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How Middle East Media Cover Hamas Victory: Mosaic Compiles
Arab T.V. News for U.S. Audience
Ford and GM Devastate Workers by Slashing Jobs and Closing
Plants
The Great Firewall of China: Internet Companies Censor Material
at Chinese Government’s Request
How Middle East Media Cover Hamas Victory: Mosaic
Compiles Arab T.V. News for U.S. Audience
Hamas’ surprising landslide victory in the Palestinian
elections reverberated around the world. We look at how the
news was delivered in the Middle East by turning to the award-wining
MOSAIC, a daily show on our partner network LinkTV that compiles
television news reports from more than 30 television outlets
throughout the Middle East. We play an excerpt of a MOSAIC
newscast and speak with Jamal Dajani, director of Middle Eastern
Programming at Link TV.
Hamas has won a large majority in the new Palestinian parliament,
according to official election results announced Thursday.
In Wednesday’s voting, Hamas claimed 76 of the 132 parliamentary
seats, giving the party the right to form the next cabinet
under the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud
Abbas.
Thousands of Hamas supporters took to the streets to celebrate
the sweeping victory. They clashed with Fatah activists in
Ramallah as the Hamas flag was raised over the Palestinian
parliament.
Last night, hundreds of Fatah gunmen, angry at the results,
fired rifles in the air in Gaza and called on President Abbas
to resign. Hamas leaders have said they want to open talks
with other groups about a coalition, but Fatah said it would
not join a Hamas-led government.
Meanwhile, Israel has said it will not deal with a Palestinian
government that includes Hamas. Acting Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert ruled out any talks with "an armed terror
organization that calls for Israel’s destruction".
The so-called Middle East "Quartet," the U.S.,
U.N., E.U. and Russia, issued a statement on Thursday calling
on Hamas to renounce violence and accept Israel’s right
to exist. At a press conference in Washington, President Bush
did not rule out dealing with Hamas, but said the party would
have to renounce its past policies.
Hamas’ surprising landslide victory in the Palestinian
elections reverberated around the world. News networks across
the United States covered the story throughout the day.
But how was the news delivered in the Middle East? There
is only one place to find out - MOSAIC, a daily show on our
partner network LinkTV that compiles television news reports
from more than 30 television outlets throughout the Middle
East. Last year, MOSAIC was awarded one of journalism’s
highest honors - the Peabody award. We play an edited excerpt
of the last night’s newscasts from across the Middle
East.
- Jamal Dajani, Director of Middle Eastern Programming
at Link TV that produces MOSAIC: World News from the Middle
East. The program distills daily news reports from more
than 30 Middle Eastern television outlets.
Learn more about MOSAIC
Ford and GM Devastate Workers by Slashing Jobs and
Closing Plants
Earlier this week, Ford Motor Company, the nation’s
second-largest automaker, announced plans to slash up to 30,000
jobs and close fourteen plants in North America over the next
six years. This comes on the heels of similar GM cuts, causing
massive job losses in the auto industry nationwide. We speak
with UC Berkeley professor Harley Shaiken, who has done research
and policy work examining issues of technology, labor, and
globalization.
Over the past five years, the Big Three American automakers,
Chrysler, GM and Ford, have cut 140,000 jobs. Just last November,
GM said it would slash 30,000 jobs and close up to 12 factories.
And more cuts at GM might be coming. General Motors reported
a loss of $8.6 billion in 2005, its largest since 1992.
Ford’s jobs cuts are part of what it calls a “restructuring”
plan to reverse a $1.6 billion loss in its home market last
year. But Ford actually announced an overall profit of $2
billion for 2005. The cuts make up 20 percent of Ford’s
North American work force.
Thousands of workers who have spent their entire adult lives
at Ford now face unemployment with bleak job prospects. One
worker interviewed for the Detroit News said he had no idea
what he will do next with "everybody leaving and all
the contract people out of work". At the end of last
year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Detroit
had the highest unemployment rate of any urban area in the
nation except New Orleans.
The United Auto Workers described the cuts as "extremely
disappointing and devastating news for the many thousands
of hard-working men and women who have devoted their lives
to Ford."
- Harley Shaiken, a Professor of Education and Geography
and Chair of the Center for Latin American Studies at U.C.
Berkeley. His research and policy work examines issues of
technology, labor, and globalization.
The Great Firewall of China: Internet Companies Censor
Material at Chinese Government’s Request
We take a look at why the internet company Google is coming
under intense criticism for agreeing to censor material deemed
objectionable by the Chinese government and how Yahoo and
Microsoft comply with China’s censorship orders. And
in the U.S., the internet companies have provided the government
with information on users at the Justice Department’s
request. We speak with UC Berkeley school of law professor
Deirdre Mulligan about the issue of telecom companies working
with governments.
The world’s most popular search engine – Google.com
– announced this week it was launching a version of
its search engine designed specifically for China. But the
U.S. company, which is known for its motto “Don’t
Be Evil” -- is coming under intense criticism for agreeing
to censor material deemed objectionable by the Chinese government.
The Google controversy comes on the heels of moves by several
other major Internet companies to cooperate with governments,
both in China and here in the United States.
Microsoft recently blocked the website of a Chinese blogger
who wrote about a management purge at a leading Beijing newspaper.
And Yahoo went a step further last year by turning over electronic
records to the Chinese government that helped convict and
jail a dissident journalist named Shi Tao. The Chinese government
has sentenced Tao to ten years in jail because he had posted
online the copy of a government order barring Chinese media
from marking the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square
massacre. These issues of telecom companies working with governments
are not unique to China.
Here in the United States, Yahoo, Microsoft and America Online
have all revealed they have complied with subpoenas to provide
the government with details on how users are utilizing their
search engines. The Justice Department claims it needs the
information in order to help the government fight pornography.
At least one company, Google, is fighting the subpoena. And
the telecom companies may also be connected to the growing
controversy over President Bush’s order for the National
Security Agency to conduct domestic spy operations.
Last week, Democratic Congressman John Conyers wrote to 20
leading telephone and Internet companies asking if they had
cooperated with the government in the domestic surveillance.
We asked spokespeople from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to
come on the program but they did not respond.
- Deirdre Mulligan, Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology
& Public Policy Clinic at the UC Berkeley School of
Law. She is the former staff counsel at the Center for Democracy
& Technology in Washington.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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