I had the pleasure of participating in France 24’s week-in-review program, The World This Week, on Friday, along with the IHT’s Tom Redburn and France 24’s Armen Georgian. Topics included the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the military coup in Niger and U.S.-China relations. Part one can be seen here. Part two can be seen here.
If it seems like journalists around the world are increasingly under fire, in jail or dying for doing their jobs, that’s because they are. From China to Egypt, to Somalia and the Philippines, more journalists died in 2009 than in any year since the Committee to Protect Journalists began tracking numbers. Seventy-one journalists worldwide lost their lives, according to the CPJ, with the Philippines, Somalia, Iraq and Pakistan seeing the most journalists killed on their soil in 2009. A further 136 journalists are currently imprisoned around the world, with China and Iran holding the highest number behind bars. The CPJ [...]
Greece’s financial crisis has brought to the surface the residual North versus South prejudice that lurks in the European Union. In private — or mostly so — Brussels officials from northern member countries tend to talk of Spain’s economic “plight,” but Greece’s “mess.” There is some sympathy for Madrid and its problems, but little more than irritation and impatience for Athens. As Greece’s fiscal crisis drags on, there is more wistful talk of an “extreme solution” that would require Greece to request a temporary suspension from the European monetary union. An exit clause in the Lisbon Treaty for member states [...]
