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From: Harsh Kapoor <sacw at wanadoo.fr>
Date: 31 mai 2007 02:14:08 HAEC
Subject: SACW | May 28-31, 2007

South Asia Citizens Wire | May 28-31, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2413
- Year 9

[1] Multiculturalism: a view from Sri Lanka (Nira Wickramasinghe)
[2] Pakistan: 
  -  Taliban's ban on music (Editorial, Dawn)
  -  Beards - and polio - in Taliban country (Ashfaq Yusufzai)
  -  Fighting polio on two fronts (Editorial, Dawn)
[3] Nepal:  Flocking to view 'sweating' statue
[4] India:
  - Talibanisation of Sikhism (Madanjeet Singh)
  - Superstition reigns (Rahul Singh)
  - India, land of blind faith
  - The Immorality of Saying No to Sex Education (Anita Ratnam)
  - Ramdev's pharmacy sells 'son drug'
[5] India:  Fighting the Threat to Freedom of Expression
    - Artists, academicians to go on the offensive against
M.S. University, Gujarat
[6] Beyond South Asia:
  (i) Turkey: Scientists Face Off Against Creationists
(Nicholas Birch)
  (ii) USA: Natural history, Bible-style - Kentucky's Creation
Museum (Jane Lampman)
  (iii) Canada: Struggling to find a moderate voice  (Stuart
Laidlaw)
[7] Publication on the state of press freedom in Nepal


____

[1]

Open Democracy.net
	
MULTICULTURALISM: A VIEW FROM SRI LANKA
by Nira Wickramasinghe
29 - 5 - 2007
The perspective of war-torn Sri Lanka casts a different light
on the multicultural framework advocated in Tariq Modood's new
work, says Nira Wickramasinghe.
---------
Nira Wickramasinghe is replying to the article by Tariq Modood:

"Multiculturalism, citizenship and national identity" (17 May
2007)

Tariq Modood's article draws on his new book,
Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea (Polity, May 2007)

o o o	

Reading Tariq Modood's article "Multiculturalism, citizenship
and national identity" (17 May 2007) led me to reflect on how
different the public debate on multiculturalism is in the
United Kingdom and in a country such as Sri Lanka where
multicultural policies have been grudgingly agreed to in order
to answer the need for recognition by groups that have a claim
to nationhood and self-determination. If there is as yet no
"backlash" of the kind that has evidently occurred in Britain,
the reason is that the debate in Sri Lanka is centred
elsewhere: not on the merits or otherwise of multiculturalism,
but on whether we are or are not a multicultural state at all!
	
	

Nira Wickramasinghe is a professor in the department of
history and international relations, the University of
Colombo, Sri Lanka. She grew up in Paris and studied at the
,em>Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne and at Oxford University,
where she earned her doctorate. Among her books is (C Hurst
and University of Hawaii Press, 2006)

	

A ferocious disagreement on this issue divides those who read
the nation-state of Sri Lanka as a multicultural country where
all "ethnic identities" should be equally recognised and
protected, and those who see the country as a Sinhala Buddhist
country where other identities (principally the Tamil, though
there is a significant Muslim population in the country too)
are subsumed in this larger Buddhist culture and hence need
only to be tolerated. In the first category would be generally
liberal, westernised and even secular thinkers; their support
of equal-citizenship rights would be underlain by an
acceptance of William Blake's maxim: "Though our essence is
the same our identities are different". In the second category
would be the others: an array of patriots, religiously minded
people, nationalist and Marxists, and the vast majority of
people who watch the state-run TV and read state-run newspapers.

That Sri Lanka was a multicultural state was recognised in the
thirteenth amendment to the constitution, passed in 1987.
Legislation on language that broadly aimed at using both
Sinhala and Tamil in the administration of the country
followed but has not been successfully implemented for lack of
will and resources.

I find myself in a difficult position. While I accept the need
for respect and space for all forms of identity, I feel we
should try to move away from an overtly cultural understanding
of identities. The curse of multiculturalism is that while
providing for more freedom and recognition to the group or
community it is a closure in that it denies the contingency
and ambiguity of every identity. Multiculturalism cannot help
but essentialise the fragment. Amartya Sen makes the same
point with relation to the Indian situation in his two recent
books, The Argumentative Indian and Identity and Violence: The
Illusion of Destiny.

Much debate on how to resolve the "ethnic conflict" in Sri
Lanka is dominated by a faulty epistemology where it is
assumed that each group "has" some kind of culture and that
the boundaries between these groups and the contours of their
cultures - namely the Sinhalese and the Tamils - are
specifiable and easy to depict. How we think inequities among
groups should be addressed and diversity and pluralism should
be furthered has been influenced by this approach. The
solution to the sovereignty claim by Tamil separatists is for
believers in the boundedness and distinctness of cultures to
divide the country on ethnic/cultural lines, instituting a
more or less advanced federal constitutional arrangement.
Multiculturalism is the theory behind this seemingly
self-evident resolution of a nearly thirty-year conflict.

Clearly multiculturalism as it is practised in 21st-century
Sri Lanka is a legacy of the colonial idea of society as being
ordered in cultural groups rather than the outcome of a
sincere and principled approach to equity and justice. The
modern Sri Lankan state does not incorporate any of the subtle
practices or complex theories that inform the multiculturalism
of states such as Canada, the Netherlands or the United
States. It is still the colonial frame that distinguishes the
Sri Lankan understanding of multiculturalism.

The focus on culture has disabled all other transformations
that need to be enacted to create a better state. We still
need to invent a compromise between the two abysses which Aimé
Césaire warned us against when he wrote: There are two ways to
lose oneself: by a walled segregation in the particular or by
a dilution in the "universal". Sadly, multicultural
citizenship is an ideal one can only aspire to in the present
state of war.

_____


[2]

Dawn
May 30, 2007
Editorial

TALIBAN’S BAN ON MUSIC

THE government can no longer afford to ignore the threats
being posed to society by Islamic militants, the latest being
the Taliban ordering the shutting down of music shops by July
1 in Darra Adam Khel. By ignoring the question of Islamists
trying to impose their version of religion on the people, the
government is only strengthening the militants’ hold. They
have been emboldened to issue all kinds of decrees in the name
of religion — from disallowing girls to go to school to
bombing music shops because they consider music un-Islamic —
while the authorities look the other way. They are always slow
to act and when they do — as in the case of Maulana Fazalullah
in Swat by getting him not to oppose administering polio
vaccine, among other things — the damage becomes difficult to
undo. Had the government acted against the cleric much
earlier, the number of children who did not get vaccinated
would have been less than the 25,000 that it is today. The
same is true about the Taliban in the tribal belt who have
banned music cassettes from being played or sold and have gone
to the extent of threatening music and even barber shops with
bombings. They have stopped bus owners from playing music, at
times removing cassette players and destroying them.

These things simply cannot go on. No one has the right to
enforce religious prohibitions of his own notions, nor does
anyone have the right to commit crimes in the name of
religion. The government has negotiated with the Taliban on
several occasions. Why can’t it on this very serious issue?
Anyone who threatens the peace of the tribal area — and the
Taliban are doing precisely that elsewhere too — must be dealt
with under the law.


o o o

(ii)

Asia Times
Mar 14, 2007

BEARDS - AND POLIO - IN TALIBAN COUNTRY
By Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR - "Shaving beard isn't done here. Contact only for
hair cut," reads a sign pasted outside the entrance of a
barber's shop in Upper Dir, a rugged and mountainous district
in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) that borders
Afghanistan.

All the barber shops in Timergarah, the district headquarters,
and Munda have stopped providing shaving services since
leaflets advising them that it was Islamic to grow a beard
were distributed by an unnamed group last Tuesday.

On March 4, there were explosions inside two saloons, a music
shop and four other shops in the adjoining Bajaur Agency, part
of the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies along the
restive Afghan border. The Taliban have banned music in the
tribal areas, and have started fining taxi drivers found
listening to music.

According to news reports, a video shop in front of a police
station in Bannu, the home town of NWFP Chief Minister Akram
Durrani, was attacked by armed men suspected to be Taliban on
February 27, who destroyed compact-disc players and CDs of
Urdu, English and Indian films.

The district of Tank, on the border with South Waziristan, has
slipped into the control of the Taliban. There is a total
collapse of civil administration. Police stations remain
closed after sundown and Taliban fighters patrol the streets
and the bazaars riding on their favorite Datsun pickups.

Most Taliban groups and their al-Qaeda friends crossed over to
Pakistan's tribal region after US-led forces toppled their
government in Afghanistan in late 2001. Since then, thousands
of people, including Taliban fighters and locals, have died in
military attacks conducted by either the US or the Pakistan Army.

"The spillover of militancy from tribal areas to settled parts
of the NWFP is understandable, because the establishment is
supporting the Taliban and al-Qaeda," asserted Peshawar-based
Afrasiab Khattak, a lawyer and human-rights activist who is an
expert on Afghanistan.

According to Khattak, missile and air attacks by the US on
alleged "terrorist" targets inside Pakistan's tribal areas
have worked to the advantage of the Taliban, who have
increased their support base in these border regions. There
are persistent reports that sympathetic tribesmen are
providing shelter and support to Osama bin Laden and other
al-Qaeda fugitives.

Last September, President General Pervez Musharraf signed a
controversial peace deal with the Pakistan-based Taliban
groups, which has resulted in a new assertiveness displayed by
the Islamic radicals in these Pashtun-dominated,
semi-autonomous border areas.

"Both the Pakistan and Afghanistan governments are accusing
one another of supporting the Taliban and al-Qaeda, but
practically both have failed to stem the tide of militancy,"
commented Ashraf Ali, a scholar at Peshawar University who is
researching the Taliban.

Administrative control in North and South Waziristan and Swat
district has slowly slipped into the hands of radicals. A
demoralized police force, which has been the target of suicide
attacks - most recently in January - is unable to provide
protection to businesses banned by the Taliban. Some
music-shop owners have moved to Peshawar.

"The Taliban frequently visited our shop and asked us to close
down. One day, they delivered an ultimatum: either you close
it or we will do it for you," said Hamza Khan, whose family
owned a chain of music shops in Tank for 20 years, and has now
relocated to Peshawar.

The local Taliban burned TV sets even in Charsadda district,
which is adjacent to Peshawar. "The government has lost its
writ due to which the Taliban are thriving," observed Ali, who
is doing his doctorate.

Even girls' schools in upscale Peshawar are receiving
anonymous threats of suicide bombing. Several schools were
recently forced to close after the administration received
threatening letters. The Taliban are against providing
education for girls and letting women work.

Last month, two government-run girls' schools in Mardan, the
second-biggest district in NWFP, were shut down as a
precaution after warnings from Taliban groups. Another letter
warned that female students must be veiled from head to toe or
the schools would be blown up.

Religious extremists in the district of Swat have derailed the
government's anti-polio campaign. At the forefront is a
charismatic local cleric, Maulana Fazlullah. "Anyone getting
crippled by polio or killed by an epidemic is a martyr," he
announced at a sermon during Friday prayers.

The cleric, who likes to ride on a horse followed by his
supporters in the bazaars, said: "Vaccination of children
against polio is a conspiracy by the US to make the coming
generation sterile."

In February 2006, in neighboring Darra Adamkhel, religious
extremists killed a senior doctor and health workers involved
in the polio campaign.

Anti-US sentiments are growing even in Peshawar city, rued
researcher Ali. "Some barbers are refusing to shave off beards
- a sign of their hatred for the US," he said.

(Inter Press Service)

o o o

(iii)

Dawn
February 23, 2007
Editorial

FIGHTING POLIO ON TWO FRONTS

THE MMA government in the NWFP has to step in and stop certain
clerics' drivel on the polio vaccination or run the risk of
facing a serious health crisis they may find difficult to deal
with. Already their inaction has cost lives - 39 polio cases
were reported last year in the province. But the incidence of
the disease cannot be brought down without dealing with the
vicious campaign of falsehood and canard being carried out by
a section of the clerics bent on frustrating the anti-polio
drive. Having access to illegal radio stations to spew their
venom, such elements are determined to go to any extent to
stop the spread of what they call the "infidel vaccine". The
killing of a doctor earlier this week in Bajaur is proof of
their viciousness. And now a cleric in a village in Swat is
preaching that Islam prohibits finding a cure for a disease
before its outbreak in the form of an epidemic and that those
who die in an outbreak are martyrs. Such ludicrous claims have
produced expected results: during an anti-polio campaign on
Wednesday and Thursday in Swat, some refused to have their
children vaccinated. It is difficult to reason with such
illiterate fanatics but the government will have to find a way
to win over support in favour of an enlightened view of
things. As it is, health officials in certain areas have
postponed the anti-polio campaign for security reasons after
the doctor's death in Bajaur. If put off indefinitely, this
could have disastrous effects.

The authorities cannot allow clerics to hijack a public
campaign and jeopardise children's health and well-being in
the process. They have a responsibility to contain the polio
virus and must press ahead with the goal of a polio-free
Pakistan. Each time a polio case is detected, it is a reminder
of the government's failure to implement a comprehensive
strategy to wipe out the disease. A more effective approach is
needed to achieve the goal.

_____

[3]


BBC News - May 21, 2007

HUNDREDS OF HINDUS IN NEPAL ARE FLOCKING TO VIEW 'SWEATING'
STATUE 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6676775.stm

_____


[4]  India: 

(i)

The Hindu
May 30, 2007

TALIBANISATION OF SIKHISM

by Madanjeet Singh

The Sikh fundoos have distorted out of all recognition the
militant order of Khalsa that Guru Gobind Singh instituted in
1699. It is incomprehensible how anyone can project nine years
of Khalsa as theraison d'êtreof Sikhism and give it precedence
over 239 years of the history of Sikh Gurus.

THE UGLY spectacle of sword-wielding mobs clashing with the
followers of Saccha Sauda — seen by the clerical establishment
as heretical — is a mockery of Sikhism on the auspicious
occasion of Guru Gobind launching the first Khalsa, on March
30, 1699, at Anandpur Sahib. The real bone of contention this
time is not just over religion, but caste, which the Sikh
politicians, like other political parties, are lavishly using
to strengthen their fundamentalist constituencies. The false
pretensions of secularism on which the Shiromani Akali Dal won
the February 2007 Punjab Assembly election are exposed by its
jumping on the Hindutva bandwagon of the Bharatiya Janata
Party. This is a poisonous nexus designed to destroy the
secular and multicultural character of Indian civilisation.
The instigations have cut across national frontiers, with the
Babbar Khalsa vultures waiting to pounce as they watch,
sitting on the branches of Taliban trees across the border in
Pakistan. The situation recalls the 1978 clashes between the
Khalsa and the heterodox Nirankari sect, which unleashed the
decade of Khalistan terror.

Recent events are an appalling desecration of the secular and
pluralist grassroots culture of Indian civilisation that Guru
Nanak promoted. He gave precedence to "duties and devotion" in
the conduct of daily life and became a devotee of a god who he
refused to delimit by sectarian description. Sikh tradition
has it that at the age of 30, Guru Nanak declined to say
anything more than repeating: "There is no Hindu, there is no
Muslim." Nanak believed that faith was a matter of personal
belief and he urged Muslims to be true Muslims and Hindus to
be true Hindus. His followers included many Hindus and
Muslims, simply called Sikhs, meaning disciples (shishya).
Guru Nanak preached against caste discrimination and racial
prejudice at a time when slavery was customarily practised
worldwide. Thousands of people, irrespective of their
religion, caste, creed, or sex flocked to pay homage to Guru
Nanak when he passed away on September 22, 1539. His tangible
shining legacy is the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the
foundation stone of which was laid in December 1588 by Hazrat
Mian Mir — an eminent Muslim Sufi saint of Lahore. The sanctum
of the shrine is named Harmandir, after Hari (God).

As misfortune would have it, the Sikh and Hindu `fundoos' (a
nickname given by the novelist Githa Hariharan) have jumped on
the BJP's Hindutva bandwagon to destroy the multicultural and
pluralistic magnificence of Indian civilisation. The Sikh
fundoos have sidelined Guru Nanak's egalitarian, secular
culture and smashed to bits the "Three Pillars of Sikhism"
that he erected: meditation, earning an honest living, and
sharing with others. The institution of langar — the common
community kitchen, which Guru Nanak established to break the
discrimination of the caste system — has been undermined as
separate gurudwaras have mushroomed in Punjab for lower-caste
Sikhs, while higher status elitists frequent exclusive langars
where they are not obliged to sit and eat as equals with Dalit
Sikhs. Many Sikhs have started flaunting their higher status
by adding caste suffixes after their name Singh, a practice
strictly prohibited by the Sikh Gurus.

Notwithstanding the media images of Punjab's prosperity, the
region has become the ghetto of caste apartheid. As a recent
editorial in The Hindu points out: "Almost one in three
residences of Punjab belongs to the Scheduled Castes — the
highest percentage in India — and atrocities against them have
been mounting. Ever since the seizure of a shrine at Talhan by
upper-caste villagers provoked large-scale rioting, there has
been a string of violent attacks on both Sikh and Hindu
Dalits. In response, Dalits have increasingly turned from
established faiths to new spiritual leaders who articulate
their anger. In 2001, Piara Singh Bhaniarawala set off a
small-scale version of the ongoing violence when he released
the Bhavsagar Granth, a 2,704 page religious text" extolling
the spiritual in the Guru Granth Sahib in Dalit Sikh homes.

The Sikh fundoos have distorted out of all recognition the
militant order of Khalsa that Guru Gobind Singh instituted in
1699, barely nine years before his death in 1708. The order
was formed during a state of emergency to confront the Mughal
army in guerrilla warfare. The ever-ready equipment of the
Five Ks was essential for the militants as they moved from
place to place under cover of forest. He also broke the feudal
stranglehold of the Moghul administration by directly
distributing plots of crown land among the Khalsa followers,
who comprised both Hindus and Muslims. It was thanks to his
Muslim disciples that Guru Gobind Singh was able to escape
from the siege of the fort at Anandpur by Mughal and Rajput
armies. The rabble-rousing caste fundoos must also know that
three of the five Panj Pyaras baptised by Guru Gobind Singh
belonged to the lowest of castes.

In fact, following the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the
importance of the purely militant character of the Khalsa
organisation diminished. This is evident from Guru Gobind
Singh's policy of reconciliation as he joined with Aurangzeb's
successor, Bahadur Shah I, to reduce the conflict. An
outstanding statesman, poet, and scholar of Persian and
Sanskrit, the tenth Guru of the Sikhs never initiated an
anti-Muslim crusade. Instead, Guru Gobind Singh followed in
the footsteps of his predecessors who had supported Prince
Khusro against his father Jahangir in the latter's battle for
the throne, and later Dara Shikoh against Aurangzeb.
Historical records show that during his journey to Nanded in
Maharashtra for discussions with Bahadur Shah, Guru Gobind
Singh emphasised Guru Nanak's original ethical tenets over
Khalsa militancy. With his enormous popularity, he might well
have nominated the eleventh Guru of the Sikhs from among his
loyal disciples. Instead, Guru Gobind Singh asked them to
accept the Granth Sahib as their guide, which contains
compositions by the Gurus as well as traditions and teachings
of saints, including Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas, and Sheikh Farid.

The Taliban-inspired decision taken by the Delhi Sikh
Gurudwara Management Committee to expel clean-shaven Sikh
students and those sporting short hair from the schools it
runs is astounding, considering that none of the nine Gurus
with Hindu names before Guru Gobind Singh was obliged to carry
the Five Ks: Kesh (uncut hair), Kanga (comb), Kaccha (short
trousers), Kara (steel bangle), and Kirpan (sword). Guru
Gobind Singh himself adopted the Five Ks only during the last
nine years of his life when he changed his name, Gobind Rai,
to Gobind Singh. It is incomprehensible how anyone can project
nine years of Khalsa as the raison d'être of Sikhism and give
it precedence over 239 years of the history of Sikh Gurus. It
is as preposterous as giving religion precedence over secular
culture and faith over reason.

(This is based on the Prologue to Madanjeet Singh's
forthcoming book, Cultures and Vultures. The author, a former
Indian diplomat, the founder of the South Asia Foundation, and
a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, is a Sikh. As a director of the
Cultural Sector of UNESCO in the early 1980s, he was in charge
of the History of Humanity, a seven-volume compendium
conceived by Julian Huxley in 1946.)




(ii)

Times of India
23 May, 2007

SUPERSTITION REIGNS

by Rahul Singh

While basking in the glory of being "the world's second
fastest major growing economy", we should also ponder on why
we are at the same time among the most backward-looking and
feudal-minded societies in the world. Forget the most obvious
and deeply-ingrained prejudices of most Indians, like caste
and communal prejudice. They will take a long time to be
eradicated. Let's look instead at where we could quite easily
change for the better, where in fact the rest of the civilised
world has changed, but not us. At the top is how superstition
and meaningless ritual still rules our lives.

Amitabh Bachchan, an icon for tens of millions of Indians,
makes his daughter-in-law perform outlandish ceremonies
because she is supposedly under the evil influence of Mars.
Politicians routinely consult astrologers before taking
important decisions, despite abundant proof that astrology is
no science at all, just quackery. Horoscopes continue to be
cast in most families and palmists consulted. A newly-inducted
cabinet minister insists that her bungalow be completely
redesigned because it does not follow vaastu principles, a
system nobody had heard of till only a few years ago.

The late Sri Lankan rationalist, Abraham Kovoor, who should be
an icon of our times, convincingly showed that the planets,
the exact positions of which determine astrological charts,
are actually not where one sees them, since light takes time
to travel. He also threw a challenge to astrologers and
palmists. To astrologers he gave the exact time and date of
birth of certain people who had since died and to palmists,
the print of their palms. "Tell me about these people, with
some degree of accuracy, including when they died?" he asked them.

There were no takers. He also challenged the so-called godmen
to demons-trate their 'miracles' under 'fraud-proof
conditions'. Again, nobody came forward. He went around the
country showing the tricks and sleight of hand performed by
these charlatans to fool the people into believing they had
supernatural powers. The Indian Skeptic, a newsletter exposing
many of the irrational goings-on, is continuing his work.

Sadly, few listen, because a bewildering variety of babas,
swamis, tantriks, and the like continue to exert a
stranglehold over the minds of the Indian public. On May 18,
in a village in Himachal Pradesh, a newly-married 23-year-old
woman was bitten by a snake. Her in-laws took her to a local
tantrik for treatment. Despite his mumbo-jumbo, her condition
deteriorated. By the time she was taken to the hospital, it
was too late. That is just one tragic incident that somehow
found itself as an item in a paper. There are hundreds of such
incidents every day of ignorant people getting duped by quacks
which get no publicity.

Several parts of Punjab have lately been wracked by violence
because somebody who styles himself as Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim
Singh and has acquired a huge follow-ing in the past few
years, dressed himself up in the supposed garb of the tenth
Sikh guru. Many Sikhs viewed this as an affront to their
religion and went ballistic, attacking the followers of the
Baba, who retaliated. One wonders what outsiders make of such
violent, entirely irrational spectacles. However, it is not
only the ignorant and socially depressed classes who are prey
to irrationality. Take the recent launch of PSLV9 from
Sriharikota. Scientists chose an 'auspicious hour' for the
launch and even went to a temple to pray for its success.

Let's move on from superstition and gullibility. There is the
ostentatious and flamboyant way we celebrate weddings, even
birthdays for that matter, betraying our feudal mindset. Only
Indians -- and probably Pakistanis and some Arabs as well --
seem to think that weddings must be glitzy and hugely
expensive affairs and that they reflect a person's standing in
society. You could perhaps argue, as Lakshmi Mittal must have
done, that it's their money and how they spend it is nobody
else's business. The tragedy, however, is that Indians lower
down the economic scale, look up to their social superiors and
feel that their prestige, too, is tied up with how lavish a
wedding they have, even if they cannot afford it. They usually
land up indebted to the avaricious money-lender. The writer is
a journalist.


(iii)

India 360: India, land of blind faith
CNN-IBN
Posted Friday , May 25, 2007
A MATTER OF FAITH: Experts discuss what makes Indians trust
quacks and Godmen blindly.

http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/41269/india-360-india-land-of-blind-faith.html

o o o

(iv)

indiainteracts
22 may 2007

THE IMMORALITY OF SAYING NO TO SEX EDUCATION
by Anita Ratnam

With the Global Aids Action Week being observed from May 20,
once again the issue of Sex Education is likely to get linked
with Aids Prevention. Over the years we have seen Sex
Education being debated either in the context of concerns
about Population Control or AIDS Prevention.

Does education about sex and sexuality have to be perceived
only within the confines of these two arenas? In the wake of
the Central Government's attempts to introduce Sex Education
from Class VI onwards, the refusal of State Governments of
Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and
Chattisgarh has thrown up other issues.

It is no accident that these are states with significant Sangh
Parivar presence in Government and their refusal stems largely
from a perception that sex education will lead to corruption
of Indian culture. In the context of their claim to be self
proclaimed custodians of this "culture", the recent
proclamations by Karnataka Minister Horatti that sex education
will be replaced by morality education comes as no surprise.

While there is a need to openly and rigorously discuss the age
-appropriateness of the modules and illustrations in the
proposed curriculum, outright refusal to introduce sex
education is disconcerting. Yet decisions like these need to
be based on hard (even if unpalatable) facts, instead of
hypothetical fears and misconceptions.

Firstly, a misconception that sex education is about biology
and the sexual act needs to be clarified. Sex education looks
at the total persona- our understanding of our bodies, our
notions of intimacy in relationships, respect for each other's
autonomy, our evolution as sexual beings, our safety from
sexual abuse, the development of a healthy attitude towards
ones own sexuality and respect for different sexual orientations.

It is also about reproductive health, the institution of
marriage and family and the responsibility towards self and
society in the context of procreation as well as pleasure.
Most importantly, it is about the gender divide and
comprehending the gendered socialisations that pave they way
for sexual violence against women, children of both sexes and
against transgender communities.

Therefore reducing sex education to just education about sex,
is an erroneous notion. And yes, it is about culture, a
culture of dignity, respect, autonomy and responsibility-
surely no one can quarrel with that?

Another fear is that sex education will provoke children to
become sexually active. The truth, however, is that children
too (not just adolescents) are sexual beings. Their
explorations of their own bodies and childhood sexual play
with friends and siblings has been recognised as normal and
not dysfunctional behaviour. In a society where we squirm to
openly acknowledge even adult sexuality, Childhood Sexuality
has remained a taboo and an enigma.

At the same time, the sexual abuse of children by adults is
now recognised as endemic. The study by Samvada, Bangalore in
1994 and National Study conducted by the Ministry of Women and
Child Development, UNICEF and Save the Children in 2007, both
note that child sexual abuse in India begins as early as age
five, increases dramatically during pre-pubescence and peaks
at 12 to 16 years. A huge 21 percent of respondents reported
severe sexual abuse like rape, sodomy, fondling or exposure to
pornographic material and 53% acknowledged other forms of
sexual abuse with over 50% of the abusers being known and
trusted adults.

Most of those abused emphasize that they did not understand
what was being done to them. A misplaced trust in "family" or
respected elders and the abusers' confidence that the child
will not be able to comprehend or disclose the abuse, have set
the stage for such abuse and trauma. By not providing sex
education that is age appropriate and sensitive to social
structures, governments are compromising the safety and mental
health of our precious children.

With 50% of girls in India married before the age of 18 and
40% before the age of 16, it is ironic that adolescent girls
are considered ready for marriage, but not for sex education!

Among the economically better off where marriage age is
increasing, not only are adolescents vulnerable to sexual
abuse, their own sexual experimentation is more covert, loaded
with shame and (mis)guided only by pornographic material
devoid of emotional and psycho-social contexts of sexuality.
Would it not make more sense to help them talk openly about
their anxieties and desires?

While AIDs prevention might have led to a wake up call on sex
education, the need for sex education goes far beyond the
contours of the AIDS problem. The retrograde reaction from
Hindutva bastions in the name of morality is therefore both
dangerous and distressing.

Why is there such a fear of acknowledging sexuality and the
problems listed above? Historically, Hindutva ideologues and
other conservatives have constructed the Indian cultural
nation with the Hindu woman as emanating piety, chastity,
devoted wifehood and motherhood and the Hindu man as chaste
and virtuous. As a response to colonial attempts to codify and
change personal laws and practices that violated human rights,
revivalists pressed for a subordination of domestic issues in
the interests of "nation" formation.

The revival of brahmanic patriarchy and control over men and
women's sexuality became central to establishing a national
identity. Any domestic issues were blithely obfuscated as
culture and problems of women attributed to rapacious, invader
Muslims and thus externalised.

Today, attempts by our own government to address real problems
caused by sexual ignorance are once again seen by these
ideologues as "western" invasion that threatens our cultural
identity and morality. Are we willing to place honour of an
imagined community before basic human rights, desires and
safety of our children and youth? Is this morality?

o o o

(v)

CNN-IBN
May 5, 2007

RAMDEV'S PHARMACY SELLS 'SON DRUG'

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india/05_2007/state-begins-probe-into-ramdevs-drug-39811.html



_____

[5]

The Hindu
May 31, 2007

 ARTISTS, ACADEMICIANS TO GO ON THE OFFENSIVE AGAINST M.S.
UNIVERSITY

Special Correspondent

Association seeks resignation of Vice-Chancellor for "failing
to protect his staff and students''

— Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

Professor Romila Thapar (left), Professor Shivaji K. Panikkar,
M. S. University, and Professor Jayati Ghosh, JNU, at a press
conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: The Association of Academicians, Artists and
Citizens for University Autonomy (ACUA) — formed in the wake
of vandalism and protests at the Maharaja Sayajirao University
in Vadodara — has decided to go on the offensive against the
university authorities.

Bringing their battle to the Capital on Wednesday, Shivaji K.
Panikkar, Dean in-charge of the Faculty of Fine Arts who was
suspended by the university for defending the student whose
works triggered the incidents on the campus between May 9 and
11, said: ``We have been on the defensive till now. Now, we
have decided to go on the offensive.''

Resignation sought

Among the ACUA's demands are: resignation of the
Vice-Chancellor for ``failing to protect his staff and
students, the academic process, examinations and evaluation in
the university, and preservation of their right to undisturbed
work.''

The ACUA also sought appropriate action against the
Vice-Chancellor for abdication of responsibility towards the
university at a critical moment and failure to take action
against the intruders and disrupters of the examination process.

Other demands include, registering an FIR against Niraj Jain —
secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Vadodara city unit —
who disrupted the examination process; releasing the art works
to enable completion of evaluation and declaration of results
and revoking the suspension of Prof. Panikkar.

Addressing a meeting organised by SAHMAT, historian Romila
Thapar — who, along with the former Delhi University
Vice-Chancellor, Deepak Nayyar, had sought President A. P. J.
Abdul Kalam's intervention in the matter — questioned the
reluctance of the Union Government to step in.

Condemning the attempt to control intellectual enterprise, she
said the enquiry committee should be from outside Gujarat.

Broader strategy

According to Jayati Ghosh of Jawaharlal Nehru University, the
incidents at M. S. University were part of a broader strategy
to destroy an institution known for its creative thinking and
dissent.

Questioning the enquiry instituted by the university, the ACUA
said the position paper circulated by the university
authorities ``is sufficient evidence that the Vice-Chancellor
has already pre-judged the matter even before hearing from the
University's own enquiry committee.''

Enquiry committee

As for the enquiry committee set up by the university, the
ACUA has its reservations because it is filled with people
sympathetic to the BJP.


o o o

The Hindu

25 May 2007

ANOTHER ROW OVER SKETCHES IN M.S. VARSITY
http://www.hindu.com/2007/05/26/stories/2007052616681900.htm


______

[6] Beyond South Asia:

(i)

http://www.eurasianet.org
 
Monday, May 28, 2007  
CIVIL SOCIETY

TURKEY: SCIENTISTS FACE OFF AGAINST CREATIONISTS
Nicholas Birch 5/24/07

Turkish secularists put an end on May 20 to the mammoth
marches they have staged since late April in protest of the
prospect of an Islamist president.

Yet, while the biggest demonstrations in Turkey's history
undoubtedly captured the world's attention, an arguably more
important part of the struggle for Turkey's soul is going on
in the relative silence of Turkey's classrooms, laboratories
and courts.

A geneticist at Istanbul University, Haluk Ertan, sums up the
situation succinctly. "Turkey," he says, "is the headquarters
of creationism in the Middle East."

"Not just the Middle East, the world", insists Tarkan Yavas,
the dapper, youthful director of the Istanbul-based Foundation
for Scientific Research (BAV). The 15-year-old institute had
generated a prodigious amount of information, publishing
hundreds of titles. The question is; can many of the works be
considered scientific?

Headed by a charismatic preacher, Adnan Oktar, BAV's latest
production is the 770-page "Atlas of Creation" which it sent
free of charge to scientists and schools in Britain,
Scandinavia, France and Turkey this February.

Page after page juxtaposes photographs of fossils and living
species, claiming the similarities prove the fraudulence of
claims that species adapt with time. The book goes on to blame
evolutionary principles for Communism, Nazism and - under an
A3 photo of the Twin Towers in flames - Islamic radicalism and
the September 11 terrorist tragedy. "Darwinism is the only
philosophy which values conflict", the text says.

The claims may sound outrageous, but it is part of a
formidably effective propaganda machine. A survey in 2006
showed that only 25 percent of Turks fully accepted the
principle of evolution. According to another poll in 2005, 50
percent of biology teachers questioned or rejected evolution.

"Darwinism is dying in Turkey, thanks to us", says BAV's
Yavas, who vowed to keep pressing a creationist agenda until
Turkish culture is cleansed of what he called atheist
materialism. "Darwinism breeds immorality, and an immoral
Turkey is of no use to the European Union at all."

Finishing the job looks likely to be difficult. A cult-like
organization that jealously guards the secrets of its
considerable wealth, and whose websites mix creationism with
Islamic-tinged nationalism, Ottoman nostalgia and veneration
of the Turkish army, BAV has been taken to court repeatedly
over the last decade. On May 19, Turkey's Supreme Court opened
the way for a new suit when it ruled that 2005 criminal
charges brought against the group should not have been dropped
because of time constraints.

Another Turkish court is pondering a case brought by 700
academics against the Ministry of Education last spring,
calling for references to creationism present in school
science syllabuses since 1985 to be taken out.

"There are compulsory religious classes for this sort of thing
in Turkish schools already", says biologist Augur Genk, who
began organizing academic protests after five schoolteachers
in southern Turkey were removed from their posts in 2005 for
teaching evolution.

Like BAV, which has organized hundreds of conferences on
creationism over the past decade as well as a recent flurry of
"creation museums," opponents of creationism are increasingly
taking their arguments directly to the Turkish public.

The last few months have seen a series of scientific
conferences held in central Anatolian towns. Meanwhile, a
popular science magazine has devoted its last two issues to
answering the claims made in BAV's "Atlas of Creation."

"When the creationist movement began to surface in the early
1990s, many scientists just laughed at it", says Nazi Somel, a
former teacher who is writing a doctorate on the history of
Turkish creationism. "It is good to see they are taking it
seriously now."

She is confident this is a conflict that scientists, along
with other supporters of evolution, will win. But while public
figures tend to shy away from too close an association with
Adnan Oktar's group, more reasonable-looking versions of
creationism have powerful supporters in Turkey today.

Take intelligent design (ID), for instance, the notion that
some cellular structures are too complex to have evolved
naturally and therefore must have been created. In December
2005, a US judge echoed most experts in calling it "a
religious view, not a scientific theory" and blocked attempts
to add it to a Pennsylvania school's curriculum. But when
American and Turkish speakers met this May 12 for Turkey's
second ever ID conference, they did so with the support of the
Istanbul municipality. Such tolerance is unsurprising.
Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas shares the political outlook of
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said in mid May that
"states are secular, individuals are not."

Turkish Education Minister Huseyin Celik, meanwhile, has given
public support to the teaching of ID. "Evolutionary theory
overlaps with atheism, intelligent design with religious
belief", he told the privately-owned TV channel CNN-Turk last
November. Given that polls show that only 1 percent of Turks
are atheists, he went on, removing ID from the syllabus would
be tantamount to censorship.

An organizer of the May 12 conference, author Mustafa Akyol,
argues that ID can act as a vehicle to harmonize various
aspects of evolution with creationism. In the eyes of Turkey's
secularist modernizers, he argues, "science replaced religion
as the new faith. Religious-minded Turks need to be convinced
that science isn't a threat."

Ertan, the Istanbul University geneticist, believes it is
impossible to blend science and creationism. What creationists
want is for Turks to abandon reason and totally embrace
superstition, he suggests. Such a stance, Ertan adds, is
anti-modern, and would severely hinder efforts to promote
prosperity.

"Of course science cannot answer all questions, but that
doesn't mean you should throw its basic principles away", he
says. "Without science, modern civilization is impossible."

Editor's Note: Nicolas Birch specializes in Turkey, Iran and
the Middle East.

Posted May 24, 2007 © Eurasianet

o o o

(ii)

Toronto Star
STRUGGLING TO FIND A MODERATE VOICE

[Photo: ] Rick Madonik 
Moderate voices Farzana Hassan-Shahid, left, and Tarek Fatah
are named explicitly in a hate message left on Muslim Canadian
Congress voicemail. The caller warns of "slaughter" unless the
"smearing of Islam" stops.


Frustrated Muslim Tarek Fatah fights `the racism of low
expectations'
May 05, 2007 04:30 AM
Stuart Laidlaw

Tarek Fatah, a long-time left-leaning Muslim, jokes that maybe
he's just too good looking to be taken seriously as a
representative of Islam. Certainly, the things he has to say
about small-l liberals and the radical left in Western
democracies - and their attitudes toward his faith - are
anything but pretty.

"The liberal-left has a preconceived vision of what a Muslim
is, and most of us don't fit that mould," says Fatah, a
moderate leader in the Canadian Islamic community.

Clean-shaven himself, Fatah says many on the left expect
Muslims to have dark, unruly beards and to be wearing
unflattering flowing robes.

Fatah and many of his friends eschew both, but he's known
Muslims to rent robes when they meet with politicians or
activist groups, in order to provide good visuals for the media.

But more disconcerting, he says, is a tendency he's noticed
among many on the left to embrace radical Muslims because they
like the anti-U.S., anti-George W. Bush rhetoric of such people.

"They think they're like the Sandinistas," he says, referring
to the Nicaraguan rebels of the 1980s.

Fatah's frustration boiled to the surface this week as he
prepared to fly to New York for a private screening of Islam
vs. Islamist, a film cut from the line-up of the America at a
Crossroads series of documentaries last month after PBS
producers decided it was too alarmist.

For Fatah, the abrupt cancelling of a film looking into
intimidation of moderate Muslims such as himself by
conservatives is a symptom of something much more troubling
he's noticed in Western society - liberal guilt feeding
liberal racism.

"It's the racism of low expectations," he says, adding the
left is too willing to overlook the sexist and homophobic
attitudes of conservative Muslims in hopes of gaining an ally
against the U.S. administration.

Add to that liberal guilt for being part of the rich West, he
says, and a situation soon develops in which the most
outspoken Muslim critics of the West get the most attention.

"Moderate Muslims don't have a place where they can speak, and
the censoring of this film shows it," says Fatah, who is
featured in the film, produced by Martyn Burke.

Fatah lashed out at anti-war groups who march shoulder to
shoulder with conservative Muslim groups to protest the wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq, without paying enough attention to
the politics of the groups they are allying with.

A one-time member of the New Democratic Party who worked on
Bob Rae's Liberal leadership bid, Fatah also had harsh words
for NDP leader Jack Layton for his vociferous defence of
Taliban prisoners captured in Afghanistan.

"There is an arrogant view that these rednecks in America are
the idiots and we are the civilized people living north of the
49th parallel," he says.

"And the manifestation of our generosity is how well we treat
the Taliban prisoners."

Karl Belanger, a spokesperson for Layton, says the party is
simply trying to ensure Canada lives up to its Geneva
Conventions commitments on the treatment of prisoners. A
spokesperson for the Canadian Peace Alliance, Canada's largest
anti-war group, could not be reached for comment.

A subject of numerous death threats for his criticism of
conservative Muslims, Fatah says members of the left, by
trying to be culturally sensitive, have at times become little
more than apologists for those making the threats.

"The people who we hope in Western society would say, `How
dare you make death threats,' are saying, `Oh, we can
understand, there's a cultural disposition that permits people
to be idiots'," he says.

"They're homophobes, but we understand."

Fatah was in New York on Tuesday night as Burke showed his
film in what was billed as a private screening for invited
media. PBS, which commissioned the documentary for its series
looking at America after the 9/11 attacks, holds the rights to
the film - so no public viewings are allowed.

PBS has said the show was too one-sided and called for two
changes, including a stronger narrative arc in order to
clarify the point of the film and a less alarmist "voice" for
a "fair and accurate documentary looking at today's struggle
between forces of moderation and extremism."

Burke wants PBS to hand rights to the film back to him so he
can find another way to get it to the public. "Either show it,
or give it back. It's quite simple," he told Canadian Press.

But for Fatah, the issues are much larger, a marriage of
convenience between the left and conservative Muslims.

"Nothing makes them feel better than to say, `Those people who
are being pissed on by George Bush, we'll take care of them,'"
Fatah says.

In so doing, he says the left may be falling into the same
trap that the right once did - allying with Muslim
fundamentalists to satisfy short-term goals, without enough
attention paid to what those people believe.

"Toronto's downtown war-withdrawers, Trotskyites march with
the very people who would hang them," he says, pointing out
that many on the left are atheists.

"The biggest crime in the eyes of Islamists is someone who
denies the existence of God."


(iii)

NATURAL HISTORY, BIBLE-STYLE
Kentucky's Creation Museum, opening May 28, puts dinosaurs in
the garden with Adam and Eve.
By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Petersburg, Ky. - For natural history museums, the awesome
dinosaur is a star attraction for drawing wide-eyed children
and their families. It's surprising, though, to be welcomed at
the gate of the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky by two
stegosauruses. After all, this brand-new museum is designed to
disprove evolution, including the millions of years that
science says dinosaurs walked the earth.

For Bible-defending "creationists," God created Earth and all
its creatures between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. But they
know a drawing card when they see one, and this museum has
more than its share of animatronic (moving, teeth-baring,
roaring) specimens. In fact, dinosaurs play a big role in this
"biblical history": They live not 65 million years ago, but
with humans - in the Garden of Eden and on Noah's Ark.

"Dinosaurs are one of the icons of evolution, but we believe
they lived at the same time as people," says Ken Ham, founder
of Answers in Genesis (AiG), the fundamentalist Christian
ministry that built the facility. "The Bible talks about
dragons. We believe dragon legends had a basis in truth."

The $27 million museum set on 50 acres opens on Memorial Day,
and AiG hopes for 250,000 visitors a year. Mr. Ham, a former
science teacher in Australia, is direct about the museum's
purpose: to restore the Bible to its "rightful authority" in
society.

For many scientists, however, it's distressing. Some 700
scientists at educational institutions in Kentucky, Ohio, and
Indiana have signed a statement deploring the "scientifically
inaccurate" exhibits and warning that students who accept them
are "unlikely to succeed in science courses."


(Photograph)
Creation Museum: The $27 million complex, which opens May 28,
aims to restore the Bible to its 'rightful authority' in
society, according to Ken Ham, founder of the fundamentalist
religious group Answers in Genesis.
Melanie Stetson Freeman - Staff

Erroneous, with 'great flash and dash'

Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science
Education, says, "This is freedom of speech, but it's
unfortunate the public is going to be exposed to erroneous
science presented with great flash and dash ... in an
authoritative way. This is going to be detrimental to science
literacy."

No doubt, AiG knew how to create an appealing experience,
choosing a designer of amusement parks who created the Jaws
and King Kong exhibits at Florida's Universal Studios. In a
special-effects theater, the seats shake and visitors are
sprinkled with water. There's a lush Garden of Eden, a partial
re-creation of Noah's Ark, a slice of the Grand Canyon, lots
of videos on plasma TVs, and a planetarium for exploring the
universe. At Noah's Cafe, kids can saddle up on a triceratops.

Yet the main mission isn't entertainment; it's presenting a
particular "biblical worldview" in which Genesis stands as
literal history and true science.

"Genesis gives an account of the history of all basic entities
... from the One who knows everything," Ham says. "If you
don't know everything, there could always be evidence that
will lead to wrong conclusions."

And wrong conclusions is what AiG claims is behind evolution.
Dividing science into "observational science" and "historical
science," its theme is that the latter is simply
interpretation based on one's presuppositions. In one exhibit,
for instance, two paleontologists (a creationist and an
evolutionist) are digging up a dinosaur skeleton, but they
have two different interpretations - one from a perspective of
thousands of years and the other, millions of years.

"Fossils don't have labels," Ham says. "You have different
interpretations because you have different starting points -
one starts with God's Word, one with human reason."

Dismissing the observational/historical dichotomy, Dr. Scott
says "it's nonsense ... Nobody really thinks astronomy,
geology, and evolutionary biology ... go about testing their
explanations in a way substantially different from other
sciences."

Young-earth creationists believe the fossil record was
entirely laid down during the "universal flood" of Noah's day.
This view has taken hold just since 1961, when two
fundamentalists, Henry Morris and John Whitcomb, wrote "The
Genesis Flood" (though the idea of "flood geology" had
originated earlier among Seventh-Day Adventists).

"The evidence for geological ages became so overwhelming in
the early 19th century that even evangelical Christ-ians
embraced it and changed their understandings of Genesis to
accommo-date it," says Ron Numbers, a science historian at the
University of Wisconsin. But after the 1961 book,
fundamentalists began gravitating to that position, which in
1970 was renamed creation science.

"If you take away the hundreds of millions of years the
paleontological record gives to evolutionists, you've knocked
out the biggest bulk of evidence for evolution," Dr. Numbers
says. "They're trying to fit the scientific evidence into that
model and for a period tried to market it as scientific to get
it into the public schools." The US Supreme Court said it has
a religious basis and couldn't be taught in science classrooms.

Evolution problematic for many

"We're not an activist group regarding school battles or
getting materials into public schools," says Mark Looy, AiG's
communications director. AiG does produce a glossy magazine,
books, a radio show, and at least two DVDs a month for
distribution to churches, Christian schools, and
home-schooling families. Ham and staff are on the go giving
talks at some 350 gatherings a year. In response to requests,
Mr. Looy says, they ship 48,000 items annually.
(Photograph)
Artist's touch: Painting a sculpture in the Babylon section.
Melanie Stetson Freeman - Staff

One paperback, "Evolution Exposed: Your Answer Book for the
Classroom," instructs students how to respectfully but
insistently counter evolutionary concepts.

The museum poses such difficulty for scientists, perhaps,
because evolution is problematic for many. Polls consistently
find that close to half of all Americans reject it.

"People find it unbiblical and implausible. You are talking
about human ancestry, which people are very sensitive about,"
Numbers posits. Plus some scientists "have gone overboard" in
claiming evolution proves there is no God, even though
"millions have harmonized it with their religious beliefs."

In a bid to clarify this, the American Asso-ciation for the
Ad--vancement of Science has published "The Evolution
Dialogues," which explores evolution and Christianity's
response. It discusses those who see science and religion as
compatible but dealing with different spheres, and others
working out a theology that takes evolution into account.

The museum scorns such an approach. One exhibit shows a pastor
preaching it's OK not to believe in a literal Genesis. Then it
depicts "the consequences" in one family: A young boy looks at
porn on the Internet while his sister calls Planned Parenthood.

No one has a handle on the scope of creationism's influence,
says Numbers, author of "The Creationists." "Intelligent
design" (which disputes aspects of evolution but accepts that
the universe is billions of years old) has been more in the
news recently. But AiG, simply one group in the creationism
fold, is clearly doing well. The museum has 8,500 charter
members, Looy says, and is all paid for - by donations
averaging $100.


_____


[7] 

UNESCO
30-05-2007 (Kathmandu)

LAUNCH OF PUBLICATION ON THE STATE OF PRESS FREEDOM IN NEPAL

In relation to the World Press Freedom Day 2007 under the
global theme Press Freedom, Safety of Journalists and
Impunity, the UNESCO Office in Kathmandu asked the Forum of
Development Journalists (FoDeJ) to undertake a ‘reality check’
on press freedom in post-conflict Nepal.
In order to give a voice to journalists working outside the
Kathmandu valley, FoDeJ undertook a series of case studies in
the mountains, hilly areas and the plains, covering all the
development regions of Nepal.

Testimonies from the Field – An Exploration of the State of
Press Freedom in Nepal after the Signing of the Comprehensive
Peace Agreement portrays and illustrates their findings. The
booklet was launched on 4 May 2007, at a dialogue forum
organized by the Nepal Press Institute. The theme of the
event, meant to commemorate World Press Freedom Day, was Media
Freedom, Security and Impunity. The forum was organised by
young journalists and attended by the Minister of Information
and Communications and about 70 media professionals, including
many senior journalists from Kathmandu based media.

FoDeJ presented their findings, which unfortunately are quite
disturbing:

      Statistics and stories portray a Nepal in which
journalists are still abducted, arrested, threatened,
physically assaulted and obstructed in carrying out their
professional duty across the country. Many media practitioners
are still displaced away from their families. Media houses
have been vandalized and forced to shut down and transports of
newspapers have been vandalized.

This publication is intended to raise awareness on the plight
faced by journalists and to ultimately bring about increased
assistance to independent media in Nepal, thus ensuring a
solid, peaceful and democratic society where human rights are
a reality for all.

The publication can be downloaded here in PDF format in
English and Nepali.

http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/24680/11805294171testimonies_from_field_english.pdf/testimonies_from_field_english.pdf

http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/24680/118052941719testimonies_from_field_nepali.pdf/testimonies_from_field_nepali.pdf

 Author(s)  	 Forum of Development Journalists (FoDeJ)	
Publisher 	UNESCO Office in Kathmandu
Publication Location 	Kathmandu
Publication Year 	2007

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
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