(Update below) When freedom of the press is compromised in the New World Order, it is nothing less than another example of government having control over it’s population. In yet another instance:
The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.
The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.
The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations. ( emphasis mine)
Gagged. Don’t stop the presses. Last month, the same reporter David Leigh wrote, How the UK Oil Company Trafigura tried to cover up an Africa Pollution Disaster. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/16/trafigura-oil-ivory-coast
The British oil trader Trafigura has offered to pay out in a historic damages claim from 31,000 Africans injured by the dumping of toxic waste in one of the worst pollution disasters in recent history, the Guardian can reveal.
The compensation deal for the victims of toxic oil waste dumping in west Africa – likely to be confirmed imminently – means the full extent of attempts to cover up what really happened can be spelled out for the first time. They have until now denied the compensation claims, and their lawyers repeatedly threatened anyone worldwide who sought to contradict their version. They launched a libel case against BBC Newsnight, forced a “correction” from the Times, demanded the Guardian deleted articles, and yesterday tried to gag journalists in the Netherlands and Norway with legal threats.
Supporting his claim, Leigh provided internal emails from Trafigura’s company operatives around the world, which can be seen here- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/16/trafigura-email-files-read . We do ask if these company’s internal documents are proprietary or open as court documents?
The e-mails “give a blow-by-blow account of the oil trading firm’s decision to buy gasoline from the Mexican state refinery PMI via a US oil terminal at Brownsville, and then process it at sea on a chartered tanker, the Probo Koala, using “caustic washing”.
Since the newspaper is under a gag order, we don’t know for sure if the two are related. We surmise that there is enough preponderance of evidence that they are. While the abuses allegedly committed by Tragifura come to light, it is not enlightening to know that a “democratic” Parliament has enabled itself, ignoring laws to turn it’s back on freedom of the press.
“The editor, Alan Rusbridger, said: “The media laws in this country increasingly place newspapers in a Kafkaesque world in which we cannot tell the public anything about information which is being suppressed, nor the proceedings which suppress it. It is doubly menacing when those restraints include the reporting of parliament itself.”
The gag order comes on the heels of Italy’s freedom press rally where thousand’s gathered protest in Rome’s central Piazza del Popolo against Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister. Berlusconi, owns three of Italy’s seven free-to-air TV channels, has also urged businessmen to stop placing ads in newspapers and magazines that attack him.
His critics say he also exerts considerable influence over state television RAI. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8289166.stm More commentary comes from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/oct/10/italy-press-freedom-berlusconi
The Index Censorship does and excellent job at tracking freedom of the press here http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2009/10/press-barred-from-reporting-parliamentary-question/.
In yet another example of censorship, the Malaysia government has decided to prosecute the company that published the new cartoon magazine Gedung Kartun for not having a permit. The interior ministry said Zunar’s company, Sepakat Efektif, would be prosecuted under section 5 (2) (b) of the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984 for “publication without a licence.” As its owner, Zunar faces up to three years in prison and a fine of up to 20 million ringgits. Guess who issues the license? The Malaysian government. http://www.rsf.org/spip.php?page=article&id_article=34658
Don’t for one minute think it doesn’t happen in America. Recall the brew ha ha over Ayers and the Obama’s hanging out at a dinner for Rashid Khalidi? The LA Times refused to release the tape and there we rewards issued for it, including one from Dune Capital. https://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/the-blago-rezko-and-obama-3-ring-circus/ Censored information or witheld information protecting now President Barack Obama? We have never seen the tape. Have you seen this one from Sean Hannity and Fox discussing Obama at Rashid Khalidi’s house, toasting the former PLO press director while anti-Israel comments fly about the room?
On September 25, 2009 at a forum, debate and roundtable at Columbia University “UNRWA historical performance in a changing context” – “Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University also made an appearance as the debate’s moderator—an indication of the spectrum of opinions present—deviating from his role as an objective overseer only to reiterate his colleagues’ anti-Israel and anti-Western diatribes.” http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/8525.
Rashid Khalidi continues to make appearances and thanks some freedom of the press his views remain public.
Democracy is freedom of the press. The World Press Freedom Index that Reporters Without Borders compiles every year and from the 2008 edition can be found here at http://www.rsf.org/Only-peace-protects-freedoms-in.html.
Good reading, writing and freedom of the press to you. Photos by respective © owners.
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UPDATED- GAG ORDER LIFTED on Trafigura! http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/13/guardian-gagged-parliamentary-question and like many assumed correctly.
Ahrcanum. Latin origin Arcanus. Mysterious, having special knowledge, information accessible or possesed only by the initiate. Secrets revealed.
Ahrcanum 