Distributions for Tuesday 6, 2008

Press Freedom Day:

Website Pick:

World Press Freedom Committee

As concern about the safety of journalists around the world continues to grow, a number of international organizations remain dedicated to this particular issue. The World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC) is interested in this issue, along with monitoring press freedom issues at the United Nations and other related activities. The information on their site is divided into sections that include "Fundamentals", "Programs", "Publications", and "News". First-time visitors should stop by the "Fundamentals" area to learn more about the basic international documents related to various press freedoms around the world. Moving on, the "Programs" area contains detailed information on their "Fund Against Censorship" initiative and their work in the area of Internet press freedom. Most scholars and working journalists will want to spend a bit of time in their "Publications" area. Here they will find recent work on press freedoms in the world of new media and the 2007 report "It's a Crime: How Insult Laws Stifle Press Freedom". The site is rounded out by an RSS feed and a news media center with recent press releases. (Visit the site)

Statement on World Press Freedom Day by President Bush
“Just and open societies protect and rely on the freedom of the press”

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
May 1, 2008

Statement by the President on World Press Freedom Day
May 3 marks World Press Freedom Day. Just and open societies protect and rely on the freedom of the press. That freedom is enshrined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, because freedom of speech is integral to a free society.   Brutal regimes and others who seek to stifle liberty often do so by closing down private newspapers and radio and television stations. They kidnap, arbitrarily jail, and beat journalists. Some journalists have been taken from their families for years, and others have been killed for speaking out. Many were killed by terrorists, extremists, and insurgents who seek to deny people even basic access to information as well as the right to free speech.  (Full Text)

World Press Freedom Day Supports Journalists Facing Threats - Mozambique will host May 3 events sponsored by United Nations

Global events marking World Press Freedom Day May 3 will spotlight repression against independent journalists and murders of members of the media, many of which go unpunished, press freedom advocates tell America.gov.  Press Freedom Day will remind the world that 171 journalists were killed in 2007 while pursuing their work, a number just short of the yearly record, and hundreds more were threatened, imprisoned or tortured, says the United Nations. The U.N. General Assembly in 1993 established each May 3 as the commemorative day for press freedom.  Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, says that when Press Freedom Day was created, “I don’t think anyone expected it to have the kind of resonance that it does today.” (More) (بالعربية)

Advancing Freedom and Democracy Around The World
U.S. highlights commitment to promoting freedom, democracy worldwide

U.S. Pursues Freedom Agenda By Strengthening Support For Democratic Dissidents, Helping Build Democratic Institutions
"Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world: All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors.  When you stand for liberty, we will stand with you."
-- President George W. Bush, 1/20/05

May 3 marks World Press Freedom Day.  We stand with journalists, editors, and bloggers who continue their work in spite of the risks.  We call on all governments to guarantee the inalienable rights of their people, including, consistent with Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to freedom of speech and the press.  During Fiscal Year 2007, the United States provided $78 million in approximately 40 countries to promote media freedom and freedom of information. President Bush has met with many journalists and editors who are struggling against forces that seek to suppress media freedom.  We salute these courageous individuals, and we recognize the importance of the right to a free press in spreading freedom around the world.  (More)

Peace Process:

Rice, Palestinian Authority President Abbas Press Availability
Officials discuss violence in West Bank, Gaza

Press Availability with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Secretary Condoleezza Rice – Ramallah, March 4, 2008
Please paste in the blurb from our highlight. 
 (Full transcript) (بالعربية)

The Quartet Expresses Concern over Humanitarian Conditions in Gaza

“Noting its deep concern over humanitarian conditions in Gaza, the Quartet called for continued emergency and humanitarian assistance and the provision of essential services to Gaza without obstruction. The Quartet expressed its continuing concern over the closure of major Gaza crossing points given the impact on the Palestinian economy and daily life. The Quartet condemned the terrorist attack on Nahal Oz fuel terminal on April 9, and noted that such attacks on the Gaza crossings interfere with the supply of essential services and undermine the interests of the Palestinian people. Principals strongly encouraged Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Egypt to work together to formulate a new approach on Gaza that would provide security to all Gazans, end all acts of terror, provide for the controlled and sustained opening of the Gaza crossings for humanitarian reasons and commercial flows, support the legitimate Palestinian Authority government, and work towards conditions that would permit implementation of the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access.”  Quartet Meeting statement, London, May 2, 2008. (Full transcript) (بالعربية)

Rice Urges Arab States to Do More to Help Palestinians
Funding needed to build future Palestinian state, improve Palestinian lives

As Mideast peace negotiations continue, nations must do their part by joining the United States to improve the daily lives of Palestinians and help them to build a future state, says Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“Countries that have resources and that have an interest in the establishment of a Palestinian state need to put those resources to use now in order to lay the groundwork for the establishment of that state,” Rice said en route to London.  She joined fellow members of the Quartet for Middle East Peace -– the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- to assess progress since the November 2007 Annapolis Conference.  Israelis and Palestinians have been making quiet diplomatic progress confronting issues at the heart of a half-century of conflict, Rice said.  (More)  (بالعربية)

Palestine Investment Conference Set for May 21-23 - U.S.-Palestinian Partnership working to create economic opportunity

In May, the Palestinian Authority is convening the Palestine Investment Conference, in an effort to improve economic and social conditions in the territories, which is a critical component of the broader Middle East peace process.  Walter Isaacson, chairman of the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership and president of the Aspen Institute, says partnership members will attend the May 21-23 business conference in the West Bank city of Bethlehem with the aim of increasing investment in the Palestinian economy.
The joint effort by the U.S. government, private businesses, civic leaders and the Palestinian Authority to help create jobs and educational opportunities for Palestinians was announced December 3, 2007, by President Bush.  The investment component is part of an intensive diplomatic initiative, begun at the November 2007 Annapolis Middle East peace conference, that is intended to lead to Palestinian statehood.  (More) (بالعربية)

U.S. Policy:

United States Reducing Nuclear Weapons at an Extraordinary Pace - Disarmament debate will dominate Geneva meeting reviewing treaty regime

All three candidates for president of the United States have expressed support for nuclear arms reductions and strengthening the 1970 treaty governing nuclear nonproliferation.  The executive editor of The New Republic, J. Peter Scoblic, says nuclear disarmament has become a subject of polite conversation in Washington; it generates interest on both sides of the political aisle.  Scoblic attributes this, in part, to the penning of two Wall Street Journal opinion pieces by former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Senator Sam Nunn published in 2007 and 2008 calling for a nuclear weapons-free world. (More)

American Culture and Education:

Arab Americans Present “Spirit of Humanity” Awards - Awards were created to celebrate life of philosopher and poet Kahlil Gibran

Some 800 people, many of Arab origin, gathered in a hotel ballroom a few blocks from the White House April 23 to mark the 10th annual Kahlil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Awards. The awards were created to celebrate the life of the great Arab-American writer, philosopher and poet Gibran Kahlil Gibran, who died in New York 77 years ago this month.  Established in 1999 by the Arab American Institute Foundation, the awards recognize individuals and organizations whose work "promotes inclusion, cultural understanding and cooperation across ethnic, racial and religious lines."  The honorees at the 2008 event were Refugees International, Reporters Without Borders, U.S. Representative Ray LaHood, himself an Arab American, and the Barenboim-Said Foundation.   (More) (بالعربية)

New Exhibition Resurrects Legacy of Groundbreaking Photographer - Ben-Yusuf produced memorable portraits that captured an era

A new exhibition honoring the work of a photographer who helped redefine photographic portraiture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries traces the emergence of a newly industrialized America’s growing fascination with the lives of prominent people (a trend that, arguably, paved the way for today’s celebrity-obsessed popular culture).  The exhibition -- Zaida Ben-Yusuf: New York Portrait Photographer, curated by Frank H. Goodyear III -- is on display from April 11 through September 1, 2008, at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington.  As Goodyear recently told America.gov, Ben-Yusuf was among the most influential photographers of her day, yet she remains a mysterious figure -- and largely unknown to all but a handful of scholars.  (More)

Nontraditional Students Enrich U.S. College Campuses - Older students value challenging courses with real-world applications

The “typical” college student of yesteryear -- a secondary school graduate who entered an institution of higher education at the age of 17 or 18, studied full time while living on campus and then graduated with a degree four years later -- no longer is the norm on many U.S. campuses.  Many students today are like Yvonne Comeau of Mt. Jackson, Virginia, who returned to college after the plant where she had worked as a seamstress for 25 years closed. Comeau was named Outstanding Graduate of the Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown, Virginia. While maintaining a 3.9 grade point average (out of a maximum 4.0) as a management major, she headed the scholastic honor society, was active in student government and initiated an "Adopt-a-Troop" program for soldiers in Iraq.  (More) (بالعربية)