Europe
Europe
Fair Observer provides insightful and informed analysis about important European issues, events and trends.
-
360° Analysis / International Women of Courage Award / Novaya Gazeta / Politics / State Department / United States / Yelena Milashina / Europe / BRIC / Arts & CultureYelena Milashina, who covered some of Russia’s most controversial subjects for Novaya Gazeta, is awarded the International Women of Courage Award. A top Russian investigative journalist who has covered extrajudicial kidnappings in the North Caucasus and the killings of fellow journalists will be awarded a prestigious human rights prize by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at a ceremony in Washington on Friday, International Women's Day. Yelena Milashina, a reporter for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, will be one of 10 recipients of the secretary's International Women of Courage Award, which...
-
360° Analysis / Hugo Chavez / Politics / Putin / Russia / Europe / BRIC / AmericasFollowing the death of Hugo Chavez, what is next for Venezuela’s relationship with Russia? Signaling an eagerness to maintain cozy ties with Venezuela, President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called for even stronger relations and praised the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as “a close friend of Russia.” But analysts warned that Russia’s energy and arms contracts with the Latin American country might be up in the air, and, adding a whiff of conspiracy, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov hinted that Chavez’s death had been caused by his enemies, presumably the U.S. Chavez died Wednesday at a Caracas hospital of complications from cancer. Vice President...
-
With a prospect of a hung parliament following recent elections and Italy’s major public and political figures out of the picture, will a new movement gain momentum? By mid-1920s, an Italian anarchist group, Gli Arditi d’Italia (Italy’s Daring Ones), counted some 50,000 members and sympathisers, and its most prominent member was called Errico Malatesta. Fascism ranted and raved across the country and the Pope manifested his understood support for the rising dux, in the face of personal sympathy and powerlessness. Revolution for this ardent group of resistance was an act of will, a leap forward beyond the socio-economic calculus, and the rationalities of the professions of...
-
Is a free press a crucial restraint on power, or is it an irresponsible power in its own right? Professor Julian Petley discusses the UK’s Fourth Estate. ‘Democracies require an unlovable press. They need journalists who get in the face of power’. So says Michael Schudson, one of America’s foremost media scholars, in a recent collection of essays, and most journalists would wholeheartedly agree. Such sentiments were much in evidence in the pre-emptive nuclear strike mounted by the press in the run-up to the publication in November 2012 of Lord Justice Leveson’s report into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press. The Freedom to Dig Dirt For...
-
360° Analysis / Politics / United States / Europe / Arts & Culture / Middle East / Americas / Africa / AsiaBy Hannah StormEach week, at least two journalists die doing their job somewhere in the world. Hannah Storm, of the International News Safety Institute, discusses the dangers of the profession. In the first 20 days of this year, at least 10 journalists and media workers were killed doing their jobs. These 10 people weren’t household names, famous journalists whose deaths – like those of Marie Colvin and Tim Hetherington – generated column inches and inspired a collective call for better safety standards for media around the world. And yet, every one of these 10 deaths tells the story of a life unjustly cut short as one person tried to shine a light into the darkest corners of...
-
Politics / United States / Europe / 360° Context / Arts & Culture / Middle East / Americas / Africa / AsiaAs more and more journalists are being targeted for their professional activity, the concepts of media freedom and journalist safety deserve a closer look — from the relative comfort of Europe to the killing fields of Syria and beyond. Background When Judge Gurfein ruled in favour of the New York Times for its right to publish the Pentagon Papers, he concluded that “a cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know”. Indeed, the notion of uninhibited media is so engrained in our perception of democracy, that it carries...
-
China / Chomsky / Freud / Japan / Laos / North Korea / Politics / United States / Europe / Focus Article / BRIC / Arts & Culture / Middle East / Americas / Africa / Asia / OceaniaFair Observer's five best articles of February. By February, the new year loses its newness and 2013 is no exception. While all of us have settled into 2013, the world continues to be as eventful as ever. Italy has had yet another election. Kerry is off on his first foreign trip as Secretary of State. Karzai is asking the US to curtail its role, and the conflict in Syria shows no signs of resolution. The world economy is wobbly with the Eurozone in deepest distress. At Fair Observer, we try our best to make sense of the world and please find our best articles for February below. As always, we want to know what you think and please email us at info@fairobserver.com to tell us how we can...
-
360° Analysis / EU / European Union / federalism / integration / Politics / US / EuropeCamille Barré looks back at the theories that shaped debate on EU integration and asks what the European Union might do to counter the wave of internal separatism. The EU has been trying to find new solutions to improve the union and to make it stronger. One proposal in particular has sparked interest as well as scepticism: to transform the European Union into a federation of nation states. José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, is the one who introduced the idea of a “United States of Europe” in his speech on the “State of the Union” made to the European Parliament in September 2012. "Let's not be afraid of the words:...
-
defense / G8 / Magnitsky / obama / Politics / Russia / START / Europe / Focus Article / Global SecurityAccording to Alexander Golts, the Munich Security Conference marks the lowest point in US-Russian relations for the past 20 years. When a group of actors wants to portray a noisy crowd, they often say to each other, "What should we talk about when there's nothing to talk about?" It seems that U.S.-Russian relations are in the same state and that the only option left for the leaders of both countries is to behave like provincial actors repeating a meaningless jumble of words. The security conference in Munich over the weekend provided a convincing demonstration of this. Both U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov tried to put a positive face...