[governance] Rwanda and media

Thu Oct 4 21:22:10 EDT 2007

No time now to get into the details of Venezuela, but my opposition to US coercion is consistent over time, I do not need to be lectured about it. I do hope that dialogue about freedom of expression does not fall into the trap of justifying tyranny on the basis of who the tyranny is used against. That's what the US does (we must intervene to stop communism/terrorism/etc) and that's what Hugop does (I must have absolute power because I'm the savior against the US). False dichotomy. Thought these kinds of debates died with the Cold War but I guess not. 

   _____  

From: Rui Correia [mailto:correia.rui at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 10:25 AM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Carlos Afonso
Subject: Re: [governance] Rwanda and media

I would urge that those who get their worldview from the likes of CNN look deeper before pointing fingers at "third world countries" when clarion calls of trampled democracy start blaring. People would better serve democracy (and in this case, media freedom, freedom of information) if they paid more attention at what the FCC in the US is allowing the networks to get away with. Because like it or not (barring now a EU with muscle to set its own course) whatever gets done in the US tends to ripple out across the world. The problem is that it hapens in small doses, but continuously, never enough to cause the alarm bells to go off. At any rate, civil society's stake is being chiselled away at, and the arbiter is not doing its job.

The real dangers to democracy is whether or not Venezuela renews a TV licence, but when the government that claims to be the superpower and world policeman tramples on Geneva conventions and tortues men and women in Guantanamo, miles away from the government they have for decades called a tyranny, while in Iraq they outdid Saddam's brutality at Abu Graib.

[]s

Rui

*PS lack of time a while back prevented me form finishing a log piece I was penning together on CNN as nothing but an extension of the US vision of the world. It no longer has the same agenda as the CNN that we saw reporting from the Baghdad Hotel when the first Bush went after Saddam. But there are people on this list far better informed then me on the issue, so who know they might want to post something on it. Otherwise, subscibe to the likes of Kevin Tagland's BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES, HYPERLINK "http://www.benton.org/" \nhttp://www.benton.org and Timothy Karr's FreePress.org (I think Timothy has hust left, but HYPERLINK "http://www.FreePress.org"www.FreePress.org is still there. Alternatively, you might want to amuse yourself with google looking up things like "CIA interference in Latin Ameria"/ Brazil/ Venezuela/ you name it. "Council on Foreign Relations" etc etc. 

On 04/10/2007, Carlos Afonso <HYPERLINK "mailto:ca at rits.org.br" \n ca at rits.org.br > wrote:

Dr Müller's remark misses the point regarding Chavez on two counts: the 
first is rightly pointed out by David -- the elites (with the near
exclusive privilege of disseminating their views through the big media)
do not like that others keep telling them they are in power for
centuries and have been making sure that there continues to be just a 
few well-off and a smashing majority of very poor in Latin America. If
there is a success story of the elites in LA, this is it.

The second is that Chavez did not take away the licence. It expired and
the government has the prerrogative to renew it or not. Terms of the 
contract say explicitly the incumbent network will not engage in
demoralizing a constitutionally elected government (this and similar
restrictions were not created by Chavez, they are part of nearly all
radio and TV concessions in democratic countries). The renewal referred 
to the open air TV licence only, but the same conservative media group
continues to operate through cable TV (which is fine for them, the ones
who have cable TV in Venezuela are the ones who generally support the 
opposition, the upper classes who are mostly opposed to Chavez, so they
are happily talking to each other). If Chavez were really bound to do
what the Murdoch gang keeps telling us, he would just block the group's 
access to cable TV as well.

We are here right now in a similar process in Brazil, but the outcome
will quite probably be different. The Globo/Slim media group has several
radio and TV channel licences expiring or expired (as do most of the 
other big private networks), and civil society organizations are
mobilized to open up discussion regarding renewal of hundreds of these
public concessions. Frequency spectrum is an asset of the commons and
the State is its guardian on behalf of the people, so there is a need to 
discuss whether the current incumbents deserve renewal -- strictly
speaking, most do not, as they have violated on many counts the terms of
their concession contracts for proper use of an asset of the commons. A 
lot similar with the private appropriation for profit of the Internet
critical resources we will be discussing in Rio.

Another point is that Chavez did not do a coup d'état, American style
(meaning Somozas, Pinochets and the sort) -- to the contrary, the USA 
stimulated a coup d'état against him which failed miserably in a few
days. He did all he did (with imperfections, mistakes and whatever,
please point us to a regime anywhere in the developing world which is 
perfect...) within the legal political system of the country. Sorry for
the elitist opposition if he won, but he won through elections and
plebiscites. The rest is the anti-Chavez political campaigning through
Murdoch's networks and their kin. BTW, a similar process is now going on 
in Ecuador, with the economist Correa at the head, legally elected in a
constitutional democracy. I wonder what the big international media
corporations will be telling us all about him? Very soon there will be 
no Correa's government, but "Correa's regime" etc etc...

[]s fraternos

--c.a.

David Goldstein wrote:
> Milton said "Look at how Hugo Chavez is using media licensing rules 
> in Venezuela ."
>
> I find this a bit rich. The media in Venezuela has oppressed the poor
> for decades, and when someone stands up to the media, who represent
> the upper classes, they are branded as being censorious. Obviously it 
> would be better if Chavez did not take away the licence for the TV
> station it would be better. But then, Venezuela has been a tool of
> the rich to exploit the poor for a long time.
>
> I agree with the rest of his points though. 
>
> David
>
>
> ----- Original Message ---- From: Milton L Mueller <HYPERLINK "mailto:mueller at syr.edu" \nmueller at syr.edu >
> To: HYPERLINK "mailto:governance at lists.cpsr.org" \ngovernance at lists.cpsr.org ; HYPERLINK "mailto:KovenRonald at aol.com" \nKovenRonald at aol.com Cc:
> HYPERLINK "mailto:Embench at aol.com" \nEmbench at aol.com Sent: Thursday, 4 October, 2007 5:35:04 AM Subject:
> [governance] Rwanda and media 
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> I agree with Rony. And I would ask advocates of media restrictions
> whether they believe that the existence of government rules 
> regulating the media in Rwanda would have prevented the genocide. Who
> would have promulgated, monitored and enforced those rules in Rwanda
> ? Which ethnic faction? Which independent judges? When the state is 
> nothing but an armed gang, and all disputes are settled by force, the
> idea that the media can be regulated to enforce civility is
> self-evidently nonsensical. In those cases, media regulations simply 
> become another tool for the dominant party to oppress the others.
> Look at how Hugo Chavez is using media licensing rules in Venezuela .
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> From: HYPERLINK "mailto:KovenRonald at aol.com" \nKovenRonald at aol.com [mailto:HYPERLINK "mailto:KovenRonald at aol.com" \nKovenRonald at aol.com ]
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> RMC was in fact a weapon in a civil war, and it would have been
> justified to bomb it out of existence if it could have been found.
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--

Carlos A. Afonso 
Rio       Brasil
***************************************************************
Projeto Sacix - Apoio técnico a iniciativas de inclusão digital
com software livre, mantido pela Rits em colaboração com o
Coletivo Digital. Para mais informações: 
HYPERLINK "http://www.sacix.org.br" \nwww.sacix.org.br   HYPERLINK "http://www.rits.org.br" \nwww.rits.org.br   HYPERLINK "http://www.coletivodigital.org.br" \nwww.coletivodigital.org.br
*************************************************************** 

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-- 
________________________________________________

Rui Correia
Advocacy, Human Rights, Media and Language Consultant
2 Cutten St
Horison 
Roodepoort-Johannesburg, 
South Africa
Tel/ Fax (+27-11) 766-4336
Cell (+27) (0) 84-498-6838 

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