K E R A L A M O N I T O R N E W S B U R E A U - May 21, 2004

Reporters Without Borders appalled at account of torture suffered by three Reuters employees in Iraq The organisation calls on the US government to hold a "proper investigation"

Reporters Without Borders has written to tell US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that it is "appalled" by the revelations from Reuters about the torture at the hands of the US Army of three of its employees in Iraq. The international press freedom organisation also condemned the Pentagon's "lax attitude and total lack of openness in the case. Unsatisfactory replies and the obvious failure to hold any effective investigation, despite repeated requests from the British news agency, do no reflect well on the American government," it said. "The accounts given by the Reuters journalists are overwhelming. The facts reported are extremely serious. However the US Army, apparently believing itself above the law, for months have not deemed it necessary to interview the three victims" said the organisation.

"We ask you this time to react with the real integrity and through a proper investigation of these very serious accusations, including those made by a cameraman with al-Jazeera, Hassan Saleh, who has also reported that he was tortured at Abu Ghraib prison in November 2003." "The investigations must be reopened, not with the aim of clearing the army but with the intention of shedding light on these allegations of torture and to punish those responsible," concluded Reporters Without Borders. Three Reuters staff have reported that they were beaten and exposed to humiliating and degrading treatment of a sexual and religious nature during their detention in a US military camp near Fallujah, in January 2004.

The three Iraqis, two journalists and their driver, recounted their ordeal to Reuters when they were released on 5 January. But they only decided to go public after the US Army challenged all the evidence of maltreatment and the media had revealed the practice of torture in Abu Ghraib prison. In a letter dated 5 March, but only received by Reuters two days ago,. Lt-Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Commander of US ground forces in Iraq said he was convinced that the investigation had been "thorough and objective". In the light of the latest facts about maltreatment of Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison, Reuters Global Managing Editor, David Schlesinger, recently urged the Pentagon to review its previous findings. The maltreatment took place at a military base near Fallujah, Forward Operating Base Volturno. Cameraman Salem Ureibi, Fallujah-based freelance Ahmad Mohammad Hussein Al-Badrani and driver Sattar Jabar Al-Badrani, were arrested on 2 January 2004 while they were covering a US Army helicopter accident near Fallujah. All three were released without charge on 5 January.

"When I saw the Abu Ghraib photographs, I wept," Ureibi said. "I saw they had suffered like we had." A summary of the investigation conducted by the 82nd Airborne Division, dated 28 January and provided to Reuters said : "No specific incidents of abuse were found". It said soldiers responsible for the detainees were interviewed under oath and "none admit or report having knowledge of physical abuse or torture". The US Army never interviewed the three Reuters employees. Reporters Without Borders also urged the Pentagon to carry out a separate investigation into the conditions of detention of Hassan Saleh, aged 33, a cameraman with the Qatari-based al-Jazeera. According to his account, carried in several media including British daily The Guardian and the US magazine The Nation, he was maltreated on several occasions in the Abu Ghraib prison.

The US Army arrested Saleh on 3 November 2003, near Baquba, about 40 kilometres north of Baghdad, while he was covering a bomb attack that had just occurred against an American convoy. His interrogators accused him of having advance knowledge of the explosion. Saleh described how he was first driven to the international airport in Baghdad then to Tikrit, before being taken to Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad where he was stripped, beaten and insulted, soldiers calling him "al-Jazeera", "boy" and "whore". During his detention he was forced to remain standing naked for 11 hours with this head in a bag. He was then beaten, dressed in a red outfit covered in vomit then interrogated by two Americans in plain clothes. They accused al-Jazeera of working with terrorists. After several weeks in detention, Saleh was brought before the federal Supreme Court, newly established by the Iraqi governing council. According to The Guardian, Saleh appeared before the first session of this court, which released him for lack of evidence. He was freed on 18 December outside Baghdad, still dressed in the same soiled clothes. (KM News Bureau)

US forces free French Canal + crew

The US Army released three journalists from privately-owned French TV Canal + along with their driver on 19 May after detaining them in the Iraqi capital for around 29 hours. They were arrested by the military on the evening of 18 May while filming close to the Baghdad Hotel. Luc Hermann, presenter of the programme "90 minutes", for which the crew was working, said that the US Army had "apologised profusely" and "treated them to a meal in a restaurant". During their detention, French journalists Michel Despratx, Stéphane Rossi, and Mohammed Ballout and their Iraqi driver Sarmad Adel, were on several occasions handcuffed and blindfolded. 18 May 2004 - Three journalists of privately-owned French TV Canal + held by US Army in Iraq

Reporters Without Borders demands their immediate release Reporters Without Borders called for the immediate release of three French journalists working for the privately-owned French TV Canal +, held by the US Army in Baghdad after being arrested on 18 May. "Our crew of journalists has been held for almost 24 hours," said Paul Moreira, co-producer of Canal + programme "90 minutes". "It is all the more baffling and intolerable since the channel confirmed the identity of our three colleagues at 8am and they were carrying their press cards. "We have had enough of these methods. The US Army's attitude towards journalists is frankly disrespectful and unacceptable," he said.

French cameraman Stéphane Rossi, French reporter of Lebanese origin Mohammed Ballout and French reporter Michel Despratx, were arrested on 18 May, apparently in the evening as they were filming at the Hotel Baghdad, which is under heavy guard by coalition forces. They had been in the country for a week preparing a report for the investigative programme "90 minutes". Around three weeks ago, US soldiers arrested another journalist working for the same channel, Grégoire Deniau, as he was leaving Falluja, east of Baghdad. They blindfolded him and left him for two hours on wasteland in hot sun before releasing him. The Canal + journalist was working on a report for the programme "Monday investigation". (KM News Bureau)

Is this journalism?? Times of India of Bennett Coleman Sells Front Page News Space for Commercial Rates -- Courtesy Mid Day Full Report Here

By: Hemal Ashar May 11, 2004

MUMBAI - Would you like to be in the news? Want a picture on the front page of Bombay Times? Just pay and get it, says Hemal Ashar How does it work? Before she took over as editor of Bombay Times this week, Vinita Nangia was the editor of Medianet. You may well ask what that is. Last year Bennett, Coleman & Co announced that they would sell editorial space. Effectively you could pay and be featured in the column centimetres that pass for news in the paper.

This ‘paid for’ news would be distinguished from ‘genuine’ news by a pointer at the bottom mentioning Medianet, said the company. However, soon after the launch, the discreet Medianet at the bottom disappeared, equally discreetly. Now, there is no telling which piece of news was paid for and which wasn't. Mid Day has since found out that a front page photograph in Bombay Times is priced at Rs 1,254 per square cm. This means a 240 sq cm photograph on the front page in Mumbai costs Rs 3,00,960. The rate gets progressively lower with more insertions. The straight Q/A feature, also on the front page of the Bombay Times, is also up for sale. The 160-sq-cm article is on the lower part of the page and called the anchor in journalistic parlance. So if you want to be interviewed for that section, be ready to shell out Rs 1,91,520. In the picture Pradeep Hirani of Kimaya Gallery, Juhu whose gallery was featured on the front page of Bombay Times on Saturday, May 8, 2004: “My public relations agency had a budget for it. Beyond this I do not wish to say anything more on this subject.”

A McDonald’s spokesperson on the front page picture of Malaika Arora posing to announce McDonald’s home delivery service in Bombay Times dated April 12, 2004: “Yes, the photograph was paid for.” When asked if it was done through the public relations agency the spokesperson said, “No. But we would know it was paid for since they are our clients.” Viren Shah, owner of Roopam. His newly-expanded store was featured in the front page picture of Bombay Times, May 7, 2004: "Yes, the photograph was paid for. I am sure a lot of — almost all these articles that have brand names designers or products — may be paid for. There is a good and bad side to this. The bad side is that the journalist's freedom to write may be curtailed. The good thing is that not everybody who wants to pay is put in the newspaper. The matter is screened first and only that which is topical and with strong editorial content is allowed into the newspaper." A spokesperson for Kaya Skin Clinic (Bombay Times had featured an interview with the head of Kaya Medical Services on May 7, 2004): “Why do you want to know all this? No. The Q/A was not paid for.”

The price list These are the rates some pay in order to get themselves mentioned in Bombay Times: The front page window is the front page photograph in the paper. You can also pay to be in the Q & A feature on the front page. Similarly, rates are also fixed in case you wish to be featured on page 2 and page 3 of the newspaper. Front Page Window Edition Size Sq Cm Slam Bang Super Mumbai 240 3,00,960 2,59,920 2,18,880 Straight Q&A Edition Size Sq Cm Slam Bang Super Mumbai 160 1,91,520 1,64,160 1,36,800 Slam 1 to 2 insertions Bang 3 to 5 insertions Super 6 + insertions (All rates in rupees)

Bennett, Coleman & Co says * A senior employee of the Medianet division: “I would not know who would be able to comment on this issue. I could call you back and let you know.” * However, in an earlier interview to Business World, a spokesperson had said: “Medianet is hardly a channel to buy your way into the Times group publications because unlike an advertorial, editors control Medianet Edvertorials. All Medianet features are processed for print after due approval from the Medianet editor and respective editors of Metro supplements. All Medianet articles have to pass the most stringent editorial filters, the commitment to which is unflinching in the Times Group”

* Bombay Times editor Vinita D Nangia was reported “out of town and unavailable for comment”.

Experts’ View I cannot defend this policy. In fact, I condemn it completely. This is a total breach of journalistic ethics and completely against the spirit of journalism. I do not think of Times of India as a newspaper. They are out to do business. They can sell anything. They can even sell themselves. — Nikhil Wagle, Editor, Mahanagar The Times of India has always reinvented the rules of the game. It is a courageous and path-breaking decision and they seem to have pulled it off. What they have done is to eliminate the public relations companies. If you want publicity, you pay for it. If you are uncomfortable about that, do not pay and you do not get publicity. The entire process is legitimate and transparent. There is no hidden agenda. I think after a few months of carping, everybody will follow them. This is the trend of journalism for the coming years. — Shobhaa De, columnist

My view is pretty straightforward — this should not be done. — Samar Halarnkar, Resident Editor, The Indian Express, Mumbai