On 7/7/09, Intern1
Dear Shobhaa De ,I'd be immensely grateful for your help.We are working with the Committee for the Protection of Journalists and Newsweek in New York to try and secure the release of the Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari in Tehran. He was reporting on the elections in Iran and has been detained without charge since 21 June.We are asking leading editors and journalists around the world to sign a letter calling for his release. It will be sent to the head of the judiciary in Iran - and we would be delighted if you felt able to sign it. Signatories include CNN’s Cristiane Amanpour, leading Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, the editor of Die Zeit, Josef Joffe, the editor of El Pais, Javier Moreno and celebrated Italian reporter Roberto Saviano.Maziar is one of the most remarkable reporters and film makers in his field. He has worked for the BBC (Newsnight and Panorama), and Channel 4, as well as reporting for Newsweek. His documentary films include ‘And Along Came A Spider’ about an Iranian serial killer and, most recently, ‘An Iranian Odyssey’ about the plot to overthrow Mossadegh in 1953.We believe that a strong protest from Maziar Bahari's peers at the highest level in Iran will form a significant part of the campaign for his release.http://www.newsweek.com/id/203036I look forward to hearing from you.With kind regards,Lily Ash Sakula,Index on Censorshipwww.indexoncensorship.org <http://www.indexoncensorship.org/> +44 (0)20 7324 2522Sent on behalf of Jo Glanville, the Editor
jo@indexoncensorship.org
PETITIONWe are writing to express our grave concern at the detention of our esteemedfellow journalist Maziar Bahari and to request his immediate release. MrBahari has been detained since June 21. No charges have been brought againsthim, and he has not been granted access to a lawyer. As one of the mostimpartial and committed journalists in his field, he has been regularlyreporting from the Middle East, principally on Iran and Iraq, for the pastdecade, providing consistently balanced and insightful reports. As anaward-winning documentary film maker he has earned global respect for hiswork.We request his immediate release from custody and that he be allowed toresume his work. As a journalist, he was engaged in fulfilling hisprofessional duties, reporting on critical events following the elections.At a minimum he is entitled to the full protection of the laws of Iran,including the right to legal counsel. The Islamic Republic of Iran¹sdomestic laws recognize the right to free expression and Iran was one of thefirst countries in the world to ratify the International Covenant on Civiland Political Rights in 1975, which guarantees all individuals the freedomto seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardlessof frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, orthrough any other media.As a group of leading international journalists and editors, who wish toensure that our fellow professionals are permitted to do their work safelyand freely, we ask you to consider this petition and return Mr Bahari to hisfriends, colleagues and family without further delay.
11 comments:
Thanks for the Message.
Prayers and Best Wishes for Earliest Release !!!
Will forward to everybody on Contact List !!!
I will pass it on and let these oppressive regimes know good can fight back evil.
Will pass it on.. but there's no link to the petition.. how do we add signatures to it?
Mam,
Thanks for putting it up. We can pray for his safe release.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Universe and I !
Because this universe was not created by my grandfather (or yours!), therefore its laws are not tailor made for me ( or you). But I have been given the option of living by these laws andstaying happy and peaceful, or trying and creating my own laws and come eternally to grief. The universe does not ask me to accept its laws - laws like the inevitability of death, aging, betrayls alongwith unquestioning love and loyalty, failure and success in the same baggage, the two cheats. This universe does not ask me to accept her turths but neither does she offer me any guarantee against the perils of my non-accpetance. She leaves me free to make an ass of myself by strutting around as pivot of all that exists. But the universe also stays clear out of the way of my happiness if I choose honesty and humility above self-defeating hypocrisy and implosive arrogance.
Posted by harcharan bains at 10:39 AM "Whatever is realised is right. Superficiality is the only sin." - Oscar Wilde
LOVERS AND TEACHERS
(Bits from an internet chat with bright young journalist. Her name has been changed to cover identity. The conversation occurred about nine months ago. Harcharan Bains)
12:05 PM me: In all my teaching career, I remember three students, two boys and a girl, whom I loudly used to ask never to come to my class because, as I told them, there was nothing I had to teach them. It would be enough if I could learn something from them. They were so far ahead - and not just in terms of knowledge. They were on a different planet from mine in pure wisdom, mental stature, breadth of vision and poise in personality. I feel that if I ever had the opportunity of teaching you, I would have to put you down as fourth such.
.
12:10 PM me: If you had ever been a teacher, Varindaa, you would know how lovable all students are; they look at you with such trusting eyes, and mostly we teachers betray their trust. They put their lives in our hands Their hearts beat in our bosoms, their hands are stretched out like that of a little infant reaching out for his mother. They lovingly surrender all they have, even their minds and all -- and yet we keep treating the relationship as 'just a job'. When a student is wondering how wonderful a person her teacher is, all he is thinking about how small his pay packet or how long his promotion is.
Teaching, my dearest Varindaa, is an boundless high romance. No one who is afraid to be called a romantic fool has any business to be a teacher. All but high romantics and prophets should barred from entering any place of learning. Education is not for the wise. They do not know what to do with it, except to use it an incense in a brothel. Education is only for the possessed. It is for the “God-intoxicated people”, for the deeply committed and the deeply sincere, “for those who can afford to make fools of themselves.”
12:12 PM Varindaa: But what is pitiable is that majority of our teachers are not like that
Especially the ones in Humanities...which I studied and which specially needs teachers who are passionate about what they teach.
12:16 PM me: I would rather not call them teachers. "pedogogic workers'? The greatest asset in a teacher is not the information in his skull but the love in his heart. No one can be teacher without first being a lover. Teaching beckons you to the hearts and minds of your students, and there you are welcome as a divine guest till you let them down. I have never seen a student letting a teacher down; and I know that ten thousand out of ten thousand and one teachers fail to match the trust and love of their students. May be that is a bit cruel, but just a bit.
12:19 PM ‘to me the only yardstick to measure the collapse of a society is the manner in which teachers treat their vocation and also, perhaps as a consequence, the way the society treats its teachers.
12:20 PM Varindaa, you may have not noticed it, but i have already tried to deserve my salary as a teacher even in this relationship with you, even though that is the last thing I would want our relationship to be.
12:24 PM me: Incidentally, I was exceedingly lucky with my teachers. They were all gems, and I had a crush on them ( especially on an extremely dignified and beautiful madam who used to teach me Punjabi. A better and more noble person I am yet to meet, although she never encouraged my crush which bordered on ( in fact, crossed the bounds of worship.) Now, I am talking as a student. And this is what I meant by the purity in a student’s heart.
12:25 PM Varindaa: ha ha
I appreciate your take on this - and also the effort put in world wide. We try to spread the word - as much as I can...
Verification Word: mandi ;)
Matter of real concern. Will pass it on. Thanks>
Surely will pass it On..
Where is the link to sign the petition? Thanks
I didn't know you are so stupid Ms Shobha De.
These journalists are most of the time on the payroll of Americans and British politicians who use them to bring down foreign governments in the name of democracy. They get funded from American intelligence to print negative stories about countries who stand up against western Bullshit.
The same American intelligence with the help of CNN, CNBC, Fox News and other channels started a propaganda that Saddam Hussain of Iraq can destroy the whole world in 45 minutes with chemical weapons. If you remember correctly they were neve found and American and British butchers ended up killing more civilians than Saddam Hussain. At that time the American propaganda machine used opposition leaders of saddam hussain to justify these attacks. And anyone with common wisdom knows that it was a propaganda war to steal billions of dollars worth of Iraqi oil. Then vice president Dick Cheney's company Haliburton got exclusive rights to pump the oil without any public tender.
It amazes me that a journalist like you fell to this silly trap of western world. The prime reason is that Iranian president has dared to stand up against American bullying tactics and wants to build nuclear weapon. If our own Gyani Sardar singhji stands up and tells white house that Iran and North Korea has every right to make nuclear weapon then you should not be surprised if they use BJP leaders to tell the whole world that Gyani Manmohan Singh is butchering and torturing his own people.
It's fair to say that Indian leadership lacks guts for a long time and is licking Americans whether they are wrong or right in world affairs. Indian may have gained financially in last 10-15 years but has lost it's independent voice to tell the world if certain country is killing civilians in the name of democracy.
I hope your readers read both sides of the equation before creating a negative image of country which is basically to satisfy American ego's.
Good luck
Post a Comment