Arts & Culture
Arts & Culture
Fair Observer's exploration of human creativity in all forms including literature, theater, film, opera, art, sculpture, music, dance, cuisine and travel.
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360° Analysis / AKP / Ayşenur Arslan / Erdoğan / Politics / Turkey / Arts & Culture / Middle EastBy Murat OnurTurkey’s poor press freedom record contradicts its main strategic goal to establish the country as a regional power and the leader of the Muslim world, contests Murat Onur. The state of press freedom in Turkey has recently been in the spotlight, particularly after Reporters Without Borders declared the country as “the world’s biggest prison for journalists” last December. While concerns about press freedom in Turkey are not new, a series of recent reports reveal a rather disturbing declining trend in the country's press freedom. In the last two years, a number of advocacy groups and international organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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360° Analysis / Bangladesh / India / Laws / New Delhi / Politics / Rape / Woman's health / BRIC / Arts & Culture / AsiaLaws on rape do not usually refer to the “moral character” of the victim, presumably because it is generally not relevant to the crime. Moreover, the phrase itself is an anachronism, besides being vague and hard to pin down. But it is time that rape laws did refer to a woman's moral character – specifically to prohibit references to it in court during prosecution of cases involving rape. On February 2, 2013, the Indian government passed an Ordinance tightening rape-related laws – hopefully, a first step towards their comprehensive reform. A key measure has been the amendment of the Indian Evidence Act (1972) to disallow evidence, or cross examination, on the...
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architecture / brazil / drug trafficking / Rio de Janeiro / Rocinha / Focus Article / BRIC / Arts & Culture / AmericasAn insight about some of the elements peculiar to the realities of favelas in Brazil. The vast majority of women who live in Rocinha, a slum in Rio de Janeiro, have their toenails painted. Different colors, shades and designs. Usually, they wear flip-flops, casual and simple clothes, and their hair tied. Almost no make-up. But the toenails are there, showing themselves to everyone. That’s a fact that only those can perceive who actually go to Rocinha, one of the most famous favelas in Brazil. This is the kind of news that media doesn’t talk about; there are no articles on papers either. It’s a detail about the community that lives there, nowadays reaching a number of...
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360° Analysis / clash of civilisation / India / Politics / Rape / society / turning point / BRIC / Arts & Culture / AsiaThe traditional feudal society behind the façade of a modern liberal democracy has been revealed after the Delhi rape. It has also highlighted the increasingly bitter clash of civilisations within a civilisation. Although column inches, candles and slogans have been liberally expended over yet another tragic case, it is far from a turning point in India’s inexorable slide towards medievalism. The deteriorating statistics on reported rape cases (Graph) (which themselves represent only about 10% of actual rapes) is only one facet of India’s regression. Increasing corruption, institutional decay and wanton use of state power are all visible symptoms of this trend. Perhaps...
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360° Analysis / Cultural identity / Cultural Psyche / Global Security / Guns / security / United States / Arts & CultureOur collective narrative is more and more dominated by fear and instability. Amy Edelstein explores how we need structural changes to reduce the influence of such elements in our collective psyche. A combination of advanced technology, a 24 hour media cycle, and troubled, alienated youth has splashed the unthinkable too frequently across our minds’ eye. We’re becoming no strangers to eruptions of fear in our youngsters, to shadowy threats in fleeting moments of our common patterns of life. We are not prepared by acts of war nor trained for acts of valor. Oddly, we now live with the unthinkable in neighborhoods where Mr. Rogers used to only button his cardigan, change his shoes,...