Al Jazeera English was nominated for an International News Emmy on Wednesday for its coverage of the 2009 Gaza War.
While most news networks covered the war solely from the perspective of Israel, Al Jazeera English was one of the only networks to have reporters stationed in Gaza.
Other nominees for the International News Emmy include:
Russia’s RT channel for its coverage of President Obama’s July 2009 trip to Russia
Britain’s Sky News for its reporting on the Taliban in Swat Valley
Brazil’s TV Globo for its in-depth look at the Nov. 2009 blackout in Brazil
I had the opportunity to intern for AJE back in the summer of 2008. And its staff let me use its camera equipment to produce a short documentary about the international news organization. I reposted it below.
What’s worse? An international terrorist who blew up an airliner over Scottland, killing 270 people – most of them Americans? Or a multibillion-dollar oil company who lobbied the British government to free that terrorist so it could continue doing business in Libya?
The U.S. government is now investigating BP’s role in the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was the only person convicted for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103.
The Daily Beast reports that U.S. law enforcement officials are convinced that Sir Mark Allen – a former MI6 spy; now a senior BP adviser in London – played a major role in releasing the Pan Am 103 bomber.
BP officials have not disputed charges that Allen contacted the British Minister of Justice in 2007. And it admits that BP lobbied the British government to speed up the prison-transfer process so that BP could pursue a $900 million oil-exploration project in Libya.
“It is a matter of public record that in late 2007 BP told the U.K. government that we were concerned about the slow progress that was being made in concluding a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya,” BP spokesman, Robert Wine said. “We were aware that this could have a negative impact on U.K. commercial interests, including the ratification by the Libyan government of BP’s exploration agreement.”
But BP contends that Allen did not lobby for the specific release of Megrahi, who was by far the most notorious prisoner involved the British-Libyan prisoner swap.
Democrats in Congress are now using the Gulf oil disaster as leverage to investigate BP’s involvement in Megrahi’s release.
European banks who accepted bailout money can no longer shower their CEO’s with excessive, unwarranted bonus money.
European Parliament members Tuesday night voted overwhelmingly in favor of capping short-term bonuses, by a vote of 625 – 28. EU finance ministers are expected to finalize the rules next week, and they should go into effect starting Jan. 2011.
The new legislation caps CEO bonuses at 30 percent – requiring banks to hold the remaining 70 percent unless they perform well for the year. Bonuses deemed “particularly large” will be capped at 20 percent, leaving it up to European governments to decide what “particularly large” means.
The law passed as Europeans express outrage at bank executives who used government bailout money to pay themselves enormous bonuses – similar to how American CEO’s continue to use taxpayer money to pay themselves multi-million-dollar bonuses.
Congress has considered a similar cap on American CEO’s, but Republicans argue that any cap like this would usher in a new era of socialism; and Democrats are too scared and incompetent to stand up for what they believe in.
Google released a new app on Tuesday that reveals how much pressure it faces from nations around the world to turn over private information and to censor content.
The Government Requests tool shows the public how often each government asks Google for private data on users, or asks Google to remove websites from its search index for reasons other than copyright infringement. It also reveals what percentage of those requests Google has fulfilled.
Google VP David Drummond wrote in a blog post that Google hoped the tool would lead to greater transparency on government censorship and data requests.
“Google, like other technology and telecommunications companies, regularly receives demands from government agencies to remove content from our services… We also regularly receive requests from law enforcement agencies to hand over private user data,” Drummond wrote. “The vast majority of these requests are valid and the information needed is for legitimate criminal investigations. However, data about these activities historically has not been broadly available. We believe that greater transparency will lead to less censorship.”
The Government Requests Tool breaks down data from the last half of last year, between July 2009 and December 2009. But Google plans to update this data regularly.
Google admits that the information is not as accurate or comprehensive as the company would like it to be, but it plans to improve the detail and transparency of the program over time.
The app does not reveal data from China, because Google said China has classified the information as state secret.
Brazil racked up the most requests. The U.S. government made the fourth most requests of any nation.
Peter Lui, Google’s former financial controller for the Asia Pacific region, told Bloomberg that Google’s alleged decision to pull out has “burnt bridges” with its largest market in the world.
“There is no way Google can ever come back,” he said.
Google will likely survive without China. The question is whether China can rebuild a search engine as efficient as Google, and how its citizens will interpret Google’s decision.
Frantz said the video shows about 20,000 Haitians demonstrating their desire to make Haiti an American territory – similar to Puerto Rico in 1917.
“They urge the Senators of Haiti to contact the American Congress to present their case,” Frantz wrote. ”This is the first time such an event happen in the history of the Island. They claim the support of all the haitians living in the USA.”
It’s uncertain how many Haitians share this view, but Frantz said in an e-mail that it was a popular movement across Haiti. He said similar demonstrations have taken place in Port-au-Prince, Petit Goave, Grand Goave and people are planning another demonstration next week in Grand’Anse.
“The people don’t want to continue under the old system anymore. They want change: partnership with USA. The actual situation is like a bomb in hold mode. Any time it can explode,” Frantz wrote in an e-mail. ”The next few weeks are going to be crucial for our land. Food, medication, items to use every day are becoming rare. The government is overwhelmed by the situation. “
Sec. of State Hillary Clinton met with Al Jazeera’s senior staff in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday to discuss the need to “further dialogue with Al Jazeera,” a spokeswoman for the Arabic network said.
“We see the government of Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the parliament is being supplanted and Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship,” she said. “We are planning to try to bring the world community together in applying pressure to Iran through sanctions adopted by the United Nations that will be particularly aimed at those enterprises controlled by the Revolutionary Guard, which we believe is, in effect, supplanting the government of Iran.”
She also said “evidence is mounting” that indicates Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon.
Iran has said that it stepped up its uranium enrichment program to produce fuel for a medical research reactor.
Clinton said the Obama Administration was not planning a military offensive against Iran.
“I’m interested in the way support is building for international action,” Brown told the Financial Times. “People are now prepared to consider the best mechanism by which a levy could be raised.”
Brown said he believed the International Monetary Fund would endorse a plan before its April meeting in Washington, D.C.; and he hoped a deal would be finalized at the G-20 Summit.
Brown said support for some sort of global tax gained new momentum after Obama proposed a fee to be levied against major U.S. banks to reimburse taxpayers for the bailout. But exactly how such a tax would work is still unclear.
The IMF will finish a report in April that outlines possible options for how the world’s leading economies could coordinate a global tax on banks.
I had the opportunity to intern for Al Jazeera English during the summer of 2008.
The network’s staff let me use its equipment to film hours of footage, including interviews with senior producers, a former U.S. Ambassador for Counter Terrorism and a former special adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.
Watch this video, then watch Al Jazeera English live at english.aljazeera.NET (not .com)
Below is an e-mail from my company’s staff in Les Cayes, Haiti, updating us on the situation there. It was sent on Saturday, Jan. 16 – four days after the earthquake.
Dear Friends,
We are on day four of the aftereffects of the quake. Spoke with Dony late last night and received a few emails this morning.
Yesterday, he visited schools and hospitals in PAP. Did not go to the DR since C3 partners were already there.
His words:
“One school has 350 children buried under it. Another nursing school, 100 students. No food. Day 4 without food and water in PAP. Interviewed a family that lost 12 people. PAP not a city that can be rebuilt easily. Hundreds and thousands of people sleeping on the streets. Some are sleeping in tents but there are not enough. If I could get some in the DR and take in…
“Everyone is seeing things differently, but you have to be here on the field. Visit the hospitals – no antibiotics, no medication, not enough personnel to minister to the people. No gas in PAP. Need to purchase two huge containers to store for future. ESMI lost one of its vehicle. People are moving back to the provinces so ministry cannot only be in PAP but need to go to the villages to them too. Still a lot of areas without help. A lot of people still in need of help. We have identified a clinic twice bigger than the one in Cayes that we can use for the relief effort and use it as our headquarter. It also has a guesthouse where we can host at least 200 people so I have taken control of the facility.”
Today’s plan:
1. Louis will send five nurses and one doctor – possibly two – to the above facility to begin doing some preliminary treatment until we can get medical teams organized from the US to come in. This is a big need: medical personnel and medical supplies to treat earthquake victims. The facility is in a safe place about 15 minutes outside of PAP. If you are interested in being a part of a medical team, please respond ASAP to esmieletter@aol.com.
2. Dony will head to St. Marc and the Gonaives area to buy up as much food as he can for storage.
3. C3′s trucks should be arriving today at a location about 3 hours from the DR border where the food will be stored and then distributed from.
4. Louis will also get staff from Cayes to manage this distribution center and will bring more supplies…food, water and medical.
Pray for these efforts today and for safety as one team travels from Les Cayes and another from the DR. Dony will need to return with whatever funds we can collect here. No banks are functioning in Haiti.
If you would like to send a contribution, please send to: ESMI 13651 S. Biscayne River Drive Miami, FL 33161 or online: esmihome.org.
Thanks to all who have already sent funds. Please know that 100% will go toward the relief effort.
Thanks too, to my friend, Susie Austin, who has been getting the word out to you via email. Thanks to Frantz St. Germain and Shane Hackett who have been posting the updates and at the same time working feverishly to get our website updated to make it functional during this relief effort.
May God continue to guide us and have mercy on His people.
Andy Greenhaw specializes in multimedia journalism, social media marketing and motion graphic video production. He's proficient in Adobe After Effects, Premiere, Final Cut Express, PhotoShop, Illustrator, Soundbooth, Camtasia, Web design and copy writing for SEO.
I can produce almost every form of content on a highly professional level, and I know how to viralize it through social media.
Al Jazeera English was nominated for an International News Emmy on Wednesday for its coverage of the 2009 Gaza War.
