Israeli parliament vote deals setback to Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan


By — Josef Federman,

 Associated Press

Jun 14, 2023 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s parliament on Wednesday appointed an opposition lawmaker to the powerful committee that picks the country’s judges, defying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a vote that exposed divisions within the ruling coalition and raised questions about his control over his political allies.

The vote appeared to temporarily avert a crisis that had threatened to unleash renewed political turmoil over Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul plan.

The opposition had threatened to withdraw from negotiations with Netanyahu over the overhaul if its candidate, Karine Elharrar, was not named to the committee. Despite Elharrar’s appointment on Wednesday, the opposition said it would nonetheless suspend talks with Netanyahu until the second vacancy on the committee is filled and it can resume work.

“No committee, no talks,” opposition leader Yair Lapid said.

Netanyahu accused his opponents of trying “to blow up the dialogue.”

Netanyahu’s government unveiled the judicial overhaul days after taking office last December, saying the plan was needed to rein in an interventionist judiciary. Netanyahu’s opponents say the plan is a way for the far-right coalition — a collection of ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties — to gain control over the judicial system, threatening the country’s system of checks and balances.

READ MORE: Israelis block roads in protest against Netanyahu judicial overhaul plan

The proposal has prompted hundreds of thousands of Israelis to take part in mass demonstrations each week against the proposed overhaul. The demonstration prompted Netanyahu to freeze the plan in March and open negotiations, brokered by the country’s figurehead president, aimed at reaching a compromise with his opponents.

The committee for appointing judges — which, among other things, approves the makeup of the Supreme Court — has been a central battleground in the overhaul plan.

Both the governing coalition and the opposition traditionally are represented on the nine-member committee. But proponents of the overhaul had demanded that the coalition control both positions, drawing accusations that Netanyahu and his allies were trying to stack the judiciary with cronies.

The votes, cast anonymously, raised doubts about Netanyahu’s control over his coalition.

Netanyahu ordered his allies to oppose all candidates, including its own members, in a maneuver that he hoped would delay all appointments until another vote a month from now.

But in the secret ballot, several coalition members joined the opposition in supporting Elharrar’s appointment in a 58-56 vote. A second candidate, Tally Gotliv of Netanyahu’s Likud party, mustered just 15 votes and did not clear the threshold. That means parliament will have to fill the post in the coming month.

EXPLAINER: How Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan sparked massive turmoil in Israel

Lapid said it was “good news” that an opposition member would remain on the judicial selection committee. But he said was problematic that there is still no committee.

“Netanyahu today prevented its establishment, putting an end to the pretense that he was open to negotiations,” he said.

“Netanyahu used to be a liar and powerful. Now he is a liar and weak,” he said. “The committee was not established, the threat to democracy is not removed.”

In a video statement, Netanyahu said his opponents were to blame, noting that they froze the talks even after getting what they wanted.

“Gantz and Lapid don’t want real negotiations,” he said. “I promise the citizens of Israel, unlike them, we will act responsibly for our country.”

Since the overhaul was paused in March, the weekly protests have continued to draw tens of thousands of people. The protesters are set to demonstrate for a 24th week on Saturday.

Anticipating protests over the vote on Wednesday, police set up barriers outside the parliament building and next to Netanyahu’s home in central Jerusalem. But the protests were called off after the opposition lawmaker’s appointment.

Associated Press writer Laurie Kellman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed reporting.

Netanyahu's coalition suffers embarrassing defeat in Israel

• Barak Ravid, author of Axios from Tel Aviv

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu votes in the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem today. 

Photo: Menahem Khana/AFP via Getty Images

In one of the most dramatic days for Israel's parliament this year, the Israeli opposition won a crucial vote when its lawmaker was elected as one of the two Knesset representatives on the committee that appoints judges.

Why it matters: The results of the vote dealt an embarrassing defeat to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition and the supporters of the government's plan to weaken the Supreme Court and other democratic institutions.

• But for Netanyahu, this is perhaps the best result he could have hoped for as he struggles to put the drama over the judicial overhaul plan behind him, while also keeping his coalition together.

Flashback: Israel faced political and economic instability and unprecedented social unrest since Netanyahu's government announced its plan to weaken the country's Supreme Court in January.

• The government also faced mounting pressure from the U.S. and other allies to suspend the legislation and ensure any judicial reforms were based on a broad consensus in Israel.
• In late March, Netanyahu suspended the legislation to allow for negotiations between his coalition and the opposition to take place under the auspices of President Isaac Herzog.

How it happened: The Knesset voted on Wednesday to elect the two lawmakers who will serve on the committee that appoints judges. Historically, the coalition and the opposition each have one representative on the committee.

• The system of appointing judges and the formation of the committee are the most sensitive issues in the government’s judicial overhaul plan. The plan envisions a takeover by the coalition on the process of appointing judges.
• Netanyahu in recent days made clear to Herzog, Israeli opposition leaders and the Biden administration that he would maintain the status quo regarding the formation of the committee and not divert from tradition.
• By doing that, Netanyahu would have given a clear signal that the main parts of the original judicial overhaul were dead and that he was heading toward a deal on a compromise formula that would get a broad consensus.

Yes, but: When Netanyahu convened the leaders of the coalition to make a final decision this morning, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who is leading the judicial overhaul, and the leaders of the far-right parties pressed the Israeli prime minister to elect two members of the coalition to the committee.

• Under that pressure, Netanyahu decided to backtrack on his original plan. He ordered the coalition candidates to withdraw and told his coalition members to cast their ballots against the opposition candidate with the aim to ensure that no lawmaker was elected to the committee.

But, but, but: The results of the vote were delayed, prompting rumors that the coalition's plan may have gone awry.

• When the results were finally announced, it became clear that the opposition representative received 58 votes in favor and only 56 votes against.
• This meant that four members of the coalition voted against the decision of their party leaders.

State of play.... Netanyahu and his coalition now have two primary options: call another vote in 30 days to choose the second representative for the committee, likely a member of the coalition, or stall, which would block the committee from forming.

• Following the vote, opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz announced they were suspending the negotiations with the coalition on the judicial overhaul until the coalition appoints its representative.

Our thought bubble: For Netanyahu, who wants to compromise and was concerned by a possible collapse of the overall negotiations, more anti-government protests and a crisis with the White House, this is quite a good result.

• But the results of the vote are also likely to increase the pressure on Netanyahu from his far-right partners and exacerbate the tensions within the coalition and his Likud party, which is divided on the issue of the judicial overhaul.

The US wants Europe to buy American weapons; the EU has other ideas

Washington wants European defense euros to go to American companies; EU leaders hope to boost their own industries.

Illustration by Doug Chayka for POLITICO

BY PAUL MCLEARY AND SUZANNE LYNCH
JUNE 14, 2023 

At NATO summit after NATO summit, European leaders get a clear public message from Washington — increase spending on defense.

In private, there’s another message that’s just as clear — make sure a lot of that extra spending goes on U.S. weapons.
European leaders are resisting.

“We must develop a genuinely European defense technological and industrial base in all interested countries, and deploy fully sovereign equipment at European level,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the GLOBSEC conference in Bratislava last month.

The decades of cajoling from Washington are paying off. Although most EU countries aren’t yet meeting NATO’s target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense, the alliance has seen eight years of steady spending increases. In 2022, spending by European countries was up by 13 percent to $345 billion — almost a third higher than a decade ago — much of it a reaction to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Now the question is how that money will be spent.

The U.S. wants to ensure that European countries — which already spend about half of their defense purchasing on American kit — don’t make a radical switch to spending more of that money at home.

Some European leaders are hoping that’s exactly what happens, but it’s an open question whether the Continent’s defense industry can make that happen.

“Traditionally, there was a suspicion about a change in Europe’s defense capabilities which dates back more than 25 years,” said Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia, Eurasia Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “What direction would the EU go, would it mean the EU would decouple from NATO, what would the impact be on U.S. defense industrial policy?”

 
Buying at home

The current tensions in Brussels are over whether new EU-wide defense policy should be limited to EU companies — a position driven by Macron and Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, a Frenchman. That confirms suspicions stateside about European protectionism when it comes to allowing U.S. companies to compete for EU contracts.

“Our plan is to directly support, with EU money, the effort to ramp up our defense industry, and this for Ukraine and for our own security,” Breton said last month.

But there’s an uncomfortable fact for the backers of European strategic autonomy: When it comes to arms, Europe still depends on the U.S.

While European companies have deep expertise in defense — building everything from France’s Rafale fighter to Germany’s Leopard tank and Poland’s man-portable Piorun air-defense system — the scale of the U.S. arms industry, as well as its technological innovation, makes it attractive for European weapons buyers.

The most common big-ticket item is Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, at a cost of $80 million a pop. There is also an immediate surge in demand for off-the-shelf items like shoulder-fired missiles and artillery shells.

“Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European states want to import more arms, faster,” said a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Buying abroad

The war in Ukraine has underscored the dominance of the U.S. defense industry.

A host of European countries are buying Javelin anti-tank missiles produced by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin; Poland this year signed a $1.4 billion deal to buy 116 M1A1 Abrams tanks, as well as another $10 billion agreement to buy High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems produced by Lockheed Martin; Slovakia is buying F-16 fighters, while Romania is in talks to buy F-35s.

Those deals are raising fears in Europe over whether they can wean themselves off of U.S. defense suppliers. In one example, France and Germany worry about Spain’s intentions as it kicks the tires on F-35s while also being a partner in developing the European Future Combat Air System jet fighter.

But the need to restock weapons depots and continue shipping materiel to Ukraine is urgent, and after decades of contraction, the Continent’s defense industry is having a difficult time adjusting.

“Our European allies and partners, they’ve never experienced anything like this,” said a senior U.S. Defense Department official, referring to the spasm of spending brought on by Russia’s invasion. The official was granted anonymity to discuss the situation. “They don’t yet have the defense production authorities they need [to move quickly] and they’ve really been looking to us to try to get a handle on how they can increase production, and I think they’re learning a lot from us.”

To help Europe get there, the United States has expanded the number of bilateral security supply arrangements it has with foreign partners since the Russian invasion, signing new agreements with Latvia, Denmark, Japan and Israel since October. These allow countries to more quickly and easily sell and trade defense-related goods and services.

The Biden administration also signed an administrative arrangement with the European Union in late April to establish working groups on supply-chain issues, while giving both sides a seat at the table in internal meetings at the European Defence Agency and the Pentagon.

But there are limits to how far and how fast both sides are able and willing to go.

In the near term, capacity issues and political will means the rhetorical sea change in EU military spending is unlikely to make a huge dent in U.S. military industrial policy.

While the past 18 months have seen a huge spike in defense budgets — Germany announced a special debt-financed fund worth €100 billion after the Russian invasion of Ukraine; Poland’s defense expenditure is set to reach 4 percent of GDP this year — EU-wide projects are facing significant headwinds. European companies say they need longer lead times and long-term contracts to make needed investments.

“You need that visibility and certainty to make those investments. We’re in a chicken game between governments and industry — who are the first ones that are putting the money on the table,” said Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, director of the military expenditure and arms production program at SIPRI.

Ultimately, the global defense boom means that there should be plenty of military spending to go around, at least in the short term as countries rush to prove their worth to their NATO and EU allies and the Russian threat remains acute.

Paul McLeary reported from Washington and Suzanne Lynch from Brussels.

SEE 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

Guatemalan court convicts prominent journalist José Rubén Zamora

Critics have denounced the case against investigative journalist Jose Ruben Zamora as an attack on press freedom.

Journalist José Rubén Zamora is escorted in handcuffs to a court hearing in Guatemala City on May 30

 [File: Moises Castillo/AP Photo]

By Jeff Abbott
Published On 14 Jun 2023

An award-winning journalist in Guatemala has been convicted on criminal charges, in what human rights observers call yet another blow to press freedom and democracy in the Central American country.

José Rubén Zamora, a 66-year-old journalist and newspaper founder, was sentenced to six years in prison for money laundering.

In his final comments before the verdict on Wednesday, Zamora proclaimed his innocence, saying his rights had been violated during the court proceedings.

“They treated us like criminals,” he said of the authorities who pursued the case. “They destroyed evidence.”

In announcing Wednesday’s verdict, the court in Guatemala City claimed Zamora had “harmed the Guatemalan economy”. The public prosecutor’s office had sought a 40-year sentence in the case.

Zamora, however, was acquitted on charges of blackmail and influence peddling.

The journalist, known for exposing corruption in Guatemala, still faces two other criminal cases, one pertaining to signatures on customs documents that did not match. That case was filed just days ahead of the sentencing.

The trial that concluded on Wednesday lasted only 11 sessions — held over 20 days — and has generated widespread concern and condemnation.

“My father is innocent,” the journalist’s son Jose Zamora told Al Jazeera ahead of Wednesday’s conviction.

“The [Guatemalan] state has kidnapped him,” he said. “They have subjected him, within this fabricated case, to a process that has been totally a violation of his due process.”

While the public prosecutor’s office has long maintained the case against Zamora was not about his journalism, critics say the accusations and rapid nature of the trial suggest otherwise.

The case stems from allegations made by Ronald Garcia Navarijo, a former banker accused of corruption, about a deposit of $38,000 that Zamora allegedly asked someone to make on his behalf, as part of a money-laundering scheme.

The Salvadoran newspaper El Faro reported that prosecutors prepared the case against Zamora within 72 hours of receiving the accusation.

Zamora was arrested in July 2022 and kept in pre-trial detention without being able to make his first appearance before the judge for nearly two weeks.

Other irregularities occurred throughout the trial, including Zamora being forced to change lawyers eight times, with at least four of his lawyers facing criminal charges related to the case.

Human rights observers have accused the administration of Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei of lashing out against anti-corruption advocates and the press [File: Moises Castillo/AP Photo]

Zamora and the newspaper he founded in 1996, El Periodico, have long worked to expose government misconduct. The paper has played a key part in uncovering alleged corruption in the current administration of President Alejandro Giammattei, publishing over 120 investigations into the government since January 2020.

But El Periodico was forced to close on May 15 amid the fallout from the Zamora case. Its journalists were investigated, and the newsroom had been targeted multiple times in recent years for tax audits.

In a statement, El Periodico’s leadership blamed “persecution” for shuttering the newsroom, as well as “the harassment of our advertisers”. Both Zamora’s case and El Periodico’s closure have raised concerns in the international community.

“They’re using all these tools to basically put [Zamora] out of business,” Carlos Martinez de la Serna, programme director with the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, told Al Jazeera.

“[This is] sending a very chilling message to journalists — that basically reporting on corruption is a crime,” he said.

Journalist Jose Ruben Zamora is seen on his first day of trial on May 2 

[File: Santiago Billy/AP Photo]

Attacks on press freedom

As the case against Zamora comes to a close, another case against journalists from El Periodico is set to begin.

In February, a judge authorised the investigation of nine journalists and columnists from El Periodico on charges of “conspiracy to obstruct justice”, following a request from the lead prosecutor in Zamora’s case. The charges stem from the publishing of stories critical of the legal proceedings against Zamora.

On June 5, the public prosecutor’s office officially requested all the stories published since July by the journalists and columnists in the case.

But the persecution against journalists extends beyond El Periodico’s newsroom, according to observers.

“The press is being harassed at the level of exposure of Jose Ruben Zamora, as well as other low-profile journalists and even community journalists,” Renzo Rosal, a political scientist at Guatemala’s Landivar University, told Al Jazeera.

“Journalists who carry out their work in the interior of the country are victims of the same logic: the logic of persecution, the logic of criminalisation, so that no one investigates anything,” he explained.

Journalists protest the arrest of Jose Ruben Zamora, holding up a copy of the newspaper he founded, El Periodico

 [File: Moises Castillo/AP Photo]

Critics say the criminalisation of journalists has become further entrenched since President Giammattei took the oath of office in 2020. A number of renowned journalists have been forced into exile, while others have faced criminal charges and threats.

For example, Anastasia Mejía, a community journalist in Joyabaj, Quiche, was arrested in 2020 on charges of sedition and arson following her coverage of protests against the mayor of the largely Indigenous municipality in Guatemala’s western highlands. The charges were dropped a year after she was first accused.

In another case from 2022, Carlos Choc, a community journalist from the eastern municipality of El Estor, faced the criminal charge of “instigation to commit a crime” following his coverage of anti-mining protests.

Eventually, Choc was exonerated, but the threats against journalists in El Estor remain, as police continue to intimidate other journalists working in the area.

Journalists protest outside the Supreme Court in Guatemala City on March 4 after an investigation was announced into nine El Periodico reporters

 [File: Wilder Lopez/AP Photo]

Rolling back democracy

The verdict in the Zamora case comes within days of Guatemala’s general election on June 25, which has likewise been plagued by controversy.

The country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal has ruled to exclude three presidential candidates from the race on charges of noncompliance with the country’s election laws. Those disqualifications — which targeted at least one frontrunner — have raised questions about the fairness of the elections and Guatemala’s democratic institutions.

“Today the elections are another indicator of serious democratic erosion,” Rosal says.

Human rights observers have warned that Guatemala has recently seen a sharp rollback of its democracy and its anti-corruption efforts, even beyond the upcoming elections.


Nearly four years ago, the administration of former President Jimmy Morales oversaw the closure of the International Commission Against Impunity (CICIG), a United Nations-backed initiative to address crime and corruption that enjoyed public support of 70 percent.

Giammattei’s administration has continued the trend of dismantling anti-corruption bulwarks, through prosecution of the judges, lawyers and activists involved in those efforts.

Lawyer Eva Siomara Sosa, a former employee for the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI), wears handcuffs after her first court hearing in Guatemala City in 2022 [File: Luis Echeverria/Reuters]

Accusations of corruption have also permeated the Guatemalan public prosecutor’s office in recent years. Both Attorney General Maria Consuelo Porras, who was controversially re-elected in May 2022, and Rafael Curruchiche, head of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Against Impunity, have been sanctioned by the United States for corruption and anti-democratic actions.

Critics say Guatemala is currently undergoing its greatest challenge since the country’s return to democracy in 1985, after decades of military rule. Back then, those democratic reforms paved the way for the 1996 peace accords that brought an end to the country’s 36-year-long internal conflict.

But for those who lived through those tumultuous times, Guatemala’s current democratic crisis is a painful setback.

“I struggled for the peace process so that there would be peace in Guatemala,” said Claudia Samayoa, a founder of the Human Rights Defenders Protection Unit in Guatemala (UDEFEGUA). Her organisation grew out of the peace accords and sought to implement its terms in the post-conflict period.

But Samoyoa explained that UDEFEGUA has likewise come under attack, with its leadership facing accusations of influence peddling in relation to Zamora’s case. The organisation has denied those allegations, dismissing them as a smear campaign against its human rights work.

“We have regressed in the exercise of the most basic right of defence,” Samayoa said. “These cases are backwards.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

 PRESS FREEDOM

‘News Deserts’ Are Rampant in Latin America

By Humberto Márquezl

A photo of journalists dedicated to covering the agendas of nearby communities, like these ones in a town in Colombia, is uncommon in poor areas of Latin American countries, where millions of people have no access to information of local interest. CREDIT: Chasquis Foundation

CARACAS, Jun 14 2023 (IPS) - Without the means to receive information about what is happening around them, millions of Latin Americans who live in poor remote rural or impoverished urban areas inhabit veritable news deserts, according to an increasing number of studies conducted by journalistic organizations in the region.

There are, for example, 29 million people in Brazil, 10 million in Colombia, seven million in Venezuela and up to three-quarters of the Argentine territory without access to journalism due to the absence of media outlets, or because the few existing local outlets are dedicated to entertainment, rather than news.

“When we talk about information deserts, we are also talking about what a robust media ecosystem implies: that there are not only enough media outlets, but also pluralism.” -- Jonathan Bock

“When we talk about information deserts, we are also talking about what a robust media ecosystem implies: that there are not only enough media outlets, but also pluralism,” said Jonathan Bock, director of the Colombian Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP).

This plurality must encompass “the topics that are covered, diversity of formats, media that address different audiences. A healthy ecosystem,” Bock added in a conversation with IPS from the Colombian capital.

A Jun. 7 forum organized by the Venezuelan branch of the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) displayed atlases and maps on news deserts in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, based on research by organizations of journalists and academics from those countries.

Even without extrapolating from the results of these assessments, it is possible to estimate that news deserts affect a good part of the region, judging by the structural deficiencies of the population, and by conflictive situations in the media and journalism in nations such as those of Central America and the Andes.

“The social and geographical marginalization found in parts of our countries means that important segments of the population are in these news deserts. For example, indigenous populations lacking media outlets in their languages,” Andrés Cañizález, founder and director of the Venezuelan observatory Medianálisis, told IPS.

Journalistic organizations from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela show maps or atlases that indicate, using colors, the most and least deserted areas in terms of access to news in their respective countries. CREDIT: IPS

Atlases and statistics

A study by the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA), coordinated by Irene Benito, took a census of 560 areas in that country and considered 47.9 percent of them news deserts, 25.2 percent in “semi-desert” conditions, 17.1 percent as “semi-forests”, and 9.8 percent as “forests”, or areas with an abundance of media outlets and news.

“As in other Latin American nations, in many areas there are media outlets and journalists, but there is no quality coverage. They deal with other things, not the interests of their communities, while the propaganda apparatus of the powers-that-be is in overly robust health,” Benito said in the IPYS forum.

In Brazil, the most recent News Atlas, released in March, recorded the existence of 13,734 media outlets in that country of 208 million inhabitants, but not a single one in 312 of its 5,568 municipalities. These 312 municipalities are home to 29.3 million people with no access to local news.

Although hundreds of online media outlets emerge every year “and now more municipalities have at least one or two media outlets, many are not independent or are biased, because they depend on the city government or religious movements,” said Cristina Zahar, from the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (ARAJI).

In a third of Colombia, where 10 of the country’s 50 million inhabitants live – many areas far from the big cities – there are no mass media, and in another third, home to 16 million people, the existing media outlets are dedicated to entertainment, according to FLIP’s Cartography of Information.

In Venezuela, seven million people live in municipalities where there are no media outlets, and that figure rises to 15 million – in a country of 28 million people – if municipalities with only one or two media outlets, considered “semi-deserts”, are included, according to IPYS.

Unlike other countries, “the situation has worsened, with the massive closure of radio stations ordered by the government – at least 81 in 2022 alone, and 285 since 2003 – with radio being the medium that has the greatest penetration in remote areas,” Daniela Alvarado, head of freedom of information at IPYS, told IPS.

Remote rural areas far from the main cities and often in border regions are among the most affected by deficient infrastructure and lack of media outlets that enable local residents access to general information about their local environment and possibilities of participation in decisions that concern them. CREDIT: ECLAC

Exclusion, once again

In the case of Colombia, one cause for the breadth of news deserts is violence, “war, one of whose strategic aims is to pressure or close down news, journalism that can reveal, report, warn and monitor what happens in areas of conflict,” said Bock.

In 45 years of armed conflict in Colombia, 165 journalists were murdered, “strategic killings, because they reported on things, and became symbols,” Bock stressed.

“But it also has to do with a different kind of exclusion, of weak economies and little interest on the part of politics and government institutions in promoting independent and plural journalism, seen in some contexts as the enemy, and with society getting used to it and not demanding” independent reporting, the Colombian analyst said.

Another thing that has happened in countries in the region is that “traditional media, and many new digital outlets, emerged and are concentrated where there was already an audience and sources of advertising, which is combined with pre-existing inequalities to create an abyss between big cities and small towns and the countryside,” said Cañizález.

In news deserts, infrastructure failures abound and there are absences or deficiencies in internet services, with providers that do not access these territories, aggravating the situation of local inhabitants who often only have simple mobile phones and cannot obtain news and information through digital or social networks.

However, news deserts are not exclusive to rural, remote or border areas; in cities themselves there is a dearth of local media outlets, or the outlets have their own agendas on issues in poor urban communities, which are also impacted by the crises that face journalism in general.

This is the case of Venezuela, which “is caught up in a complex and continuous economic, political and social crisis that has led to the deterioration of its media ecosystem,” Alvarado said, adding that it also faces “a communicational hegemony (on the part of the State) that is manifested in censorship and self-censorship.”

Newspapers and television stations were driven to shut down, by government decision or suffocated due to lack of paper and advertising, or their sale paved the way for their closure; or, as in the case of many radio stations, closure is a constant looming threat. Online media suffer from internet cuts and harassment of their journalists.

Even in urban areas, such as this one in Caracas, the adverse climate of news deserts has an impact, for example with the closure of print media outlets caused by political decisions or economic crises, which forces traditional kiosks to subsist by replacing newspapers, which are no longer available, with candy and snacks. CREDIT: Public domain

What can be done?

“The challenge seems immeasurable, but we are not sitting quietly by, we must not give up on what is our right as a community public service,” said Benito.

The State “should promote, at least in the area of ​​its competence, which is radio, television and internet, inclusive policies throughout the nation’s territory, guaranteeing basic rights, including the right to communication and information for all citizens,” stated Cañizález.

Zahar said that “sustainability is the challenge,” due to the difficulties many new media outlets, local or not, face in supporting themselves, and the advantages of digital media “that have fewer barriers to entry, can experiment with formats and financing mechanisms, and make quick changes.”

Bock said “we must think about the financing of journalism where there are fragile economies, see it as a public service but an independent one, to address the training of people practicing journalism in those places.”

Together with the support of the government and the international community, “models could be developed in which the big media sponsor local media in very small places or where there is clearly a news desert,” Cañizález said.

“But that’s still not even discussed in a number of our countries,” he said. “It is an issue that concerns journalism but has not drawn public attention. The debate is still very much confined to reporters.”

 

What will the UN high seas treaty mean for protecting the ocean?

Agence France-Presse
June 15, 2023

Ocean Wave AFP

The world's first international treaty on the high seas, set to be adopted by the United Nations on Monday, contains landmark tools for the conservation and management of international waters.

International waters -- outside the jurisdiction of any single state -- cover more than 60 percent of the world's oceans.

Ocean ecosystems create half the oxygen humans breathe and limit global warming by absorbing much of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activities.

Once adopted, the UN treaty will go into force 120 days after 60 countries have ratified it.

Here are the key points of the text approved in March. The final version to be voted on has not yet been published.
Ocean under threat

The treaty begins by recognizing "the need to address, in a coherent and cooperative manner, biodiversity loss and degradation of ecosystems of the ocean."

These impacts include the warming of ocean waters along with their loss of oxygen, acidification, mounting plastics and other pollutants, as well as overfishing.

The text specifies that it will apply to waters beyond countries' exclusive economic zones, which extend to a maximum of 200 nautical miles from the coasts.

It also covers what is known as "the Area", shorthand for seabed and subsoil beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. The Area comprises just over half of the planet's seabed.


The Conference of the Parties (COP) will have to navigate the authority of other regional and global organizations.

Chief among these are regional fisheries bodies and the International Seabed Authority, which oversees permits for deep-sea mining exploration in some areas and may soon make the controversial move of allowing companies to mine beyond current test runs.

Marine protected areas

Currently, almost all protected marine areas (MPAs) are within national territorial waters.

The treaty, however, allows for these reserves to be created in the open ocean.

Most decisions would be taken by a consensus of the COP, but an MPA can be voted into existence with a three-quarters majority, to prevent deadlock caused by a single country.

One crucial shortcoming: the text does not say how these conservation measures will be monitored and enforced over remote swathes of the ocean -- a task that will fall to the COP.

Some experts say satellites could be used to spot infractions.

Individual countries are already responsible for certain activities on the high seas that they have jurisdiction over, such as those of ships flying their flags.

Sharing the bounty?

On the high seas, countries and entities under their jurisdiction will be allowed to collect animal, plant, or microbial matter whose genetic material might prove useful, even commercially.

Scientists, for example, have discovered molecules with the potential to treat cancer or other diseases in microbes scooped up in sediment, or produced by sponges or marine mollusks.

Benefits-sharing of those resources has been a key point of contention between wealthy and poorer nations.

The treaty establishes frameworks for the transfer of marine research technologies to developing countries and a strengthening of their research capacities, as well as open access to data.

But it's left to the COP to decide exactly how any monetary benefits will eventually be shared, with options including a system based on specific commercialized products, or more generalized payment systems.

Environmental impact studies

The treaty requires signatories to assess the environmental impacts of planned activities under their control on the high seas before they are authorized in instances when such activities may have more than a minor or transitory effect.

It also calls for countries to assess the potential impact on international waters of activities within national jurisdictions that may cause "substantial pollution" or harm the high sea marine environment.

Ultimately, states are responsible for giving the green light to any potentially harmful activity -- a role NGOs hoped would go to the COP, to make controversial approvals more difficult.

The treaty also requires states to publish updates on an activity's environmental impacts. Approvals can be called into question if unanticipated impacts arise.

Though they are not specifically listed in the treaty, activities that could come under regulation include transport and fishing, as well as more controversial subjects such as deep-sea mining or even geo-engineering initiatives to mitigate global warming.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for DEEP SEA MINING 

Amid melting glaciers, Swiss to vote on new climate law

Agence France-Presse
June 15, 2023,

 
Supporters of the Swiss climate law point to the dramatic melting of glaciers in the Swiss Alps, which lost a third of their ice volume between 2001 and 2022

© Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP/File

The Swiss, feeling the impact of global warming on their rapidly melting glaciers, are expected Sunday to approve a new climate bill aimed at swiftly steering the country towards carbon neutrality.

The referendum, one of several issues in Sunday's round of votes, is over a proposed law that would commit Switzerland to slashing its dependence on imported oil and gas, and to scaling up the development and use of greener and more home-grown alternatives.

The bill, which would also commit Switzerland to becoming carbon neutral by 2050, enjoys strong public backing, though it has seen support slip in the latest survey by pollsters gfs.bern to 63 percent in favor.

The populist right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) -- Switzerland's largest party -- has been ramping up its calls for voters to reject the bill, warning it could harm the economy.
The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard

Supporters emphasize the need for more energy independence and to address the ravages of climate change, highlighted by the dramatic melting of glaciers in the Swiss Alps, which lost a third of their ice volume between 2001 and 2022.

The wealthy Alpine nation imports around three-quarters of its energy, with all the oil and natural gas consumed coming from abroad.

The proposed "Federal Act on Climate Protection Targets, Innovation and Strengthening Energy Security" would aim to reduce the dependence on other countries and also cut environmental pollution.

Fossil fuel ban?

The government proposed the law as an alternative to an effort by climate activists, dubbed the Glacier Initiative, for a popular vote on a total ban on all oil and gas consumption in Switzerland by 2050.

The government balked at the ban idea but drew up a counter-proposal including other elements from the initiative.

The text promises financial support of two billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion) over a decade to promote the replacement of gas or oil heating systems with climate-friendly alternatives, as well as aid to push businesses towards green innovation.

Nearly all of Switzerland's major parties support the bill, except the SVP, which triggered the referendum under the country's direct democracy system against what it dismisses as the "electricity wasting law".

The SVP says the bill's goal of achieving climate neutrality in just over a quarter-century would effectively mean a fossil fuel ban, which it warns would threaten energy access and send household electricity bills soaring.

The party in 2021 successfully lobbied against a law that would have curbed greenhouse gas emissions.

But there has been a growing push for Switzerland to reduce its reliance on foreign energy sources, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine threw into doubt Swiss access to much of the foreign energy the country uses.

Corporate tax hike

Also on the ballot Sunday will be a referendum on whether to hike the tax rate for large businesses.

The government wants to amend the constitution so Switzerland can join an international agreement, led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), towards a global minimum tax rate of 15 percent for multinational corporations.

The latest opinion poll indicated that 73 percent of Swiss voters back the plan, which would impose the new rate on all Swiss-based companies with a turnover above 750 million euros ($808 million).

Until now, many of Switzerland's 26 cantons have imposed some of the lowest corporate tax rates in the world, in what they often said was needed to attract businesses in the face of high wages and location costs.

The Swiss government estimates that revenues from the supplementary tax would amount to 1 billion to 2.5 billion francs in the first year alone.

Bern has acknowledged that efforts would be needed to continue attracting international companies.

It has proposed using some of the additional tax income to promote Switzerland as an attractive business location.

© 2023 AFP

Magnitude 6.2 earthquake strikes Philippines

Agence France-Presse
June 15, 2023

Employees evacuate police headquarters in Manila after Thursday's earthquake

© JAM STA ROSA / AFP

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck the Philippines on Thursday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The earthquake struck at a depth of 112 kilometers (77 miles) at around 10:00 am (0200 GMT) in waters off Calatagan town, about three hours' drive from the capital Manila.

Calatagan police chief Emil Mendoza said he and his staff rushed outside following the tremor, which was also felt over the country's heavily populated heartland, including Manila.

"It was a bit strong. We had to run outside," Mendoza told AFP.

While there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, disaster authorities had been deployed to assess the earthquake's impact, Mendoza said.

Calatagan disaster officer Ronald Torres said the quake lasted between 30 seconds and a minute.

The state seismological agency warned of aftershocks but ruled out tsunami waves due to the tremor's depth.

The earthquake sent people rushing out of buildings in the capital.

Runways and taxiways at Ninoy Aquino International Airport were temporarily closed to inspect for any damage to the pavement, according to the country's transportation department.

Operation of the capital's metro system was also halted while tracks were checked for possible damage.


Images on social media verified by AFP showed a crane truck at a Manila port as it swayed from the force of the tremor.

Diego Mariano, information officer at the civil defense office, said authorities were still assessing the impact of the quake.

"As of now, no major damage or casualties as of reporting time. Assessment still ongoing," Mariano told reporters in a message.

Quakes are a daily occurrence in the Philippines, which sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic as well as volcanic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

In October 2013, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Bohol Island in the central Philippines, triggering landslides and killing more than 200 people.

Old churches in the birthplace of Catholicism in the Philippines were badly damaged. Nearly 400,000 were displaced and tens of thousands of houses were damaged due to the quake.


In 1990, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in the northern Philippines created a ground rupture that stretched over a hundred kilometers, causing severe damage and killing more than 1,200 people.

© 2023 AFP

RIP RED GLENDA
British actor Glenda Jackson, two-time Oscar winner then left-wing politician, dies aged 87

2023/06/15


By Elizabeth Piper and Kylie MacLellan

LONDON (Reuters) -Actor Glenda Jackson, a two-time Oscar winner who later served as a socialist politician in the British parliament for 23 years, has died. She was 87.

One of four daughters of a bricklayer and a cleaning lady in northwest England, Jackson never forgot her roots even as she made her name as one of the greatest women actors of her generation.

Her agent said she had died at her home in southeast London after a brief illness.

Raw-boned, pallid and angular, with striking, sharp eyes, she had starred on stage, television and film before quitting to take up politics with the left-of-centre Labour Party, declaring: "“An actor's life is not interesting".

The current lawmaker for Jackson's former seat in parliament said she was devastated to hear of her predecessor's death.

"A formidable politician, an amazing actress and a very supportive mentor to me," Tulip Siddiq said on Twitter.

Growing up in Birkenhead, Cheshire, Jackson left school at the age of 15 and found work in a shop before winning a place at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

She won her first Academy Award in 1971 as lead actress for her role as a headstrong artist in director Ken Russell's film of D.H. Lawrence's novel "Women in Love".

Her second Oscar came three years later for "“A Touch of Class", a romantic comedy directed by Melvin Frank in which Jackson played a harried fashion designer caught up in a catastrophic love affair with an American businessman in London.

Jackson also won two Emmy awards for her portrayal of England's Queen Elizabeth I in the BBC's 1971 television series "Elizabeth R".

Besides her serious film roles, Jackson also showed her popular, comic touch when she appeared in some of British television's most-loved comedy shows of the day, starring as Cleopatra in a sketch with duo Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise and appearing on "The Muppet Show".

"She leaves a space in our cultural and political life that can never be filled," Labour leader Keir Starmer said. "She played many roles, with great distinction, passion and commitment."

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, of the governing Conservative Party, described her as a "funny, thoughtful and principled person".

"MORAL MALAISE"

After more than three decades on stage and film, Jackson quit acting and took her no-nonsense, straight-talking style into politics.

She had been angered by the damage she believed was inflicted on the working classes by Margaret Thatcher, Britain's Conservative prime minister from 1979 until 1990.

In 1992, at the age of 55, Jackson won a seat in parliament representing Labour in a constituency in north London.

"“We must work for the poor, the homeless, the unemployed, the frail, the sick," she told supporters.

In parliament, Jackson was vociferous in her condemnation of the Conservatives which she accused of instilling a “"dreadful, dreadful moral malaise" in Britain.

When Labour won power in 1997, then prime minister Tony Blair appointed her as a junior minister responsible for London transport, a position she held for two years before resigning to make an unsuccessful attempt to be nominated as Labour's candidate for London Mayor.

Though she remained in parliament, securing re-election in 2001, 2005 and 2010 and fighting for equality, she became increasingly out of step with Blair's more centrist approach and decided in 2011 not to contest the next election.

"I will be almost 80 and by then it will be time for someone else to have a turn," she said.

She returned to acting in 2015 and the following year won critical acclaim for playing King Lear on stage. In 2018, she played 92-year-old A in Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women" on Broadway, a performance that won her a prestigious Tony Award.

In 2019, she played an elderly grandmother struggling with dementia in "Elizabeth Is Missing", a television series, and was rewarded with a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) TV Award for Best Actress.

Jackson was married from 1958 to 1976 to stage director Roy Hodges. She is survived by their son, Daniel Hodges, who was born in 1969.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Kylie MacLellan, additional reporting by Muvija M; editing by Michael Holden, Angus MacSwan, Alexandra Hudson)

© Reuters