A virtual wall created for Twitter users to express their thoughts and hopes on the 20 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has been blocked in China. The “Berlin Twitter Wall,” as it’s called, is an initiative of KulturProjekte Berli, a not-for-profit organization that promotes networking and mediation of art and culture. […]
Right from the start this film draws the audience in. It is a movie about a young Honduran woman named Sayra who rides on top of trains hoping to reach Texas through Mexico. It is also about Casper (a.k.a. Willy), a Mexican gang member in trouble who meets up with Sayra along the way. Casper’s […]
On the road of being a journalist, there is one important lesson I have learned–never abandon your notebook. By notebook, I mean reporter’s notebook–those kind that are long and skinny and allow you to flip the pages as you furiously take notes. For a journalist in the digital age, this might seem an archaic way […]
If you are in New York City and have time for an intelligent conversations–with guaranteed humor intertwined–look into tomorrow night’s interview with Israeli writer, Etgar Keret. Keret, who is author of several books and two screenplays, will be interviewed by This American Life’s Ira Glass for NPR. Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 7:00 PM Celeste […]
In the summer of 2006, southern Lebanon was under a barrage of Israeli firepower. The war was nominally between Israel and Hezbollah operating out of Lebanon. What this film does – and does well – is to humanize this war story. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/YbabkJPcTts” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] It shows a woman, Zeina, who has come […]
Dexter Filkins’ recent NYTimes magazine piece is lengthy but worth reading. Filkins, a veteran war correspondent for the NYTimes, is adept at story-telling and doesn’t disappoint in this article. With his familiar, almost folksy, tone of writing, Filkins draws a vivid picture of the American war in Afghanistan: “The Marines around McChrystal, including the local […]
“Be a patriot – kill a priest.” That was a bumper sticker seen on vehicles run by the national guard in El Salvador in the 1980s. The reason is that the entrenched elite of that country believed that Roman Catholic priests were becoming radicalized and increasingly political and who therefore threatened their interests. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ILCZh1SIypA” […]
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) will release their annual Press Freedom Index tomorrow. The report ranks 174 different countries by their committment to press freedom. The Annual World Press Freedom Index for 2009 will include details on progress made by the U.S., alongside a number of high-profile journalist kidnappings. RSF will hold a press conference at […]
According to confirmed reports from Newsweek, their own reporter and filmmaker, Maziar Bahari, has been released from Iran. Mr. Bahari, who was detained in Iran since the June elections, was released from Evin Prison on bail on Oct. 17. Read the Newsweek online article about Bahari’s release here The 42 year-old reporter is expecting his […]
“Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi,” writes columnist Anne Applebaum in The Washington Post, “has been accused of bribery, tax evasion, corruption and subversion of the press.” He makes embarrassing jokes and is at war with the Italian legal establishment. His wife has left him on the grounds that he consorts with prostitutes and holds orgies […]
Once again, with a couple of honorable exceptions, the U.S. media failed to deliver on a major story about the European Union, which groups America’s closest allies and trading and investment partners. It’s true that EU stories are often hard to make interesting, but the American media has never really tried to do so for […]
Not to be missed on tonight’s Frontline–the newest from correspondent Martin Smith and RAINmedia on the war in Afghanistan. “Obama’s War” airs on Frontline on Tuesday, October 13 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings). According to RAINmedia: “Three years ago, a small cadre of US army officers huddled at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to re-write […]
JERUSALEM–When journalists go out on the streets to report, it is usually to record a newsworthy story. But what about when reporters search for violence? Look at the recent events in Jerusalem surrounding Al-Aqsa mosque. Rumors that extremist religious Jews were planning to enter Al-Aqsa and pray there sparked widespread calls for Muslims to take […]
The story behind this documentary is fascinating. Several missionaries travel to eastern Ecuador in the 1950s and make contact with the Waodani, a Stone Age tribe. Five of the missionaries – all men – are brutally murdered by the Waodani. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/qBF-AQe7lzk” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] What happens next is fairly unbelievable: the wives and […]
The European media and political leaders are reacting to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama with official welcomes, hope, puzzlement, and some hostility. In France, the daily newspaper Le Parisien writes lyrically: In the four corners of the world, the award of the Nobel Prize to the American President Barack […]