researchers and organizations to submit their proposals, according to the Terms of Reference, by email to Ms Xianhong Hu, before noon (CET), 31 July 2013. Proposals have to include detailed description of the research methodology, deliverables, timeline and requested funding.
Fukushima – Science Media Centres and their part in corrupting truth..
Posted by nuclear-news.net
11 July 2013
By arclight2011part2
I would like to bring to your attention the mechanism by which science journalism is being undermined.. It may explain George Monbiot`s conversion to the nuclear industry among other things. This mechanism is the Science Media Centers of the world and the nuclear industry driven PR machine
There is growing evidence that the existence of SMCs is also encouraging news organizations to downgrade science reporters. Recently the newspaper The Australian sacked its science reporter, Leigh Dayton. The reason she was given by the editors was..
“they could rely on the supply of press releases from the Australian SMC so that their general reporters could write the science news”.
A large empirical study carried out recently by Andy Williams of Cardiff University, UK also confirmed that..
Science PR was increasing and independent science journalism was decreasing.
More here>>
URGENT: Investigate Michael Hastings Death
Published on 12 Jul 2013
Abby Martin takes a closer look at the death of award winning journalist Michael Hastings, featuring interviews with Michael’s close friend, Joe Biggs, who suspects his death was not an accident, and Kimberly Dvorak, an investigative journalist who has been conducting an investigation into the anomalies despite stonewalling from the LAPD.
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Poem Written by: Langston Hughes
Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free. (America never was America to me.) Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-- Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above. (It never was America to me.) O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe. (There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.") Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars? I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak. I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one's own greed! I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-- Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years. Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That's made America the land it has become. O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home-- For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa's strand I came To build a "homeland of the free." The free? Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed And all the songs we've sung And all the hopes we've held And all the flags we've hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay-- Except the dream that's almost dead today. O, let America be America again-- The land that never has been yet-- And yet must be--the land where every man is free. The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME-- Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again. Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-- The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America! O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be! Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!
Radiation wholebody counters are used to hide the childrens true health situation in Fukushima
Posted by http://fukushimaappeal.blogspot.co.uk/
Thursday, 11 July 2013
The wholebody counter has been used to cover-up the danger of internal exposure –
Prof. Katsuhiko Yagasaki of Ryukyus University WBC
の高い検出限界値でND「内部被曝隠し」科学的粉飾 矢ケ崎教授 矢ヶ崎克馬(琉球大学理学部教授)
Prof. Katsuhiko Yagasaki
(Abstract translation by Mia)
Prof. Katsuhiko Yagasaki of Ryukyus University, Okinawa, Japan commented that Wholebody counter has been used to downplay the danger of internal exposure.
1. Detection limit of wholebody counter is usually set up between 250-300Bq/kg. But urine test is 50-60 times more accurate than wholebody counter. Detection limit is 0.1Bq/litter, equivalent to 6 Bq. The Length of time for measurement is 2-5 minutes which is not long enough to measure correctly.
2.Only gamma radiation can be detected. It can not detect alpha or beta radiation.
“Clinical investigation of children showed satisfactory nutrition but chronic levels over 30 Bq/kg body weight were often associated with serious cardiovascular diseases. “
*Fukushima prefectural government stopped urine test for “peer pressure”
Nuclear industry in decline- World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013,
Report: Renewable energy overtaking declining nuclear http://www.pv-tech.org/news/solar_overtakes_nuclear_in_global_energy_output 12 July 13, Only 1.2GW of nuclear generation capacity was installed last year globally compared to 32GW of solar, according to a report proclaiming the end of the “nuclear renaissance”.
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013, published yesterday, was written by numerous academics and independent energy consultants as a “reality check” on global use of nuclear energy.
It claims that with global electricity generation from nuclear decreasing “historically” by 7% last year, nuclear power is in decline as a power source compared to renewable energies.
The report singled out solar and wind as energy forms that were beginning to rival nuclear. It said that 80% of those it surveyed thought renewables would be able to compete with major power and utilities sectors, and that “all forms of solar will not need subsidies to compete” by 2030.
The largest investment in renewable energy was in utility-scale renewable energy parks, and second was in rooftop solar PV installations. Continue reading
Anti nuclear march in Jiangmen – a rare protest movement in China
Jiangmen rises against uranium plant http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id=38672&icid=2&d_str= (07-12 12:57) More than 1,000 people have marched to the municipal government office in Jiangmen to protest against a plan to build a uranium processing plant in Guangdong City.
The protesters say they’re concerned about radiation and possible nuclear pollution. They’re also unhappy with the government’s 10-day consultation process, which ends tomorrow, RTHK reports.
Jiangmen authorities have already signed an agreement with the China National Nuclear Corporation to house the 40-billion-yuan project. Construction is expected to begin at the end of this year.
Japan’s strange and menacing radioactive black substance
I would say they’re much more an ingestion hazard. And that usually tends to target children and agricultural workers. […] A child on average consumes between 100 and 200 milligrams of soil a day because of hand-to-mouth activity. So that’s something to really think about.
Japan’s Black Dust, with Marco Kaltofen http://fairewinds.org/podcast/japans-black-dust-with-marco-kaltofen 12 July 13, This week Fairewinds Energy Education interviewed Marco Kaltofen, a leading scientist who studies radiation as well as specific radioactive isotopes. Marco and Arnie discuss a recent sample that contained highly concentrated radioactive material from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. As the sound quality of this recording varies, we have transcribed the podcast so you can read along. Read Marco’s Report: Radiological Analysis of Namie Street Dust http://fairewinds.org/podcast/japans-black-dust-with-marco-kaltofen
Japan’s Radioactive Black Dust – Audio interview with transcript
Japan kids ingesting pieces of Fukushima fuel rods? Expert: Mystery black substance “very likely contains concentrated unburned nuclear fuel” (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/japan-kids-swallowing-pieces-of-fukushima-fuel-rods-expert-mystery-black-substance-very-likely-contains-concentrated-unburned-nuclear-fuel-video
Title: Japan’s Black Dust, with Marco Kaltofen
Source: Fairewinds Energy Education
Date: July 10, 2013
Marco Kaltofen, President at Boston Chemical Data Corp. & Doctoral student researcher at Worcester Polytechnic Institute: […] We kept hearing reports about something unusual, a black dust […] we finally got a very small sample of that […]
What’s different about this material is unlike a lot of the soil and dust samples we’ve gotten, there’s a real uniformity to this stuff. It’s a single substance. Continue reading
“2013 Election: Nuclear Protest Fade”; Ibaraki Fish & High Cesium Levels – Wildlife study on boars and rats
Published on 11 Jul 2013
High levels of cesium found in fish off Ibaraki
Researchers have found high levels of radioactive cesium in fish caught early this month off Hitachi in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo.
Prefectural officials said 1,037 becquerels of cesium were discovered per kilogram of Japanese sea bass. That’s more than 10 times the government safety limit.
They said it is the 3rd highest level found in marine products in the region. Higher levels were only previously detected in April 2011 — one month after the Fukushima nuclear accident. The contaminated fish then was sand lance.
Reconstruction from 2011 disaster way ahead
Reconstruction of disaster-hit northeastern Japan is being slowed by a lack of land and a shortage of labor, NHK has found.
The region was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami exactly 2 years and 4 months ago.
In coastal areas in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, households are relocating to higher ground. In some places, ground levels are being raised to avoid flooding by tsunami.
But work is likely to take much longer than expected, amid difficulties in buying up land and securing labour.
http://enenews.com/japan-kids-swallow…
More here>>
Wind farm development going ahead in Fukushima
Wind farm takes shape off Fukushima as Japan seeks non-nuclear energy http://www.euronews.com/2013/07/12/wind-farm-takes-shape-off-fukushima-as-japan-seeks-non-nuclear-energy/ The first phase is complete of a plan to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm near the Fukushima nuclear plant that was crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
The first turbine has been delivered to the area and the facility is due to become operational in October.
It is part of plans by Fukushima Prefecture to ditch nuclear energy and move towards total reliance on renewable sources over the next 25 years.
By 2020 scores of giant turbines 200 metres high should produce twice as much power as the world’s current biggest offshore windfarm at Greater Gabbard off the UK’s Suffolk coast.
“First and foremost, we want to make this a symbol of Fukushima’s recovery. Secondly, this floating wind farm concept is the ace up our sleeves for the next stage of renewable energy development,” said Keisuke Murakami, Head of New and Renewable Energy at the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry. There have been concerns about radioactive water leaking into the sea from Fukushima, and official accounts have given conflicting evidence over whether fish are safe to eat.
The disaster all but shut down Japan’s nuclear industry, forcing the country to rely heavily on imported gas.
It is hoped that wind turbines will be more resistant to earthquakes, typhoons and tsunamis.
U.S. government warns on climate change threat to nuclear and coal power plants
US power plants at risk from climate change, government says SMH, July 12, 2013 Power plants across the US are at increased risk of temporary shutdown and reduced power generation as temperatures and sea levels continue to rise and water becomes less available, the country’s Department of Energy said.
By 2030, there will be nearly $US1 trillion in energy assets in the Gulf region alone at risk from increasingly costly extreme hurricanes and sea-level rises, according to the Energy Department report on the impact of climate change on energy infrastructure.
“As President Obama said in his speech last month, climate change is happening,” said spokeswoman April Saylor in a statement. “As climate change makes the weather more extreme, we have a moral obligation to prepare the country for its effects.”
The report calls on federal, state and local governments to more urgently prepare critical infrastructure – particularly coal, natural gas and nuclear plants – for the compounded risks posed by floods, storms, wildfires and droughts…….
Greenpeace USA spokesman Robert Gardner said the administration’s focus should primarily be transitioning to wind and solar technology, not relying on fossil fuels and nuclear energy.
“The question is why the Department of Energy is really focusing on continuing the problem which has caused this tidal wave of global warming,” said Gardner. : http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/us-power-plants-at-risk-from-climate-change-government-says-20130712-2pv6h.html#ixzz2YxjjqAdb
American Medical Association wants action on radiation in seafoods
American Medical Assn. Urges Testing Seafood For Radiation http://www.simplyinfo.org/?p=10663 July 11th, 2013 The American Medical Association has passed a resolution calling for the US to continue to monitor and publicly report radiation contamination in seafood. The original resolution included the language that cited Fukushima as a main reason for the concern and focused on the Pacific ocean. The final resolution broadened it to include all seafood.
The resolution was approved before the recent announcement that Fukushima Daiichi has been continually leaking contamination into the Pacific for the last 2+ years.
The resolution is a good step for public health. The current policy of the FDA does no ongoing seafood testing for radiation. That done soon after the Fukushima disaster was vague, using frozen fish of unknown catch date and fish with an unknown catch location within Japan. The FDA and USDA so far have not publicly released any seafood testing for products hauled places other than Japan. The current US contamination level before the government will intervene is 1200 bq/kg far higher than other countries including Japan.
Renewable energy, energy efficiency drive by NATO armed forces
NATO Armed Forces Embrace Renewable Energy BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 11, 2013 (ENS) – The 28 member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are reducing the energy footprint of their defenseoperations as a priority, top NATO officials said this week.
NATO as a military and political organization, as well as individual allies, are working with alternative energy sources and developing multinational “smart energy” projects……. The DoD is seeking to develop solar,
wind, geothermal and other distributed energy sources on its bases both to reduce their $4 billion-a-year energy bill and to make them less dependent on the commercial electricity grid. Such on-site energy generation, together with energy storage and so-called smart-microgrid technology, would allow a military base to maintain its critical operations “off-grid” for weeks or months if the grid is disrupted, the DOD says…….. Continue reading
Global renewable energy investment has risen rapidly in 2013
Rise in global clean energy investment Renewable Energy Focus 12 July 2013 Global investment in clean energy in Q2 was up 22% from Q1, due to upturn in the financing of wind and solar projects and a 170% surge in equity funding for specialist companies on public markets.
The investment rose to US$53.1 bn, led by the US, which saw investment jump 155% compared to a weak first quarter, to reach US$9.5 bn, and China (up 63% at US$13.8 bn) and South Africa (up from almost nothing in Q1 to US$2.8 bn in Q2).
China was the largest investor in clean energy in Q2, followed by the US. Third on the list was Japan, Continue reading
Guangdong protests against uranium processing plant
Jiangmen residents protest against uranium processing plant http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1280894/jiangmen-residents-protest-against-uranium-processing-plant Several hundred people gathered in Jiangmen’s city centre on Friday morning to protest against a planned uranium processing plant in the Guangdong city.
“Jiangmen doesn’t want radiation”, one banner carried by demonstrators said. “We want children, not atoms,” said another. Police appear to have been anticipating the protest with Jiangmen city government building being cordoned-off.
One group of protesters gathered in front of the building, another group meet at the Donghu Lake park.
Two protesters, who declined to be identified, said that the protest had been organized via QQ and WeChat, two social messaging services, at least two days ahead of the protest.
One local said that the local government had held an emergency meeting last night to prepare for the protest. According to one demonstrator, the public protest lasted from 8am to 11:30am and is planned resume in the afternoon.
Some protesters were holding banners calling for another protest on Sunday.
Thee 30-hectare plant would carry out uranium conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication, the Jiangmen City Development and Reform Bureau said in an earlier statement.
The plant’s construction some 100km from Hong Kong and Macau has sparked health concerns in both cities as well. The Heshan government under the administration of Jiangmen held a press conference earlier on Friday morning defending the project. Heshan mayor Wu Yuxiong said that the local government has decided to extend the period in which the risk assessment report is publicly accessible by a further ten days.
Microblogs about the protests have been quickly censored, indicating increased sensitivity about a backlash. Earlier this year, two demonstrations against a gas refinery in Kunming have caused a public backlash. A similar protest in Chengdu had been repressed.
Why UK wants nuclear submarines in Scotland, and Scotland doesn’t
The UK’s military were highly ambivalent about acquiring nuclear weapons, not least because they could not be launched without US permission. Nuclear bases on British soil have always been de facto US bases and we pay US firms for provision and maintenance. But politicians wanted them. Being a nuclear power is almost as good as still having an empire.
Trident, the UK’s current nuclear weapon system, is in Scotland because London isn’t. That’s one of the reasons why Trident is hugely unpopular with Scots. Faslane is a deep-water port that keeps mildly unstable weapons far from the politicians disastrously wedded to the idea that if enough civilians of the right type die, almost anything is achievable.
Faslane: this was a nuclear weapon for the SNP, Guardian UK, 12 July 13, The rumoured plans for the naval base were a reminder of how deeply unpopular Trident is among Scots The MoD’s, or Whitehall’s, or whoever’s plans to designate Trident’s Faslane base “sovereign UK territory” earlier this week seemed, at best, petty – an attempt at humiliation timed to balance Andy Murray’s cheering victory. It was a gift to the SNP, now denied and passed from hand to hand like a vomiting baby. That the idea was ever floated offers us another reminder of the colonial attitudes so catastrophically embedded in nuclear policy; a fundamental, fatal dismissal of “ordinary” people.
Once, it was relatively easy to acquire a colony if you had access to industrialised military production when the people you were invading didn’t. But by the end of the 19th century there was nowhere desirable left to steal, and industrialised armies finally faced each other. The results were intolerable: massive national debt and casualties that could mount by tens of thousands a day.
But then, in the 1920s, Britain’s airforce successfully bombed undefended Iraqi villages into quiescence. Italy followed suit in Ethiopia, and Germany in Spain. The age of “intimidation by bomb” was born, and with it the dream that killing a high enough percentage of a civilian population from the air would destroy a country and win a war with low military casualties……… Continue reading
Newly found documents reveal Israel’s nuclear weapons drive
Canadian report on Israeli nuclear program stunned 1964 diplomatic world BY IAN MACLEOD, OTTAWA CITIZEN JULY 12, 2013 OTTAWA — Crucial evidence of Israel’s suspected nuclear weapons program was discovered by Canada in 1964, sending shivers through Washington, Ottawa and London, according to newly-surfaced U.S. and British national archives’ papers.
A spring 1964 Canadian intelligence report revealed Argentina had secretly agreed to supply Israel with at least 80 tons of uranium oxide “yellowcake” to fabricate fuel for a mysterious nuclear reactor Israel was constructing with French assistance near the town of Dimona in the Negev Desert.
Spent, or irradiated, reactor fuel can be reprocessed to harvest plutonium for making nuclear weapons and, since 1960, the U.S. and its allies conjectured Israel was pursuing a nuclear weapons program.
But the eye-opening Canadian report, which the U.S. initially doubted, confirmed fears that Israel was ambitiously seeking a secret uranium supply, under which there would be no international safeguards to ensure the yellowcake was used for peaceful purposes.
Forty-three previously secret U.S. and British government archival documents related to the Israeli yellowcake file recently surfaced and have now been published by the U.S. National Security Archives in concert with two nuclear non-proliferation organizations…… Continue reading
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