PAKISTAN: One Meeting, Two Newspapers, Multiple Versions
Earlier this month the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, chaired a meeting for the heads of all allies of his political party, the Pakistan People’s Party. People may be left with two different impressions of how the meeting actually went depending on which Pakistani newspaper they read the following…
Full Article PAKISTAN: One Meeting, Two Newspapers, Multiple VersionsCHINA: Newspaper’s Spin on Policy Unconvincing
Last month the United Nation Security Council took up a resolution that called for the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, to step down. As one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, China voted against it, along with Russia. China remains adamant in its decision despite the outcry from…
Full Article CHINA: Newspaper’s Spin on Policy UnconvincingSOUTH KOREA: Journalists War on Management Suck-Ups
Journalists from the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), South Korea’s largest television network, are now on strike, joining news reporters from Munhwa Broadcasting System (MBC) who began their strike about a month ago. About 650 KBS staff members, including 250 reporters, joined the strike as part of a widening protest for journalistic reform. KBS…
Full Article SOUTH KOREA: Journalists War on Management Suck-UpsINDIA: Sinful Irreverence?
The Anand Police Department has recently received complaints from Gujarat Christians. And no wonder. The uproar is targeting a monthly Catholic community magazine for its inclusion of a small black and white image of Jesus Christ holding a beer can in one hand and a cigarette in the other. It…
Full Article INDIA: Sinful Irreverence?PHILIPPINES: Another Legendary Journalist Dead, Though Not By Violence
Isagani Yambot, publisher of the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper, one of the Philippines’ leading newspapers, passed away on March 2 at the age of 77 after an unsuccessful cardiac bypass surgery. Yambot was an active journalist from the days of the Marcos regime and continued to mentor young journalists, emphasizing…
Full Article PHILIPPINES: Another Legendary Journalist Dead, Though Not By ViolenceTHAILAND: Police throw the Facebook at 20-year old Student
Making headlines across the world, 20-year-old Kanthoop, a Thai university student, faces up to 15 years in jail for defying one of “the world’s strictest pro-monarchy regulations, which sentences anyone who insults, defames, or threatens the king or his family to three to fifteen years’ imprisonment.” “Article 112,” as the…
Full Article THAILAND: Police throw the Facebook at 20-year old StudentNORTH KOREA: A Rare View of NK Public Opinion Thanks to Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) reported from Pyongyang on the recent announcement of the United States and North Korean agreement to freeze North Korea’s nuclear activities in exchange for much needed food aid. Washington sees this as a promising first step towards discussing disarmament; yet, according to the AP, “rare interviews”…
Full Article NORTH KOREA: A Rare View of NK Public Opinion Thanks to Associated PressBOOK REVIEW: A Portrait of Thailand’s True Soul
The following review by well-known author Tom Vater (“Sacred Skin — Thailand’s Spirit Tattoos”) of “Navigating the Bangkok Noir”, a book of paintings by American artist Chris Coles, is reprinted from a leading-edge website about Thailand (www.thedevilsroad.com). The review by Mr Vater reads: “Producing great art in Thailand is difficult.…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: A Portrait of Thailand’s True Soul
NEW ZEALAND: John Pule
THE TWO KOREAS: The Reaction to Pyongyang’s Overture (an Update)
The Western news media – and especially The Economist Magazine of London – have been almost incautiously optimistic about recent diplomatic developments coming out of North Korea. But the media in South Korea has been rather cautious about Pyongyang’s latest pitch to suspend parts of its nuclear program, to allow…
Full Article THE TWO KOREAS: The Reaction to Pyongyang’s Overture (an Update)
NEW ZEALAND: John Pule
NEW ZEALAND: John Pule
BREAKTHROUGH IN NORTH KOREA?
The news media in South Korea is properly cautious about North Korea’s latest pitch to suspend parts of its nuclear program, to allow international inspectors onto suspected sites, and to halt long-range missile tests. Since 1994, endlessly back and forth across the Korean Peninsula, after all, negotiations of some sort over the nuclear issue have been on-going or going off on tangents — or (most often) going nowhere.
Full Article BREAKTHROUGH IN NORTH KOREA?SRI LANKA: ‘The West Is Out to Get Us!’
Sure, the Sri Lankan government is in favor of manipulating the media to show its positive side. We’ve noted that tendency here before. But in this regard it is little different from governments all over the globe. Yet in another sense it seems determined to enter into a unique category:…
Full Article SRI LANKA: ‘The West Is Out to Get Us!’Why China resists Western intervention in Syria
LOS ANGELES — Intellectual precision is especially vital in times of geopolitical passion. The full totality of evil of the Syrian government is now on display for the entire world to see. The brutality of President Bashar Assad is beyond immense. And so the blame game has begun. The obvious…
Full Article Why China resists Western intervention in Syria
WE ASK / THEY ANSWER: Getting to the Bottom of the Top Secrets
Recently I attended a presentation at the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute about the play Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, which last year debuted in China. Afterward, I had an opportunity to talk with Geoffrey Cowan, the distinguished co–author of the play (along with the late…
Full Article WE ASK / THEY ANSWER: Getting to the Bottom of the Top Secrets