Imprisoned journalists: a Turkish badge of dishonour

The truth. Does it exist? Sure it does. Universally irrefutable occur. For example today’s date, the value of pi [1], the 2010 AFL premiers (Go pies) [2]. In contrast, non-facts must be interpreted. For the past 200 years or more, that interpretation’s been done by the media. Specifically journalists. And whilst they haven’t done a perfect job, they’ve done okay. And clearly the more independence they’ve had, the more credible their output’s been. And vice versa. Interference by media bosses, and by governments more so, detracts from the media’s credibility. And thus utility. So then, which nation has the most imprisoned journalists? According to the International Press Institute, it’s Turkey [3]. With 57. (China and Iran tie for second, with a mere 34 each.) A surprise? Not really. For me, anyway. Traditionally a fairly liberal democracy, recently Turkey’s been islamising [4]. Because islamisation restricts freedoms, it’s no shock Turkey leads the world in jailed journalists. I hope, but I’m not optimistic, this badge of dishonour will be taken into account when the EU decides on Turkey’s membership application [5]. That application, and Turkey’s continued NATO membership [6], should weigh heavily on the minds of Turkey’s voters come the 11 June national election. I await its outcome. With interest.

farmdoc's blog post number 317

It’s 44 days since Operation Cast Lead ended on 18 January. No permanent ceasefire’s in place, Hamas’s resumed rocketing southern Israel, Israel’s Air Force’s responding, Gilad Shalit’s captivity’s in it’s 33rd month, tortuous Israeli post-election coalition jostling grinds on, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas flirt with betrothal overtures, and POTUS Obama and SecState Clinton ponder what to do. Maybe the only progress since 18 January is information from Israel confirming the adage: ‘Truth is the first casualty of war’ – of uncertain origin but nonetheless valid. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported that two thirds of 1,338 fatalities were civilians. But Colonel Moshe Levi, head of the Israel Defence Forces’ Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA), has painstakingly analysed every single fatality, and in a 200-page report concluded civilians comprised no more than one third of deaths. And regarding the 6 January UN school incident in which initial Palestinian reports claimed IDF shells had hit the school and killed 40 or more people, many of them civilians, the CLA’s investigation revealed no school hits, and 12 fatalities including nine combatants. To those bleeding-heart liberals in the media and the public-at-large who protested the number of civilian deaths, during the Operation, without waiting for the truth to out, I say this: ‘Those who know, don’t talk. Those who talk, don’t know’.