International

U.S. Spy Agencies Disappear History

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

"In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence agencies have been removing from public access thousands of historical documents that were available for years." Since 1999, more than 50,000 once-declassified pages have been reclassified as secret. Intelligence historian Matthew Aid said some of the decades-old documents are "mundane, and some of it is outright ridiculous." The New York Times reports, "While some of the choices made by the security reviewers ... are baffling, others seem ...

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Main Source: 
New York Times, February 21, 2006
Topics: 
International
Secrecy
U.S. Government

U.S. State Dept To Splurge on Persian Media

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked Congress yesterday to provide $75 million in emergency funding to step up pressure on the Iranian government." If granted, the request would increase to $85 million the 2006 budget "to promote political change inside Iran," up from

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Main Source: 
Washington Post, February 16, 2006
Topics: 
Public Diplomacy
International
Propaganda
U.S. Government

In Colombia, Reporters Trust, Don't Verify, Official Sources

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

"The media's over-reliance on official sources, despite ... a long history of lying and manipulation by those sources," often makes the media "an instrument of U.S. foreign policy," writes Garry Leech. On February 12, Reuters and Spain's EFE reported "that leftist rebels belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had massacred six members of a family, including an 80-year-old woman. The entire story ...

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Main Source: 
Colombia Journal Online, February 14, 2006
Topics: 
Journalism
Human Rights
International
U.S. Government

Drug Company Reps Take Doctors To The Dogs, Lap-Dancing & Tennis

Submitted by Bob Burton on

In late January a comedian hosting the UK Pharmaceutical Marketing Society's Annual Advertising Awards ceremony joked that "twenty years ago it was all lap dancing and champagne for the doctors. These days you're lucky if you can give them a three-star hotel and a f***ing biro." Not so, it seems.

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Main Source: 
Guardian (UK), February 14, 2006
Topics: 
Health
International
Marketing
Pharmaceuticals

Perusing Peru's News for Political Clues

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

"The lack of transparency in politics in general and in media in particular is huge in this country," said the director of the government-supported Peruvian organization Citizen Participation. "Like everywhere else in the world, the big owners of communication chains aren't absolutely neutral or transparent.

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Main Source: 
Associated Press, February 10, 2006
Topics: 
Internet
Democracy
International
Think Tanks

WHO Rejects Corporate-Funded Research Institute

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

The United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) barred the U.S.-based International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) from taking part in "WHO activities setting microbiological or chemical standards for food and water." The decision followed warnings from health, environmental and union groups, including the

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Main Source: 
Associated Press, January 27, 2006
Topics: 
Corporations
Health
International
Science

All the News That's Fit To Censor: International Edition

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

"The Internet may be new, but not the issue of whether an American corporation should do business with bad people," writes Richard Cohen. He argues that the claims of Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Yahoo and other tech companies that they are assisting the Chinese government's attempts to censor information online because they must "comply with local laws" ring false. "The law in China is what the Chinese leaders say it is," Cohen counters.

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Main Source: 
The Mercury News (San Jose, California), January 25, 2006
Topics: 
Internet
Corporations
Democracy
International

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