Every year there are thousands of events across the world on WMD, attended by millions of people. There are hundreds in the UK, and in my home town of Walthamstow, in north east London, the gathering was particularly poignant. Waltham Forest Council declares itself a proud host to the 2012 Olympic Games, but many here are disturbed by Dow Chemical’s sponsorship of the artistic wrap around the Olympic stadium in neighbouring Stratford. It was Dow, who in 2001 bought Union Carbide– more than 16 years after the chemical leak disaster in Bhopal, India, that killed 15,000 people and injured half a million, and is being blamed for major local health problems 27 years later.

It was moving to hear Sanjay, from the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, speak about the campaign at this morning’s rain swept meeting. He had lost both parents and other family members in the disaster and since his arrival in the UK only a few days ago had spoken at meetings in Edinburgh, Oxford and Westminster and earlier this morning at Tower Hill, a few minutes from the Tower of London. In his remaining time here, he will be speaking at meetings, calling for the Olympic authorities to cancel Dow’s sponsorship.

The article below gives the background to the campaign in greater detail and can be found with other information on the Justice in Bhopal web site at www.bhopal.net

London Olympics under fire for Dow Chemical ties

DANICA KIRKA and RAVI NESSMAN Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Just a few months ago, Dow Chemical was hailed by the organisers of the London Olympics for saving a visual centrepiece – an artistic wrap around Olympic Stadium. Now, the Olympic sponsor is sparking the kind of controversy that no one wants.

Dow’s link to the company accused in the 1984 Bhopal gas leak – the world’s worst industrial disaster – has brought a cascade of criticism down upon the organising committee. Protesters in the central Indian city of Bhopal burned an effigy Friday of Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London organising committee, and one Indian official has even uttered the word boycott.

Emotions in India are still raw, for the Bhopal disaster killed 15,000 people and injured half a million, according to the government, and is being blamed for major local health problems 27 years later.

Although Indian officials say the country has no intention of staying away from the games, pressure has been building for the Olympics to sever its ties with Dow or face the risk of constant protests marring the spectacle that Britain hoped would lift its flagging spirits and foundering economy.

Dow is one of the elite club of sponsors that the International Olympic Committee places in its “Top” category, enjoying a special status in exchange for paying about $100 million every four years.

Coe would have real trouble pulling out the rug from a sponsor with such status, particularly because the feel-good Olympic image is a main reason why Dow would sponsor the games in the first place. Companies pay big money to attach their brand to the warm and fuzzy glow of young, strong and photogenic athletes overcoming the odds to win on a world stage.

Much of the controversy stems from Dow’s funding of the “wrap,” an innovative curtain designed to encircle the stadium. Olympic officials scrapped the plan last year because its cost – 7 million pounds ($11.4 million) – seemed out of step with austere times across Europe.

Architects and artists decried the decision, suggesting the image of the games would suffer – never mind that fans trying to find their seats in the steel-latticed stadium would need something to guide them through the identical girders.

Then Dow swooped in to save the wrap – and didn’t even blink at Olympic guidelines that will bar it from etching its brand logo onto the curtains.

Olympic organisers could face unpleasant consequences for being associated with a company linked to such an uncomfortable subject such as Bhopal.

“You run the risk of the association and sponsorship backfiring, to the extent that the Olympic Games might feel impacted by the relationship with Dow,” said Scott Rosner, associate director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative.

In India, where the Bhopal tragedy remains an open wound, survivors and their advocates said the Olympic wrap project with Dow ignores the immense pain they have suffered since gas and chemicals leaked out of the Union Carbide pesticide plant on 3 December, 1984.

Besides the massive number of dead and injured, residents say the area is still contaminated and the leak is causing birth defects and terrible health problems for those who remain.

Dow says that it had nothing to do with the leak. It only bought Union Carbide in 2001 – more than 16 years after the disaster. It said legal claims were resolved when Union Carbide reached a settlement with the Indian government and paid $470 million as compensation for those killed or injured.

Dow has expressed sadness about the disaster, saying that the “tragic events of 1984 have cast a long shadow over the people of Bhopal and the chemicals industry.”

“Dow has never had any involvement with the Bhopal plant site or with the 1984 Bhopal gas release and efforts by certain interest groups to attach this to the company are misdirected and inappropriate,” spokesman Scot Wheeler of Dow said in an email Friday.

The Michigan company’s vocal critics say that is not enough. They argue the victims of the leak never got proper compensation, and have demanded that Dow make amends. The Indian government is seeking an additional $1.7 billion from Dow in compensation for the victims and their families.

Indian Olympic athletes and Bhopal victims’ groups have urged the London organizers to boot Dow out, saying its continued involvement with the wrap endorses a company that is refusing to clean up the contaminated soil and groundwater in Bhopal. Dow and Union Carbide say the site is now owned by the state of Madhya Pradesh and the state is responsible for the cleanup.

Amnesty International has also condemned the Dow wrap deal, and several British politicians have campaigned to dump Dow from the games.

“What has given real offense to the people of Bhopal is that on this, the most sustainable games ever and lauded as such, that we should wrap the stadium, the big symbol of the games, in a skin that might as well be the skin of the families that died,” said London lawmaker Barry Gardiner.

All of this comes just as Coe, a former gold-medal runner, should be taking a victory lap, with all the Olympic venues completed on schedule and no major scandals ahead of the 27 July to 12 August event.

Instead, his likeness was burned and beaten by hundreds of protesters in the streets of Bhopal on Friday, on the eve of the 27th anniversary of the disaster. The protesters carried banners reading, “Down with London Dowlympics” and “We want justice” – and they planned to stop trains passing through the city Saturday as well.

Coe is being dogged at every public appearance now by questions on the Dow controversy.

His own personal history even comes into play: Coe is the grandson of an Indian. During a recent appearance before the U.K. Parliament’s media, culture and sport committee, he tried, as he has repeatedly, to say that all the rules were followed.

“I am satisfied that the ownership, operation and the involvement either at the time of the disaster or at the final settlement was not the responsibility of Dow,” he said.

Now his Olympic committee is facing a threat that would horrify any event manager. If it doesn’t cut ties with Dow, protesters have vowed to hold their own “Bhopal Olympics” during the London games – an event contested by children with congenital disabilities attributed to the Bhopal gas leak.

Nessman reported from New Delhi. Rafiq Maqbool reported from Bhopal.

Having left England, smiling to myself over the Tories’ disastrous PR handling of the budget: tax cuts for millionaires: freezing of allowances for pensioners (the granny tax) increased VAT on hot pasties, and crowning it all, the ‘dinner gate’ which brought down Tory party deputy treasurer Peter Cruddas, CM’s entry for Tuesday 2 May 2006 (page 96) reminded me that the Tories are not the only ones at it!

Coffee with an old friend who has spent a year working for Lord Levy, fundraiser extraordinaire. ‘I became aware of a Labour Party I did not know existed’ he says. ‘A cluster of mega-rich, unideological, Blair worshippers who are lunched and dined in grand hotels, granted favoured access and whose opinions are listened to with rapt attention. They have much more influence than the other Labour Party.’

And what about our little ‘loans for peerages’ difficulty? He had overheard one or two conversations and Levy always went out of his way to make clear that there was no promise of an honour, adding slyly, ‘but I will just make two points: (1) a donation does not rule out an honour and (2) contributions to good causes can lead to honours. If you wish I can send you details of one or two good causes that might qualify.’

Which brings me to the question of real alternatives. It’s the run up to the Presidential elections here, and last night the radical left candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon held a rally in nearby Toulouse. Up to 70,000 people attended, with eight coaches coming from this locality. Having seen a video and a report from someone who went, I was impressed. He laid into Islamaphobia, demanded control over the banks, withdrawal from Nato (but nothing about getting rid of French nuclear weapons it seems) and a minimum wage of 1700 euros a month (a three-fold increase). His meetings are attracting tens of thousands – young and not so young alike – and his rating in the opinion polls stands at around 15 per cent. Details of their programme are set out below.

The left front is an alliance between the Communist Party and the Left Party – formed of former Socialists – people of no party and Green Party dissidents. Although Melenchon is unlikely to ‘do a Galloway’, a high vote for the Front de Gauche in the first round and in the subsequent parliamentary elections will put pressure on the Socialists and their candidate Francois Hollande. After all we all know what happens when centre-left parties get into office!

To take on the politics of austerity, power to the people!

Raise wages, not shareholders’ dividends!

• Raise wages, SMIC (minimum wage) to 1700E gross
• Maximum salary authorised for each business, maximum income nationwide
• Legislation for equal pay between men and women

Priority for employment, not for profits!

• Not allowing lay-offs based on stock market valuation of companies
• Right for employees to take over companies
• National plan for the reintroduction of outsourced manufacturing
• Re-establish real 35 hour week for all

Against casualisation, the right to happiness!

• Permanent / proper contracts for the 800,000 casual workers in the public sector and drastic limitation of casual contracts in the private sector
• Capping and lowering of rents, take over empty housing
• Provide free of charge a certain amount of water, gas and electricity
• Retirement at 60 on full pension

Power to the people, not to the financial sector!

• Stopping financial speculation
• Creation of a public financial body
• People’s audit of the debt

Like in 2005, no to a neo-liberal Europe!

• Free ourselves from the Lisbon treaty and reject the new Merkel-Sarkozy treaty
• Put an end to the independence of the Central European Bank
• Refuse to implement European directives: Bolkestein, the ‘liberalisation’ of public services
• Stop the free circulation of capital and goods

These examples of proposals come from the programme of the Left Front

People first!

To get out of the crisis, we can do it!

Further information from www.placeaupeuple2012.fr

In its edition of 25-31 March, New Europe pointed out that Italy’s current unelected technocrat prime minister Mario Monti earned about 46.5 million euros less than his predecessor, who still claims the top spot. They reported that revelations made in the local media in mid-March put the figure of his income last year at around 48 million euros a year on year increase of 20 percent, which allowed him to keep the top spot.

Last year Berlusconi’s declared income was more than 48 million euros, of which he paid almost 21 million euros in taxes. The billionaire media tycoon earned his fortune in Milan property from where he broadened out into mass media, becoming the owner of Mediaset, Italy’s largest private broadcasting company. He never kept his election pledge to sell off assets in the company to avoid a conflict of interest. The article concluded that he makes tens-of-millions of euros from dividends and other income sources from his business empire.

As in Britain, so in Italy, we ‘are not all in this together’!

The EFJ understands that Ercan has been singled out by management as a target in a campaign of intimidation intended to undermine support for the union. He has been a leading figure in the campaign challenging the imprisonment of more than 100 journalists in Turkey. This has resulted in him and his union also being targeted by the Turkish authorities, as proven by a recent hostile speech by the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“There have been many reports of the tactics used by the state and employers in Turkey to intimidate union members and obstruct the ability of trade unions to represent their members. This case has the stink of yet another example of the intolerable pressure under which trade unionists in Turkey have to operate,” said EFJ President Arne König. “It is deeply concerning that people feel that they have to go to such extreme measures in order to stand up for their principles.”

Attempts to introduce collective bargaining at the Sabah newspaper were undermined in 2009 when pressure was put on trade union members to resign their membership. A similar case happened in Olay Medya last year.

A report published by the International Trade Union Congress in February found that “legal protection from acts of interference [in Turkey] is weak and sanctions for anti-union discrimination are not dissuasive. The state and the employers make use of various anti-union practices that have weakened trade unions’ negotiating rights.”

As the trials of journalists in the so-called OdaTV case are set to resume on Monday, the EFJ has protested against the intimidation of TGS members. It also fully supports the TGS President and Steering Committee member, Ercan Ikpeci, and calls on the European authorities to remind the Turkish government that press freedom and free trade unionism are essential values of democracy.

The NUJ NEC is  considering ‘adopting’ an imprisoned journalist in Turkey at its meeting this weekend.

Please send messages of support to Ercan at: Ercan.ipekci@gmail.com

Source EFJ news release 9 March.

Here it is ! Done ! The workers at Eleftherotypia, one of the biggest and most prestigious Greek daily newspapers, go forward undertaking the great endeavour of editing their own newspaper Workers at Eleftherotypia!

From Wednesday, Feb. 15th, kiosks all over the country are displaying one more newspaper next to the usual ones, a newspaper written by its own workers. This is a newspaper which not only aims at bringing the fight of Eleftherotypia’s workers to the fore, but also seeks to be a newspaper giving real information, especially at such critical times for Greece.

The 800 men and women workers at the firm H.K. Tegopoulos, which edits the Eleftherotypia newspaper, from journalists to technician staff, from cleaners to clerks and caretakers, have gone on continuous strike since 2011, Dec. 22th as their employer stopped paying their salaries in August 2011

Eleftherotypia workers, seeing that their employer has requested application of section nr. 99 of the Bankruptcy Act, in order to protect himself against his creditors, i.e. in reality his workers to whom he owes a total of approximately 7 million euro in unpaid salaries (!) have decided to have their own newspaper published, at the same time as continuing mobilisations and taking legal action. A newspaper distributed by news agencies all over the country, at the price of 1 euro (against the usual 1.30 euro for the other newspapers), in order to provide financial support to the strike fund.

As they haven’t been paid for the last seven months, the female and male workers at Eleftherotypia are being subsided by a solidarity movement from various collectivities or even isolated citizens who donate money or make donations in kind (foodstuffs, blankets, etc.). By publishing their own newspaper and thanks to the money collected through its sales, they will be able to support their strike financially without any kind of mediation. In other words, they are making progress towards some kind of self-management.

The newspaper has been produced in a friendly workshop, in an ambiance that is reminiscent of clandestine newspaper editing, since the management, as soon as they found out that the journalists were going ahead with their publishing enterprise, first cut off the heating, then the system used by the sub-editors to write their articles, and last, shut down the workshop itself, even though access to the newspaper’s offices still remains free for the time being. Worker’s Eleftherotypia was printed at printing works that do not belong to the company, with the support of the press workers’ unions, because the staff of its own printing works felt reluctant to occupy their work place. The management, afraid of the possible impact of the self-managed publication of the newspaper, have threatened to take legal action; they are using intimidation by threatening to fire the editorial committee who were democratically elected by the general meeting of strikers.

However, Greek public opinion, and not only Eleftherotypia readers, had been eagerly waiting for its publication – we were overwhelmed by messages cheering the journalists for publishing the newspaper themselves – since dictatorship of the markets is coupled with media dictatorship that makes Greek reality difficult to read and interpret. Had it not been for the general consensus that was maintained by most media in 2010, based on the argument that there was no alternative to Papandreou government signing the first Memorandum, whose patent failure has now been acknowledged by everyone, we might have seen the Greek people rising up much earlier in order to overturn a policy that has proven disastrous for all Europe.

The case of Eletherotypia is not unique. Tens of private sector enterprises have long ceased paying their employees, and their stockholder have virtually abandoned them waiting for better times… In the press, the situation is even worse. Because of the crisis, the banks have stopped lending to companies while employers refuse to pay for it out of their pockets and choose to call on section 99 – at least 100 listed on the stock exchange companies have already done so – trying to save time in view of a possible bankruptcy of Greece and a probable exit of the euro zone.

Eleftherotypia was created in 1975 as “its sub-editors’ newspaper” during the period of radicalization that followed the fall of dictatorship in 1974. Today, in times marked by the new “dictatorship of international creditors”, Eleftherotypia’s women and men workers have the ambition to become the bright example of a totally different way of information, resisting against “terror” from the employers as well as the press lords, who would not like at all to see workers take in their hands the fate of information.

Moisis Litsis is an economic editor, a member of the Editorial Committee of “Worker’s Eleftherotypia”, and a substitute member of the Board of Directors of the Greek Press Workers’ Union (ESIEA.

The real news in Greece is not about riots, but of a growing number of people who have broken away from fear and decided to fight back against the austerity imposed by the ‘Troika’ of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF.

‘The streets of Athens erupted with some of the worst rioting and political violence seen in the country in years’. ‘Rioting Greeks torched buildings and looted dozens of shops as they battled police in central Athens to protest harsh austerity measures’. These were some of the headlines of the global corporate media about last Sunday’s demonstrations in Greece, often accompanied by photos of burned down buildings.

‘I’m sorry about what happened in Greece yesterday’, many friends told me on Monday. It’s amazing how the mainstream press makes you feel sorry about the resistance rather than the disastrous policies that caused the protest.  For the real news was that people all over Greece have broken away from fear and demonstrated massively their decisiveness to fight back against  austerity imposed by the ‘Troika’ of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF. Of all the mega-demonstrations since May 2010 when the adjustment plans were first imposed this was the biggest: hundreds of thousands of people attended with the metro lines simply  unable to handle the traffic of people.

There were serious reasons for such a mobilisation.  The vote on Sunday night in the Greek Parliament was the most drastic of all the austerity packages so far, with commitments to severe salary and pension cuts, and a new cycle of job losses in the public sector. With the language of “sacrifice” and “putting the country into order”, because ”Europe and the markets ask for it”; the measures include lowering the minimum net salary to 490 Euros (440 for first job). This is a cut of 22% in a country where  prices for basic goods and services are similar to an average western European country.

The so-called ‘Memorandum II’  also includes the effective abolition of collective labour agreements. Collective agreements have existed in Greece since 1914, but now if no agreement is reached between social partners, the former collective agreement will no longer be automatically renewed, as has been the case up to now. The Troika hopes that these measures  will permit a reduction in the minimum wage in order to be closer to that of Greece’s peers such as Portugal and Central-South Europe. In neighbouring Bulgaria, the minimum wage is less than 150 Euros (although prices there are significantly lower than in Greece). No-one told the Greeks that the convergence they were promised when they  entered the EU was in one direction: downwards.

The Greek debt audit committee, a coalition of civil society groups, does not exaggerate at all when it talks about ‘mass hunger’ in a statement. In 2010, one in three Greeks was living under the poverty line according the EU’s own statistics, and based on research undertaken by unions could be much higher.  Cases of malnutrition in school children continue to multiply.

The Memorandum II also included a long list of fast-track privatisations. Loan contracts will henceforth be governed by UK law, so that the Greek state is much more tightly bound by its creditors and loses the ability to modify the loan conditions in case of political change.

Radical impoverishment of the majority of the Greek population and loss of sovereignty makes the scare tactics used by European and Greek politicians about the consequences of a disorderly default and Eurozone exit less effective by the day. What could be worse than the Troika’s plan? Why should one choose to remain in a European Union that is ordering the destruction of welfare structures that have existed for a century?

Given the relative success of three days of General strike in one week (7, 10 and 11 February), the demonstration on Sunday (12 February) was expected to be huge. Police violence was the only way for the coalition government to avoid the picture of complete isolation from society. In Syntagma, police started gassing people half an hour after rallies started, followed by outright attacks by police in motorcycles. In order to remain the downtown area, demonstrators took defensive measures. But these have nothing to do with the buildings that were burned down. A cinema owner reports that masked men asked him for money in order not to burn down his property. The chair of the police union also confirmed the presence of agents-provocateurs. “Of course there were agents-provocateurs there. They’re always there”, said the chair of the police union, “and the way they operated shows they were in contact with the police.”

Inside the Parliament, a parody of democracy was at play. In October,  only 153 out of 300 MPs voted in favour of austerity. Since then, public rejection of austerity has grown yet the parliamentary majority in favour grew to 199. The MPs had only Saturday morning (before the sessions started) to go through 24 texts, some of which were in English while others were badly translated, with plenty of gaps regarding for instance the total cost of banks’ recapitalisation. After the vote, forty five MPs were expelled from their parties, because they voted against the measures. Independent MPs now make up a larger group than the second biggest parliamentary group, the conservatives.

The breach between Greece’s political elites and its citizens was no more evident than on Sunday, when Prime Minister Papademos’s only defence of the austerity deal was that it avoided a ‘disorderly default’. Yet everybody knows that default will happen. The real question is under which conditions. EU leaders and bankers are trying to stop an uncontrollable domino effect that will bring down several financial institutions in Europe. The latter are also competing amongst themselves to both avoid collapse but also to try and emerge as even bigger in the course of this crisis. However Greeks grasp ever more clearly that this game played out, with great human costs, has to stop as soon as possible.

A citizen-led refusal of the debt is the only real alternative that will allow for re-building the economy under democratic public control, so that it serves the interests of the people and not of the notoriously corrupt Greek elite and foreign corporations.  Across Greece, there is an emergence of new popular structures based on neighbourhood assemblies, factory strikers (the Greek steelworks being the most impressive example), occupied media (including a TV channel run by striking workers) and grassroots unions’ coordination centres operationally independent from the official union leadership. Coordination of these structures with the help of organised progressive forces could be the nucleus of a movement that could lead Greece in an alternative path and inspire people all over Europe fighting debtocracy and corporate power. Different factions in the movements will have to overcome their own deficiencies and converge on a common but radical program in order to make this happen.

In several countries in Europe, people are also mobilising in protest at the ‘austerity for ever’ policies being imposed by the EU leadership in combination with the ‘Troika’. Cross-border coordination across these different struggles is also important to succeed,but is crucial that the austerity fire is stopped in Greece, before it spreads to the whole of Europe. 

--

Yiorgos Vassalos

Researcher.

http://www.tni.org/article/breaking-fear-greece

Corporate Europe Observatory

Mundo B (2nd floor)

Rue d'Edimbourg 26

Brussels 1050

Tel: +32 2 8930930

Twitter: @YiorgosVassalos

http://www.corporateeurope.org/

The following EFJ statement has been issued:

‘No to State Censorship of the Media – Yes to Human Rights!

Over a thousand Hungarian journalists have been laid off in the past year, mostly as a result of an outright attack on trade union rights.  Colleagues at the Hungarian national broadcasting service have undertaken a symbolic ‘rolling hunger strike’ where they take turns to go without food in protest against state censorship.  It’s part of a growing resistance to the policies of a government which has simply shredded human rights law.  Since 2010, the Orban government has installed its own apparatchiks at MTV the national broadcaster, firing those who stood up to censorship.  This reached infantile proportions late last year when the face of a critical judge was pixillated out of a broadcast report.  His body was seen, but not his face (presumably for reasons of spite).  TV journalist and union leader Balazs Nagy-Navarro protested and was fired.  He and some other colleagues then went on a symbolic hunger strike which lasted 22 days.  Their strike is now being carried on by others.  Last month, the authorities abruptly withdrew the broadcasting license of Klubradio, an independent radio station critical of government policy.  In addition, the government has encouraged the fascist-style Jobbik party.   The government sought to celebrate these attacks with a lavish event in the Budapest Opera House on January 2^nd 2012.  Crowds of over 70,000 people turned out all right – to protest against the government: its popularity has dropped from over 57% at the time of the election to 18% last month.’

Last month the EFJ issued the following statement on the situation in Hungary:

‘The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has called the European Commission to include media freedom in its analysis of the compatibility of Hungarian law with EU law, to be published on 17 January. Last year the European Commission made comments about technical aspects of the recently implemented media law. However, on 11 January 2011 the Commission also questioned the general legal and political situation in Hungary.

“We welcome the recognition that media freedom is a fundamental right, which is not currently being guaranteed by the Hungarian government” said EFJ President Arne König. “The assessment of compatibility with EU laws and the Treaty should also take into consideration Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty, which allows the EU to impose sanctions on a member state in case of “serious and persistent breach” of freedom, democracy, human rights and other EU values enshrined in the treaty”.

The EFJ carried out two missions to Hungary at the end of last year, meeting media professionals and officials. The second delegation, a joint mission of international press freedom groups, concluded: “The confluence of a regulatory environment, deteriorating economic conditions, technological change and convergence in media, and a lack of unity and solidarity within the professional community has created a perfect storm that threatens the future of independent journalism in Hungary. The regulation is broad, uncertain and inconsistent with European standards of media freedom, it is creating a chilling effect and its export to  other countries will undermine free expression.”

Numerous concerns have been raised about the freedom of media in Hungary. In December 2011, the main public television channel MTV1 deliberately manipulated images of the former Head of the Supreme Court. In response to public criticism for this action an image editor, a reporter and one editor on duty were sent a formal warning. However, the journalists’ union leaders accused management of making these three people scapegoats because they acted upon politically motivated orders from their superiors. One trade union leader even started a hunger strike.

Later the same month, the Hungarian Media Authority reassigned the frequencies of Klubrádió’s Budapest stations, removing one of Hungary’s only remaining independent stations from the airways with effect from 1st January 2012. Its licence went to an unknown new company’s programme.

“Unfortunately our fear from the beginning of introducing the Hungarian media law has been proven to be right. Ultimately it is hard to tell if, with the present media framework, the Hungarian public will be properly and objectively informed about the concerns that are being raised by the European Commission” said EFJ President Arne König. “As the European Commission is to make comments and recommendations about the general legal framework, it must also ensure that the European values of press freedom and independent journalism are enforced as fundamental rights”.

EFJ members in Austria, Germany, Italy and Slovakia have been criticising the recent developments in Hungary which should be of concern to every EU citizen who believes in democracy, press freedom and fundamental rights. “We welcome our affiliates’ different actions and the solidarity shown to all Hungarians who are trying to minimise harm done by the Orban government” said the EFJ. The Deutscher Journalisten Verband urged the EU and the International Monetary Fund to make any possible financial aid package conditional on criteria to improve democracy and media freedom.

At the suggestion of the Turkish journalists union, the Turkish Journalists’ Syndicate (TGS), and the EFJ, the committee agreed to recommend the NEC that the union ‘adopts’ an imprisoned journalist in Turkey. She is Muyesser Yildiz, who was imprisoned last March in Silivri Prison, situated in Istanbul province.  She was one of nine journalists caught up in a police raid at the beginning of March 2011. We are getting more details about her, her work and case before formally launching this initiative.

In Turkey, the Turkish Freedom for Journalists Platform (which includes the TGS) continues to campaign for the release of more than 60 journalists, currently in jails for doing their jobs. You can find out more at: http://europe.ifj.org/en/pages/turkey-campaign-set-journalists-free and on the main EFJ web site at: http://europe.ifj.org/en and click on ‘Set journalists free’ button.

Last year the EFJ pressed the European Parliament and the Commission for Enlargement, Stefan Füle to raise the threats to journalists with the Turkish government. Although Turkey’s prospects of joining the EU in the coming period are almost zero, this channel is still being pursued, although the Turkish government itself pays less and less attention  to Europe, is seeking new alliances in the Near East and increasingly portrays criticism by Europe as ‘interference in their internal affairs’. A reply has now been received from Commissioner on 30 January 2012, in response to a letter sent to him in December by EFJ President Arne Konig.

In it, Commissioner Füle underlined that “Turkey’s legal framework is not in line with EU standards. It does not sufficiently guarantee freedom of expression in line with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the case law of the ECHR, and it permits restrictive interpretation by the judiciary”.

He further pointed out that “amendments to the Criminal Code, the Press law and the anti-terrorist Act are needed. The right to freedom of expression is undermined by the large number of legal cases and investigations against journalists, writers, academics and human rights defenders. This leads to self-censorship and, together with undue pressure on the media, raises serious concerns.”  He said the Commission is “concerned by the wave of arrests, notably of journalists in the framework of the investigation into the KCK.”

The full response may be found at: Commissioner Fule’s response

Demonstrators today, 31 December will show their support for a group of hunger strikers, including the in-house union official at MTV Balázs Navarro  Nagy, who have been protesting about a manipulation in which the whole figure of former chief judge Zoltán Lomnici was blurred during a news report.

MTV has been highly criticised for its dealing with the incident. It initially attempted to blame editorial staff. After public pressure the news editor in chief at Hungarian public television, Dániel Papp, was removed from his post but, the hunger strikers say that the broadcaster has failed to take action against senior management figures who were responsible for the incident. The Association of Hungarian Journalists is also calling for the incident to be fully investigated.

“On the very last days of 2011 our colleagues in Hungary are demonstrating in defence of objective reporting in the media, and fighting the government’s attempt to influence media reporting for their own purpose. We are thinking of our colleagues who are on hunger strike for the third week now, and tomorrow will again be protesting against Hungarian media policy,” said EFJ President Arne König.

“We are saluting our courageous colleagues in Hungary, and ask our members unions to send a message of support and solidarity to those who are fighting with all their power to defend independent journalism,” König said.

The new media law in Hungary has been criticised on many occasions by the European Federation of Journalists and other international organisations dealing with press freedom. The EFJ has warned that the negative consequences of the legislation will become increasingly visible.

“We also fear that the Hungarian case will be used as an example by governments in Europe who want to control the media and not allow independent and critical journalism”, added Arne König.

Last month I wrote to the UK Hungary parliamentary group about the attacks on media freedom in Hungary. Still awaiting a reply.

Sources include  EFJ news release.

On 13 December, the EFJ’s steering committee (governing body) received a report on an international mission to Turkey, which took place the previous month in cooperation with other international press freedom groups. Its aim was to show solidarity and demanded the immediate release of all Turkish journalists who have been jailed because of their work. The mission also expressed the serious concerns of the supporting international organisations to the Turkish government and politicians. Details and a report of the mission can be found at: http://europe.ifj.org/assets/docs/106/195/726b16a-59f86c3.pdf

On 26 December, the trial of one journalist arrested on 20 December will open. Arne Konig, EFJ President will attend, bringing support from the Federation and expressing European solidarity.

Journalists arrested are:
Arzu Demir (ETHA editörü), Ayse Oyman (Özgür Gündem), Berxwedan Yaruk (Demokratik Modernite Dergisi çalisani), Cihan Albay, Çagdas Kaplan (DIHA muhabiri-Istanbul), Çagdas Ulus (Vatan Gazetesi muhabiri), Çigdem Aslan, Davut Uçar (Etik Ajans Müdürü), Dilek Demirel (DIHA-Izmir), Ertus Bozkurt (Firat Dagitim çalisani), Evrim Kepenek (DIHA muhabiri-Van), Eylem Sürmeli (eski Özgür Gündem çalisani), Fatma Koçak (DIHA Yaziisleri Müdürü-Istanbul), Günes Ünsal (DIHA Ingilizce Servisi-Istanbul), Hamza Sümeli (Gün Matbaasi çalisani), Hatice Bozkurt (Özgür Gündem), Haydar Tekin (Firat Dagitim eski çalisani), Hüseyin Deniz (Gazeteci), Ismail Yildiz (Istanbul), Kenan Kirkaya (DIHA Ankara Temsilcisi-Ankara), Mazlum Özdemir (DIHA muhabiri-Diyarbakir), Murat Eroglu (DIHA eski çalisani), Mustafa Özer (AFP muhabiri), Nahide Ermis (Özgür Halk ve Demokratik Modernite Dergisi Yayin, Kurulu Üyesi), Nevin Erdemir (Özgür Gündem Gazetesi çalisani), Nurettin Firat (Özgür Gündem Gazetesi yazari), Oktay Candemir (DIHA eski çalisani), Ömer Çelik (BirGün gazetesi ve DIHA muhabiri-Istanbul), Ramazan Pekgöz (DIHA editörü-Diyarbakir), Sadik Topaloglu (DIHA muhabiri-Sanliurfa), Semiha Alankus (DIHA editörü-Diyarbakir), Sevinç Tuncelli (DIHA-Izmir), Sibel Güler (Özgür Gündem eski çalisani), Seref Sümeli (Firat Dagitimin eski çalisani), Yüksel Genç (Özgür Gündem), Zeynep Kuray (BirGün Gazetesi ve ANF muhabiri), Ziya Çiçekçi (Özgür Gündem Gazetesi Imtiyaz Sahibi ve Sorumlu, Yaziisleri Müdürü), Zuhal Tekiner (DIHA Imtiyaz Sahibi-Istanbul).

Together with its affiliate, the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (Türkiye Gazeteciler Sendikası – TGS), the EFJ has launched an international postcard campaign to express solidarity with jailed journalists. To date, over 700 individuals and organisations around the world have joined this Set Turkish Journalists Free campaign.

Support the campaign here: http://europe.ifj.org/en/pages/turkey-campaign-set-journalists-free