Same old, same old
Newspapers have long had a problem attracting a youthful readership.
Editors try everything: interviews with rock bands; articles by hip writers; putting the word SEX on the front page banner every day.
In Britain, tabloids add naked women into the mix, only to attract dirty old men and Madonna. Fearful of losing this share of the market, the broadsheets follow suit, though pretend their pictures of naked women accompany articles.
Serious and ethical journalism (available weekly in the World Diary) is getting rarer and rarer. The Diary, for example, would never accuse the British government of sexing up its case for going to war with Iraq. Certainly not at 6:07am.
But this is tricky. A few years ago, as he took over the executive editorship of the New York Times, Howell Raines complained about the standard of news these days. Not the way it was being reported, but the news itself. If the world is nothing but an endless repetition of depressing, dull and disillusioning events, why the hell should anyone care enough to read about it?
Actually, this is a good question. We are all numbed by the news. After a while, we become immune to learning about suicide bombings on civilians. It happens so often, you expect to read about it when you open your paper, watch it when you turn on your TV, hear about it on the radio. Youve seen it all before: war, famine, genocide. The world never gets any better. Human beings will never stop fighting each other for irrational reasons ... etcetera etcetera etcetera.
Raines gave a specific example. His paper is committed to reporting the news in an honest, fair and factual way, but what good does that do for sales? If every other day you lead with the latest spate of tedious death and destruction in the everlasting Israel-Palestine conflict, readers get tired. Young readers see a world that will never sort itself out and will continue to persist with conflicts that have nothing to do with them. Why even show an interest? The news hasnt changed for thirty years, why buy todays paper?
Always pondering these little conundrums, the Diary couldnt help thinking this week that Raines was on to something. A fortnight ago, Israels prime minister Ariel Sharon gave a speech in which he promised a withdrawal of Israeli settlements from the Gaza strip and much of the West Bank. This, he said, was the only way to save the nation of Israel.
The world reaction was divided. About a third of people were stupefied. Another third were sceptical. The rest gave up on this kind of thing long ago.
The Diary tried not to be cynical (and thereby stood accused of being impulsive). No, come on, it said, perhaps Sharon has reversed the policy of a lifetime, had an epiphany, gone mad, anything, as long as it leads to peace, who cares?
This week, the finance committee of the Israeli parliament approved $22 million in new funding for Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The money was originally allocated for housing assistance for young couples inside Israel.
Younger readers may as well log off now.
Another week, another dashing of our hopes. Sorry, folks. The World Diary cant do nuttin bout the World.
Snuff of that
Talking of snuffing youthful flames, lets go to China.
Internet dissident Du Daobin was formally arrested this week on charges of subversion (actually, he was arrested in October or November 2003 in China it takes three or four months for news to be announced). Du stands accused of writing 28 internet articles aimed at the overthrow of Chinas socialist system. (BBC)
In the words of a police spokesman, Du had overstepped his legal rights by criticising government work and government functionaries with good intentions and viciously incited subversion of state power through fabrications.
On 12 February, Human Rights in China announced that Dus case had been sent back to the Bureau of Public Security (otherwise known as the police) on the grounds of insufficient evidence to charge him with inciting subversion. It was thought Du would be released.
Five days later, the police claimed to have enough evidence of Dus support for democracy and freedom of expression. The authorities had already removed his legal representation. He languishes in prison, charged with nothing, denied visits from his family.
Meanwhile, journalist David Fang and photographer Mark Ralston of the South China Morning Post were questioned for several hours on 11 February for working on a report about avian (bird) flu in Baitangkou, near Tianjin. The authorities had imposed a ban on the presence of journalists in regions affected with the virus. Zhong Yangsheng, deputy governor of the Guangdong province, claimed the birds had died due to poisoning or accidents, not the flu.
Dry that one out and you could fertilise the lawn.
Chinas official government press have been called in to confirm that the authorities and peasants have proceeded with the elimination and cleanup of chicken farming. But the Yangtze Evening News and the Nanjing Daily are under official investigation for reporting that thousands of birds fell out of the sky in Taizhou, birthplace of Chinese president Hu Jintao. This type of article does not contribute to stability, said a top official.
In Paris last month, a demonstration by Reporters sans frontiers was broken up by the police. As the Eiffel Tower was bathed in communist red, and Hu Jintao spoke before the French parliament, activists released red balloons bearing the pictures of journalists and cyber-dissidents imprisoned back in China (see the list). The French gendarmes burst the balloons and herded the protestors into the Metro.
(Sources: Reporters sans frontières, HRIC, BBC)
Click here to sign a petition demanding the release of Du Daobin
Trouble brewing
And to depress you even further...
We all know about the rising spate of anti-semitic attacks in France (and the EUs efforts to suppress evidence of them), but in Britain this week, the Jewish Community Security Trust reported a significant rise in attacks on the homes of high-profile Jews over the last few years (including MPs considered pro-Israeli).
In March and April 2003, during war in Iraq, there were 75 reported incidents. In October 2000 alone there were 105 reported attacks (coinciding with the start of the second intifada in Palestine). In 2002 350 separate anti-semitic attacks were reported.
As in France, the attacks are believed to be the combined work of the far right and Islamic extremists, or Palestinian and Islamist sympathisers.
Meanwhile, in Russia this weekend, forty Jewish graves were vandalised and painted with swastikas in a cemetery in St. Petersburg.
(The European Commission finally got round to hosting a joint seminar on European anti-semitism this week.)
(Sources: The Independent, BBC, AP)
Better the devil you know?
Still not convinced nothing changes?
OK, lets head to Haiti.
As the Diary was being written, Haiti looked set to have its 33rd coup. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. One-third of Haitian children are malnourished. As P.J. ORourke once said, The humans in Haiti have hope. They hope to leave.
For those of you not up to speed on the current situation, let the Diary nutshell it for you: its the same as ever. Theres no good side to this. President Aristide, once the hero of the poor, stands accused of rigging elections, keeping order by murderous armed gang, and failing to improve the lot of Haitians (whose lot has always been miniscule at best). About 70 people have been killed in the recent troubles.
So the average Haitian has had enough of their Prez. But this is Haiti. Dont expect the good guys to take over.
As the country falls into chaos (or more chaos), the ringleaders of the opposition forces have started to show their faces (and most of them are hidden behind dark glasses).
In the city of Gonaives, the rebel group is known as the Artibonite Resistance Front. These guys go by another name: the Cannibal Army.
Get the picture?
Lydia Polgreen of the New York Times watched Butteur Métayer give a news conference, announcing how hed seized control of the city. Once a leader in one of Aristides gangs, Métayer switched sides when his brother was killed (by Aristide, he says). Polgreen described the smell of rum heavy on his breath. The Associated Press reported shots being fired as crowds of hungry residents chased lorries full of lentils and millet, delivered by the aid agency Care. The price of rice has doubled. In a gesture of moving solidarity, the Dominican Republic has closed its borders to Haitians fleeing the troubles.
But the gates are open to rebel reinforcements heading to Haiti. These unsavoury characters include Louis-Jodel Chamblain, leader of the death squads in the 1980s, and responsible for many of the atrocities that followed the 1991 coup as leader of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (Fraph). Fraph and the army killed more than 5,000 people and pigs were eating their corpses, said Aristide. And today Fraph is back.
But heres the real confirmation of the Diarys well-warranted pessimism: when asked if the US planned on intervening (again) to save Haiti, US secretary of state Colin Powell summed it up perfectly: there is frankly no enthusiasm.
Has Colin gone the way of the young reader who gets turned off politics by the sheer repetitiveness of it all?
Can you blame him?
Against American wishes, the French might intervene. Foreign minister Dominique de Villepin said what youd expect: We are in contact with all of our partners in the framework of the United Nations. He also said, We have important assets close to Haiti.
Seeking international support, Aristide said the magic word: A group of terrorists are breaking democratic order.
Its a worldwide phenomenon!
The Haitian people want to live in dignity, Aristide added, mirroring P.J. ORourke. We dont sell our dignity.
But the Diary saves the last word for Dieuline Ménard, a 17-year-old student quoted in the NYT: If Aristide stays or goes, we still will not eat.
Figures of the week
41%
The number of Poles who think their country will lose more than it gains when it joins the European Union on 1 May.
10 billion trillion trillion
The number of carats in Lucy, the diamond star discovered this week by astronomers
Quotes of the week
Europe will not sustain and has no need for any directorate. This meeting looks like a mess to me. My opinion is shared by the majority of states.
Silvio Berlusconi, Italys prime minister, on the exclusive meeting of the leaders of Britain, France and Germany in Berlin.
Its urgent. Europe is going to expand on May 1. We must give ourselves rules.
French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin defending the meeting.
It must be possible for Britain to meet with more than two countries at a time and less than twenty-five.
British foreign secretary Jack Straw
If we turn it over to others, we lose control of Iraqs destiny.
A top official in the office of either US vice-president Dick Cheney or secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld as quoted in U.N.Wire
We are not convinced why the president has urged the people to participate in the election and we are not satisfied with the call.
Iranian MP Reza Yusefian breaking taboo and criticising supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Contact the Diary: dominic.hilton@openDemocracy.net
