Archive for September, 2003
Thursday, September 25th, 2003
Alternet has an article on Schwarzenegger which contains an extensive excerpt from a recent interview with him in Entertainment Weekly. This gives the lie to his claim that allegations of misogyny are based on a misinterpretation of his comments:But nothing in T3 bears Schwarzenegger's creative stamp more than his epic ...
Posted in Electoral politics | Comments Off on Schwarzenegger’s misogyny
Wednesday, September 24th, 2003
Car giant Volkswagen says it will sack any Brazilian employees who strike against thousands of planned job cuts. VW's global president says the workers' contracts ban them from going on strike. European employees of the German-based car firm have no such restrictions. Trade union leaders in the Brazilian city of ...
Posted in Labour issues | Comments Off on VW threatens Brazilian workers
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2003
There's a new report on Ireland's Freedom of Information Laws. Interesting points include the smaller proportion of personal-information related cases in Ireland, compared to Australia (on which our laws were largely based) and the lack of justification for the roll-back of the laws by the FF-PD government.
Posted in Freedom of the press | Comments Off on Freedom of Information in Ireland – a review
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2003
Michael D Higgins, who is President of the Irish Labour Party, gave the opening address at the Tom Johnson Summer School last Friday. In it he laid out a future vision for the party, building on the history and current challenges to create a coherent roadmap. I attach it below:
Posted in Electoral politics | Comments Off on MDH’s vision for the Labour party
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2003
From a fascinating essay by Edward Herman, distributed by ZNet's sustainer program on Sunday:The Bushies are proposing to potential troop or money contributors that while they would not be permitted to share in the control of Iraq, if they came in early they would be on the ground floor to ...
Posted in International Affairs | Comments Off on ‘help Iraq – help yourself’ says US
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2003
The Pew Center for People and the Press has a new report on the attitude of Americans to Iraq. According to them, Americans are increasingly open to the U.N. playing a major role in postwar Iraq, with about half (51%) saying the U.S. should give up some military control to ...
Posted in International law and structures | Comments Off on New report on American attitudes to Iraqi situation
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2003
Another from Interworld Radio:Iraq's governing council wants to ban two major Arabic television news channels. The council says al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya have incited violence by showing pictures of masked men demanding Iraqis attack occupying forces. It is thought that council members voted to expel journalists from the stations for a ...
Posted in Freedom of the press, International Affairs | Comments Off on Iraq to block news channels?
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2003
From InterWorld Radio:Eleven independent daily newspapers in Algeria have shut for a day to protest against attacks on press freedom. Editors say the Algerian government wants to restrict them in the run-up to next year's elections. Six newspapers were suspended in August, and two editors brought before the public prosecutor. ...
Posted in Freedom of the press, International Affairs | Comments Off on Algerian papers protest press restrictions
Wednesday, September 17th, 2003
Today's Daily Illini has an article on the report on the future of the College of Communications at UIUC. They have put a copy of the report online, and it doesn't make for fun reading. In short, they recommend that the ICR, my home unit, be either disbanded (with staff ...
Posted in Education | Comments Off on Provost’s committee reports
Friday, September 12th, 2003
Turns out the Daily Illini altered a photograph that they put in their front page earlier this week. Or rather, a letter writer alleges they did, and they didn't provide any defence or denial. Granted this is a university paper, not a fully professional outlet, but they position themselves more ...
Posted in Alternative Media | Comments Off on University paper alters photo