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 / Charter97 / CPJ / KGB / Lukashenko / Politics / Radina / Europe / Arts & CultureIn her interview with Anna Pivovarchuk, award-winning journalist Natalia Radina talks about the assault against the free press in Aleksander Lukashenko’s Belarus. Anna Pivovarchuk: In 2011 you received the CPJ International Press Freedom Award for you coverage of the protests that followed Aleksander Lukashenko’s ‘victory’. Could you tell us about the events of December 2010? Natalia Radina: Of course there was no ‘victory’, but just another case of rigged elections. Practically all elections held in Belarus under Lukashenko - almost 20 years – were not recognised by the international community as either free or just. Aside from that, Belarus...
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By Fact BlinkFact Blink present an infographic exploring the years of sexually-related Papal scandals, and the percentage of sexually scandalous popes. On February 11, Pope Benedict XVI surprised the world by announcing his intention to abdicate – the first Papal resignation since 1415. Since then, rumours have swirled about what may have prompted the decision. Recently, La Repubblica stirred the pot by reporting salacious stories of a papal faction ‘united by sexual orientation’ who maintain a ‘series of meeting places in and around Rome’, including ‘a villa outside the Italian capital, a sauna in a Rome suburb, a beauty parlour in the centre, and a...
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360° Analysis / China / China Telecom / Internet freedom / ITU / Politics / Russia / United States / WCIT-12 / Europe / BRIC / Arts & Culture / AsiaBy Min JiangWith the world powers seemingly divided into two opposing blocs at the World Conference on International Telecommunications, Min Jiang looks at the conflict between “Internet freedom” and “Internet sovereignty” models. “The conference was not about Internet control or Internet governance,” said Hamadoun Touré, the head of the Internet Telecommunications Union (ITU), at the closing session of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) on December 14, 2012 in Dubai. But of course, Mr. Touré was simply denying the obvious. Internet control is precisely what WCIT-12 was about and the ideological divisions between the...
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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...
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360° Analysis / Damascus / Poet / Syria / Arts & Culture / Middle EastReel Festivals present Road to Damascus – a short film by Roxana Vilk. Road to Damascus a short film by Roxana Vilk from Roxana Vilk on Vimeo. *[Note: This film was originally featured by Reel Festivals. The upcoming Reel Iraq 2013 event, which marks 10 years since the US and UK led military invasion, is being held across the United Kingdom between March 21-25. For further information, please visit www.reelfestivals.org. Fair Observer is a media partner of Reel Iraq 2013.] Credits Produced, Directed and Filmed by Roxana Vilk Executive Produced by GOL Productions & Reel Festivals Edited by Maryam Ghorbankarimi Sound Design and Music by Peter Vilk Production Assistant Stefanie...
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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...
