Latest update on the latest from Wikileaks on the issue of 2000 Swiss bank accounts of wealthy individuals and offshore corporations.

• Assange says he wants to go the “safe route” and have professionals look at the Elmer CDs; he also says WikiLeaks has found “sources need to be protected before the information is passed out to others.”

• He says some journalists can be opportunists who “twist and hype up the material and distort the historical record” so WikiLeaks makes “primary source documents available so honest journalists rise high and dishonest journalists struggle.”

• He is also asked about the embassy cables release. Assange says 2.3% has been released and the process will continue over the coming months.

• Assange says WikiLeaks has had more legal threats from banks “than any other organisations”. (Update Elmer said of the Swiss banking system: “I started pulling on the tail of a mouse and it became a fire-breathing dragon.”)

Anastasiya Baburova (only 25) was shot on January 19 – minutes after a press conference at the Independent Press Center. She was walking towards the Metro station with a laywer, Stanislav Markelov.

Baburova apparently tried to stop the killer, who had walked past her after shooting Markelov; the man then shot her in the head, Kommersant reported, citing unnamed witnesses of the scene.

Markelov died immediately; Baburova died several hours later in a Moscow hospital. “It appears that Markelov was the main target,” Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta, told CPJ. He added that the paper is waiting for the official results of the investigation to determine whether Baburova was also targeted.

Two hours before his assassination, Markelov had given a press conference criticizing the early release on Thursday of former Russian Colonel Yuri Budanov, a tank commander convicted and imprisoned in 2003 on charges of murdering a young Chechen girl named Elza Kungayeva in 2000, Sokolov told CPJ. Markelov represented the Kungayeva family and was planning to appeal Budanov’s early release.

Here’s a few important points:

A terrorist shot in Sarajevo provided the pretext for German aggression which started World War I. 9/11 was used by the Bush Administration to launch the Iraq War. In both cases, trigger-happy leaders exploited the incidents for their own political purposes.

In both cases, the national media played along. The failures of the American media to slow or stop the descent into the Iraq War are the greatest media failures of our current era…

In short, almost all governments lie and lie relentlessly. Yet governments can be made to lie less frequently by being exposed and held to account by the professional media.

He does mention blogs (such as this one) and concludes: The problem with the internet, of course, is that it transmitted considerable flakiness alongside pithy truth telling. Blog sites, for good and ill, are unfiltered and unaccountable.

So what about getting the best of both worlds – the accountability and ethics of professional journalism AND the freedom of expression associated with the Internet (and blogs)?

Tags: BBC, correspondent, free speech, Gaza, journalism, youtube

BBC, correspondent, free speech, Gaza, journalism, youtube

Today, BBC reports that the authorities has unexpectedly released Le Chi Quang, 34, who was convicted in 2002 because he posted online essays (blogged?) that were critical of the government. More from that story:

[Le Chi Quang] was jailed for four years in November 2002 … The Vietnamese foreign ministry said Quang would have to serve out a three-year term of house arrest which was given at the time of his detention.

Rights groups say at least six other cyber dissidents remain in jail.

Vietnam has introduced tough measure to monitor internet use. Internet cafe owners must keep records of all sites visited by their customers, including those deemed containing “bad and poisonous information”, for 30 days.

So much for citizen journalism in Vietnam. Bloggers beware…

Tags: BBC, citizen journalism, correspondent, free speech, Vietnam

BBC, citizen journalism, correspondent, free speech, Vietnam

The BBC came out with a statement as well:

We are studying the video very carefully. We have been working very closely with Alan’s family for the past 81 days. This is a highly distressing time for them and for his friends and his colleagues. We repeat our call for his immediate release.

Tags: BBC, correspondent, free speech, Gaza, journalism, youtube

BBC, correspondent, free speech, Gaza, journalism, youtube

Thirty-one people were arrested during the peaceful demonstration by the police. At the same time, the police stood aside while right-wing and Orthodox activists took the chance the exercise their “right” to violent protest by hitting many of the activists.

Here’s the news blurp, you can view the video here.

Police detained gay rights activists, among them European lawmakers, as they tried to present a letter to Moscow’s mayor yesterday in a demonstration that also attracted a hostile crowd of people who punched and threw eggs at the activists.

Police quickly grabbed about a dozen activists and forced them into a bus, including Russian gay rights movement leader Nikolai Alexeyev.

Marco Cappato, a European Parliament deputy from Italy, was kicked by one opponent as he spoke to journalists. Cappato began shouting “Where are the police? Why don’t you protect us?” and officers hauled him away as he struggled.

So let’s recap Putin’s priorities when it comes to free speech and human rights:

1) Journalists
2) Ex-spies
3) Gays

There was a recent study on how the price of petrol influences certain countries to become more/less authoritarian. Following this logic, if the price of petrol hits $100, Russia will probably become more authoritarian than the Soviet Union during the Cold War (if at all possible).

Tags: Anna Politkovskaya, death, free speech, journalism, Putin, Russia, spy

Anna Politkovskaya, death, free speech, journalism, Putin, Russia, spy

He’s not alone. The Committee to Protect Journalists annual worldwide census found 134 journalists imprisoned on December 1, an increase of nine from the 2005 tally.

As you can see the main offenders are China, Cuba, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. Overall, there are 24 nations that imprison journalists.

Moreover, some of the worst offenders (e.g. Eritrea) have denied imprisoned journalists even the most basic elements of due process. For some, it’s not even clear if they’re alive or dead.

Another bothering statistic: a full third of all imprisoned journalists are Internet bloggers (or citizen journalists).

I’m a bit surprised that these statistics don’t include the number of journalists that have been brutally murdered in Russia or Iraq.

Tags: BBC, citizen journalism, correspondent, death, free speech, Russia

BBC, citizen journalism, correspondent, death, free speech, Russia

Alan Johnston disappeared 19 days ago. There haven’t been any public demands by his abductors but obviously some information has trickled down as BBC has announced he is in good health.

According to the latest BBC article:

There have been numerous international demands for his immediate release.

These include appeals from the Arab League and the European Union and non-government groups such as Amnesty International and Reporters Without Frontiers.

Palestinian officials have said all possible efforts are being made to secure his safe return.

Previous “hotspots” for journalists include Russia and Iraq.

Tags: BBC, correspondent, free speech, Gaza, journalism, youtube

BBC, correspondent, free speech, Gaza, journalism, youtube

There’s an obvious beneficiary from this death – Russia’s current regime and/or the KGB (now FSB). The Russian parliament voted in June to allow state officials to carry out overseas assassinations.

It has been only a month since Anna Politkovskaya’s brutal death. In 2004, Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s opposition leader survived miraculously a dioxin poisoning.

Both Litvinenko and Politkovskaya published articles and books criticising the Kremlin and Putin in particular. Litvienko went so far as to claim that the Beslan attack was probably carried out with KGB’s blessing.

It’s obvious now what kind of death these sort of comments get you. While Politkovskaya was gunned down execution style in Moscow, Litvinenko agonized for three long weeks as a result from radioactive poisoning.

A lesson on what citizen journalism gets you if you dare criticize Russia.

Tags: Anna Politkovskaya, death, free speech, journalism, Putin, Russia, spy

Anna Politkovskaya, death, free speech, journalism, Putin, Russia, spy