Peace & Justice

Reviewing the Book 'Myth of ‘Free Media’ and Fake News in the Post-Truth Era’

By Kannan Salazar

BANGKOK (IDN) – With Julian Assange’s “show trial” in progress in the UK for alleged national security breaches in the US, and a cold war era propaganda campaign between the Anglo-American media and China gathering momentum, a timely new book sheds some light on how the so-called “free media” has ditched its libertarian values.

The book titled Myth of ‘Free Media’ and Fake News in the Post-Truth Era published by SAGE 2020 and written by Sri Lankan born journalist and communication scholar Kalinga Seneviratne* challenges the Anglo-American media’s claim to be an objective ‘free media’. He maintains that the western media fails to understand that objectivity in news is subjective.

: Devendra Kamarajan; ARTS & CULTURE; 20 September 2020

Call for a Strengthened and Reformed United Nations System

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) – Ahead of the September 21 High-Level Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations, a group of prominent former government and UN leaders are calling on current world leaders to take action to strengthen the United Nations system.

According to the UN2020, in an Open Letter published on September 18, former UN and government officials from around the world are calling for the 75th anniversary to lead to “a stronger, more accountable, inclusive multilateral system.”

: J C Suresh; UN INSIDER; 18 September 2020

Photo: Bhikkhuh Sanghasena, a leading Buddhist monk based in the state capital Leh, led a procession of local spiritual leaders across the town centre. The spiritual leaders included not only Buddhists, but also Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Sikhs.

Ladakh Buddhist Monk Leads A Campaign for Peaceful Resolution of Border Conflict

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 43rd in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous reports.

SINGAPORE (IDN) – When India's Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation foreign ministers' meeting in Moscow on September 10, Wang noted that it was "normal for India and China to have differences as two neighbouring major countries".

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 12 September 2020

Photo: Kyle Rittenhouse (left, with backwards cap) walks along Sheridan Road in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on August 25, with another armed civilian. Adam Rogan/The Journal Times via AP.

Many Police Can Hardly Be Distinguished from Armed Vigilantes

Viewpoint by Sonali Kolhatkar

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations.

LOS ANGELES (IDN) – Police in America, whose mottos claim to “protect and serve” us, have been openly declaring allegiance with the forces of white supremacy. It is no coincidence that this has become a hallmark of Donald Trump’s presidency.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 11 September 2020

Photo: Zaina's mother, Cremesta, has moved into her daughter's home in Montepuez after fleeing from c UN Mozambique/Philip Hatcher-Moore conflict.

COVID-19 Pandemic Threatening Peace and Security

By Rosemary DiCarlo
UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs

Following are extensive excerpts from Ms DiCarlo's briefing to the Security Council on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on peace and security.

NEW YORK (IDN) – It is sobering to realize that the risks the Secretary-General identified to this Council on 2 July are manifesting in a number of countries across the world.

But we are also witnessing resilience, innovation and inclusive political action to mitigate the impact of some of them.

I would like to begin by highlighting three heightened risks.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 10 September 2020

Photo: One of the protests against President Trump in 2017. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Mass Direct Action Might Be the Only Way to Stop Trump from Stealing the Election

Viewpoint by George Lakey *

This article was originally published on Waging Nonviolence and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

PHILADELPHIA (IDN) – The warning drums for a contested election are beating louder and louder. At a recent campaign stop in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Trump once again laid the groundwork for not stepping down by saying, “The only way [the Democrats] are going to win is by a rigged election.”

The concern for what Trump might do in the absence of a landslide Biden victory has even led one bi-partisan group of experienced legal and political minds to run a “war-game” type experiment called the Transition Integrity Project.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 09 September 2020

Photo: Fires like this one in the city of Ventura, California, are likely to be more common, say University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) climate scientists. Credit: Ryan Cullom/Ventura County Fire Department.

Why The November U.S. Election Is Critical

Viewpoint by John Scales Avery *

COPENHAGEN (IDN) – Why did Prof. Noam Chomsky call the US Republican Party “The most dangerous organization in the history of the world”? He did so because the party is characterized by climate change denial and by support for giant fossil fuel corporations. According to the 2018 IPCC Report, the world has only a very short time left in which to stop the extraction and use of fossil fuels. If we collectively fail to do this within a decade or so, feedback loops may be initiated which will make human efforts to avoid catastrophic climate change useless. Much of the world could become uninhabitable, and a very large-scale mass extinction could be initiated.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 09 September 2020

Collage of the mass grave at the Killing Field of Choeung Ek with the leader of the Killing Fields on the left. Source: Wikimedia.

Death of The Leader Of "The Killing Fields" Raises Questions

Will there be more genocides that the world will ignore until it is too late?

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – One of the cruellest men ever to have lived died on September 2 in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Kaing Guek Eav, popularly known as “Duch”, was 77 and had been convicted of mass torture by the UN/Cambodian war crimes court. He was the only one of the five defendants to admit his crimes. In July 2010 in a trial I witnessed first-hand he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

According to Seth Mydans, the New York Times’s correspondent in Cambodia at the time of the rule of Pol Pot who founded the guerrilla movement, the Khmer Rouge, “he was a schoolteacher before the Khmer Rouge came to power. He took his revolutionary name from a children’s book about an obedient schoolboy named Duch. ‘I wanted to be a well-disciplined boy who respected the teachers and did good deeds’, he told the court.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 08 September 2020

Photo: The name "United Nations", coined by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt was first used in the Declaration by United Nations of 1 January 1942, during the Second World War, when representatives of 26 nations pledged their Governments to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers. Source: UN

Will the United Nations Survive To See Its 100th Birthday?

Viewpoints by Franz Baumann, Fmr. UN Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations and Christopher Ankersen, Global Affairs, New York University.

NEW YORK (IDN) – "Adlai Stevenson, President Kennedy’s Ambassador to the United Nations, rebutted UN critics by recounting Adam's marriage proposal to Eve. When she hesitated, Adam asked 'is there somebody else?' Stevenson concluded that much good had been done, also some harm, but there was nothing else. That was then," recalls Dr Franz Baumann, and adds: "What about now?"

The following is the first of two rounds of Dr Baumann's stimulating exchange with Dr Chris Ankersen posted on PAIRAGRAPH – A Hub of discourse between pairs of notable individuals. The second round will be launched in the next days also on the link: https://pairagraph.com/dialogue/f47ba870e06d4df2b0cccef483592d82.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 08 September 2020

Photo: The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny marches on Tverskaya street on 26 March 2017. CC BY-SA 4.0

Reactions to Navalny's Poisoning Aren't Much Ado About Nothing

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – Despite Western and European countries and many reputable international organizations calling for objective investigations that will inevitably establish facts about the alleged "poisoning" of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Russian officials have categorically turned down and confidently played against such suggestions.

He is a Russian opposition politician and anti-corruption activist. He came to international prominence by organizing demonstrations and running for political office, to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia, President Vladimir Putin, and Putin's government.