الوضع بيتطور لأبعد من ذلك فوصل إلى القاهرة وقيام أعضاء جماعة الإخوان المسلمين بتشويه سور كنيسة الأرمن بالعباسية وكتبوا عليها مرسي والشعية ومصر دولة
إسلامية
Send in By Hagop Tatyosian
International Organizations Urge Azerbaijan To Stop Harassing Journalist
RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service correspondent Khadija Ismayilova accepts the 2012 “Courage in Journalism” award from the International Women’s Media Foundation in New York in October 2012.
By RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service
BAKU — Eleven leading international human rights organizations have urged Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to stop a blackmail campaign against Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova.
In the letter sent to the Azerbaijani leader on August 12, the rights-defending organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and others, write that a smear campaign against Ismayilova that started last year continues as investigators are hesitant to probe the situation.
In March 2012 an explicit video showing Ismayilova with her boyfriend appeared on the Internet.
Last month, a new video containing Ismayilova’s intimate and illegally obtained images was leaked after she reported about Aliyev’s possible involvement in improper financial activities.
The groups reminded Aliyev that his country “has unambiguous international obligations to respect and protect both the right to privacy and freedom of expression.”
Another Azerbaijani Opposition Leader’s Detention Extended
REAL leader Ilqar Mammadov (left) and Musavat Party deputy head Tofiq Yaqublu were arrested in February and charged with helping organize riots in the town of Ismayilli, northwest of Baku.
By RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service
BAKU — A court in Baku has extended the pretrial detention of Ilqar Mammadov, the head of the Republican Alternative (REAL) opposition movement.
Mammadov was ordered on August 14 to stay in detention until November 4.
On August 13, another opposition leader, Tofiq Yaqublu, who is the deputy head of the opposition Musavat Party, was remanded in custody until December 4.
Mammadov and Yaqublu were arrested in February and charged with helping organize riots in the town of Ismayilli, northwest of the capital, Baku.
On January 23, thousands of Ismayilli residents demanded the resignation of the district’s governor, setting fire to his residence, to cars, and a local motel.
Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters.
Arriving in Ismayilli the following day, Yaqublu and Mammadov called for civil disobedience.
With reporting by AFP
‘We will not cower’: Muslim Brotherhood pledges fightback as Egypt death toll climbs to 525
By Ayman Mohyeldin and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News
CAIRO – The Muslim Brotherhood pledged to bring down Egypt’s military-backed interim government Thursday, deepening the country’s political crisis as the 
official death toll from clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi climbed to 525.
“We will rise and rise again until we push the military back into the barracks and restore democracy,” Gehad El-Haddad, spokesman for the Islamist organization, said on his Twitter feed.
“We will not bow down, we will not cower,” said El-Haddad, adding that the security forces had shown “unbelievable brutality”.
The Muslim Brotherhood also announced plans to hold a march Thursday in Cairo. Hundreds of its members went on the march in Alexandria.
As clashes became more violent between Egyptian troops and pro-Morsi protesters, injured were treated inside the Rabaa al-Adwiya Mosque in Cairo. Some images may be disturbing to viewers.
El-Haddad’s call to arms followed a bloody day of unrest in Egypt, after security forces – backed by bulldozers – cleared two Cairo sit-in camps protesting the military’s removal of the country’s democratically elected leader. The health ministry announced Thursday that the death toll from subsequent clashes reached 525, with 3,572 others injured. Activists said the true death toll was much higher.
The violent clearance of the camps triggered a backlash around Egypt, prompting the interim government to declare a month-long state of emergency and impose a night-time curfew.
Secretary of State John Kerry described the situation as “deplorable.” The unrest also sparked the resignation of Nobel Peace Prize winner and interim government minister Mohamed ElBaradei.
In a troubling indication of the increasingly sectarian nature of Egypt’s divisions, Reuters cited state media and security sources as saying that a number of churches had been attacked across Egypt.
Churches were attacked in the Nile Valley towns of Minya, Sohag and Assiut, where Christians escaped across the roof into a neighboring building after a mob surrounded and hurled bricks at their place of worship, state news agency MENA said.
Authorities referred 84 people from the city of Suez, including Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters, to military prosecutors on Thursday on charges of murder and burning churches, the state news agency reported.
As Egypt awoke to the first full day of its month-long state of emergency, Cairo appeared calm and traffic flowed through the former site of the Rabaa camp, according to Reuters. The overnight curfew stemmed most of the violence, with usually-crowded streets deserted.
Google: Gmail users ‘have no legitimate expectation of privacy’
As tensions worsen among privacy-focused email users amid the escalating scandal surrounding government surveillance, a brief filed by attorneys for Google has surfaced showing that Gmail users should never expect their communications to be kept secret.
Consumer Watchdog has unearthed a July 13, 2013 motion filed by Google’s attorneys with regards to ongoing litigation challenging how the Silicon Valley giant operates its highly popular free email service.
The motion, penned in hopes of having the United States District Court for the Northern District of California dismiss a class action complaint against the company, says Gmail users should assume that any electronic correspondence that’s passed through Google’s servers can be accessed and used for an array of options, such as selling ads to customers.
“Just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient’s assistant opens the letter, people who use Web-based email today cannot be surprised if their emails are processed by the recipient’s [email provider] in the course of delivery,” the motion reads in part. “Indeed, ‘a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties.’”
Snowden: American media ‘abdicated their role as check to power’
(L-R) Laura Poitras (Reuters / Lucy Nicholson), Edward Snowden (AFP Photo / The Guardian) and Glenn Greenwald (Reuters / Sergio Moraes)
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has gone on the offensive against his critics in the US, accusing the mainstream media there of failing their audiences “for fear of being seen as unpatriotic and punished in the market.”
In a rare interview, Snowden explained why he chose a UK journalist and a documentary filmmaker for his leaks.
In an encrypted e-mail correspondence with journalist Peter Maass, the former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower presented his candid opinion of the US media and what finally persuaded him to go public on the NSA’s worldwide surveillance program.
The heightened level of nationalism prevalent in the United States following the attacks of 9/11 precluded US media from engaging in any serious discussion on the excesses of government behavior for fear of seeming “unpatriotic,” Snowden argued in the interview published in The New York Times – his first since gaining temporary asylum in Russia.
“After 9/11, many of the most important news outlets in America abdicated their role as a check to power — the journalistic responsibility to challenge the excesses of government — for fear of being seen as unpatriotic and punished in the market during a period of heightened nationalism,” the NY Times reported Snowden as saying.
The former CIA employee said this strategy by the American media establishment had “ended up costing the public dearly.”
Snowden then revealed what led him to divulge his explosive information to Laura Poitras, the documentary filmmaker who served first as an intermediary between Snowden and Glenn Greenwald, an investigative journalist with The Guardian, and now with Maass.
“Laura and Glenn are among the few who reported fearlessly on controversial topics throughout this period, even in the face of withering personal criticism, and resulted in Laura specifically becoming targeted by the very programs involved in the recent disclosures,” Snowden said.
Poitras “demonstrated the courage, personal experience and skill needed to handle what is probably the most dangerous assignment any journalist can be given — reporting on the secret misdeeds of the most powerful government in the world,” Snowden said in the NY Times interview, adding that those qualifications made her “an obvious choice.”
Source: RT.com
Anti-government protests begin in Bahrain amidst tight security
Anti-government protesters holding Bahraini flags march along the streets of the village of Saar during an anti-government protest, west of Manama, August 14, 2013 (Reuters / Hamad I Mohammed)
Police have reportedly used tear gas to contain long-planned protests in the Gulf State of Bahrain. The country’s Shi’ite majority is demanding a greater say in the political decisions of the Sunni-ruled country.
The long-planned protests mark two-and-a-half years since the unsuccessful uprising in the oil-rich state during which protesters called for the abdication of King Hamad, who has been in power since 1999.
Throngs walked through capital Manama shouting “Democracy! Democracy!”, as police erected barriers and checkpoints through many of the main streets.
Despite government threats to use force ahead of what they claim to be foreign-backed “riots” many in the villages outside Manama protested by organizing sit-ins outside their houses. Eyewitnesses say police have cordoned off some Shi’ite villages and forced the demonstrators inside their houses.
No casualties have been reported so far.
Egypt: ElBaradei Resigns After Camp ‘Massacre’
More than 140 people have been confirmed killed after Egyptian security forces opened fire as they tried to clear two protest camps loyal to deposed president Mohamed Morsi in Cairo.
A month-long state of emergency has been declared as violence spread from the capital to other parts of the country including the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
A curfew from 7pm to 6am has been declared in Cairo, according to reports, as well as ten other provinces including Alexandria and Suez.
The health ministry put the number of dead in Cairo at 149, with hundreds more injured. But the Muslim Brotherhood claimed hundreds had been killed.
Egypt’s vice president, Mohamed ElBaradei, has now announced his resignation.
Sky’s Middle East Correspondent Sam Kiley, reporting from inside the Rabaa al Adawiya camp in the capital, said it was “under very heavy gunfire” and was a “massive military assault on largely unarmed civilians in very large numbers”.
He said government forces were using machine guns, snipers, AK-47 and M16 rifles and were firing into the crowd.
Kiley added: “There are machine gun rounds, and snipers on the roof, that are preventing people from getting any closer to the field hospital (in the camp).
Karabakh calls for cooperation with Azerbaijan
August 14, 2013 | 16:41
The Nagorno-Karabakh government expressed readiness to start dialogue with Azerbaijan on joint management of water resources, Karabakh Premier Arthur Aghabekyan told RFE/RL Armenian service.
He said the matter concerns the Sarsang reservoir, as well as waters flowing from Tartar River.
“Sarsang reservoir has more capacity than it is currently used. Both the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides will gain from proper use of water canals that were built during the Soviet era,” Aghabekyan said.
Unless Azerbaijan responds to cooperation calls, the Karabakh government will be obliged to make large investments in border regions to pump water resources located in the border areas only for its own territory.
If a dialogue is established, water resources can be used for the benefit of two sides.
“Eventually, it is a neighboring state. Today they are enemy, but tomorrow they can turn into merely an opponent. We have to prepare nations for peace gradually,” he said, noting Karabakh side’s readiness for near-border cooperation which envisages maintaining of ceasefire regime and mutual tolerance.
Residents of Terter region of Azerbaijan have recently staged several protest actions demanding that local authorities should provide water for agricultural works.
Turkey media crackdown: Who to blame?
By Selin Girit BBC Turkish
Press freedom has become a burning issue in Turkey after the police crackdown on protesters in Istanbul’s Gezi Park and the way Turkish media initially avoided covering it.
As police fought running battles with protesters in June the mainstream news channels opted to air documentaries – including, infamously, one about penguins.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently remarked: “Not everyone has to like us. I’m being frank. There is no such obligation.”
That appeared to suggest tolerance for opposing views. But many sacked journalists are sceptical.
Since the Gezi Park protests – the biggest challenge yet to the AKP government after 11 years in power – at least 75 journalists have been fired or have resigned, the Turkish Journalists’ Union says.
Tugce Tatari was one of them. She has been a columnist since 2007 for the daily Aksam, which was taken over by a Turkish state-run fund, TMSF, in May this year. Soon after, a number of journalists lost their jobs, herself included.
Ms Tatari says they were sacked because of their coverage of Gezi Park, where anger over redevelopment plans mushroomed into wider criticism of the government.
“Those who opposed the PM, who objected to him in their columns, those who said the police used excessive force, were all fired, one by one. There was a crisis in the country.
“For the first time, there was a mass movement. The PM wants everyone who has spoken out about this to be sacked, because he cannot tolerate any sort of criticism.”
Media bosses’ other businesses
- Dogan Group: Energy, retail, tourism, finance, industrial
- Demiroren Group: Gas, construction, education, industrial
- Ciner Group: Energy, mining, industrial, service sector
- Dogus Group: Banking, finance, automotive, construction, tourism, energy, restaurant chains
- Calik Group: Textiles, energy, construction, finance, telecoms, mining
Source: Turkish Journalists’ Union
Government pressure?
Another prominent columnist, Can Dundar, was one of the latest casualties.
He was dismissed from the daily Milliyet, after three weeks of uncertainty when his columns were not published.
“I am not the first, and I will not be the last,” Mr Dundar wrote in his personal blog after his dismissal.
Mr Dundar’s case sparked a huge debate in Turkish media, with a fellow journalist claiming the prime minister’s adviser Yalcin Akdogan had played a significant role in the process. Mr Akdogan denied that. The BBC contacted him, but he declined to comment.
Mr Dundar was also sacked from a television channel two years ago after having attended a protest about arrested journalists.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: “We have been told Mr Akdogan made a call. But the government then defends itself, saying ‘we never said such things’. So the blame rests on media bosses or editors. If they are really disgruntled about this, they need to speak out. They need to do this, not only for press freedom in Turkey but also for the future of Turkish democracy.”
Mr Erdogan’s conservative, Islamist-rooted party increased its majority in the last election. When it first came to power there were high hopes that the AKP would democratise Turkey, after years of military interference in politics.
Landmark trial
Earlier this month 22 journalists were given sentences ranging from six years to life imprisonment in the Ergenekon case, alongside senior military officers, politicians and academics convicted of plotting a coup against the AKP government.
The government says the imprisoned journalists are being held not because of their journalism but because of criminal acts.
However, the campaign group Reporters Without Borders ranked Turkey 154th out of 179 countries – putting its record on press freedom below those of Iraq, Afghanistan or Russia.
More journalists are imprisoned in Turkey than anywhere else in the world.
The Turkish Journalists’ Union says 63 journalists are still behind bars in Turkey, while more than 120 journalists have been released pending trial.
Today critics of the AKP government claim they have borrowed tactics previously used by the military to influence the media.
In 1997 pressure from the military forced the resignation of an Islamist prime minister. During that period several columnists were sacked, headlines were manipulated, and certain Islamist papers were banned from military press conferences.
Many claim that now the government “whispers” to media bosses or editors, complains about certain headlines, phones the broadcast news galleries and even boycotts those who fail to meet specific demands.
But a columnist for the conservative daily Zaman, Mumtazer Turkone, says such things never happen. “Someone from the government never says, ‘If you do not do this, we will not do that’ directly. These measures are applied by the media bosses. Or maybe the papers are too sensitive to government reactions, so they apply these measures themselves.”
According to Akif Beki, a former adviser to Mr Erdogan and now columnist for the daily Radikal, it is the media bosses and not the government who are to blame for the increasing number of sacked journalists.
He told the BBC that “it is not like the government asked for these 70-80 journalists to be fired and then media bosses showed them the door”. He insisted that each case had to be considered individually.
But he also said the AKP government had failed to rid itself of “old reflexes” towards the media.
“They can still perceive criticism as a rejection of their existence, a categorical denial of their being. That is why they sometimes overreact.”
The BBC contacted four government ministers, but none was available for comment.
Powerful conglomerates
Some critics point to a questionable relationship between media bosses and the government, via their activity in other industrial sectors.
There is no judicial or ethical code preventing these media moguls bidding for public contracts.
Recently the winning bidder to build Istanbul’s planned third airport paid $60m for media assets that had been seized by the state, including the daily Aksam.
Professor of Communications Haluk Sahin from Bilgi University says the state “is one of the biggest actors in the Turkish economy.
“The PM may decide personally who is going to win which government auction, which contract will go to whom. Media bosses who happen to be businessmen have started to act on the suggestions made to them directly or indirectly and carry out instructions, in order to do business with the state. It is obvious that media bosses prefer to win contracts rather than make news.”
A $2.5bn (£1.6bn) tax bill imposed on the Dogan conglomerate in 2009 was an example of the pressure the government can bring to bear on media owners.
Can Dundar fears that Turkey may be in a downward spiral.
“I suppose they will continue the suppression until all the papers in Turkey come out with the same headlines, until all the columns write about the same things. We’re almost there,” he lamented.
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