1. Archbishop Desmond Tutu endorses WAN-IFRA Declaration of Table
    Mountain
2. Terrorism is not a Muslim monopoly
3. PWYP-Africa EITI validation reports
4. Declaration of Table Mountain
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1. Archbishop Desmond Tutu endorses WAN-IFRA Declaration of Table
    Mountain

Grahamstown, South Africa,
8 July 2010 

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu of South Africa has endorsed the Declaration of Table Mountain, a media industry call to African heads of state to repeal insult and criminal defamation laws and place a free press higher on the political agenda. "You, the media, have one of the most powerful instruments in helping our societies to value the truth," said Archbishop Tutu, addressing hundreds of journalists attending the Highway Africa media conference at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa.

Archbishop Tutu¹s endorsement of the Declaration of Table Mountain is a major boost for a campaign that has been gaining signatories and widespread support across Africa. Full details about the Declaration, an initiative of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), can be found at http://www.declarationoftablemountain.org "The Archbishop¹s voice, added to those already committed to repealing insult and criminal defamation laws across Africa, will help deliver a clear message of change to those in power," said the WAN-IFRA CEO, Christoph Riess. Archbishop Tutu, a leader in the South African struggle that eliminated apartheid, is known for his defence of human rights. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

The three-day Highway Africa conference welcomed close to 500 African and international journalists and media experts to debate the issues facing the African media. A majority of participants also pledged their support to the Declaration and signed-up to actively promote the campaign in their countries. The WAN-IFRA Declaration of Table Mountain Campaign is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. SIDA and WAN-IFRA conduct an ambitious strategic partnership to advance media development and press freedom worldwide. A series of projects to support freedom of expression and to test new methods and approaches in strengthening media in emerging markets was launched this year.

For more on these projects, please consult:
http://www.wan-press.org/pfreedom/articles.php?id=5826  

For more on what WAN-IFRA does for press freedom and media development, go to: http://www.wan-press.org/pfreedom/home.php  

*WAN-IFRA is the global organisation for the world¹s newspapers and news
  publishers, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO,
  and the Council of Europe.

*Contact us for more information about RAP21, Press Freedom issues, and the
  work of WAN-IFRA. 
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2. Terrorism is not a Muslim monopoly 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo.cms?msid=2419189  

Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar

"All Muslims may not be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims." This comment , frequently heard after the Mumbai bomb blasts implies that terrorism is a Muslim specialty, if not a monopoly. The facts are very different. First, there is nothing new about terrorism. In 1881, anarchists killed the Russian Tsar Alexander II and 21 bystanders. In 1901, anarchists killed US President McKinley as well as King Humbert I of Italy. World War I started in 1914 when anarchists killed Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. These terrorist attacks were not Muslim. Terrorism is generally defined as the killing of civilians for political reasons.

Going by this definition, the British Raj referred to Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, and many other Indian freedom fighters as terrorists. These were Hindu and Sikh rather than Muslim. Guerrilla fighters from Mao Zedong to Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro killed civilians during their revolutionary campaigns. They too were called terrorists until they triumphed. Nothing Muslim about them. In Palestine, after World War II, Jewish groups (the Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang) fought for the creation of a Jewish state, bombing hotels and installations and killing civilians. The British, who then governed Palestine, rightly called these Jewish groups terrorists.

Many of these terrorists later became leaders of independent Israel - Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon. Ironically, these former terrorists then lambasted terrorism, applying this label only to Arabs fighting for the very same nationhood that the Jews had fought for earlier. In Germany in 1968-92, the Baader-Meinhoff Gang killed dozens, including the head of Treuhand, the German privatisation agency. In Italy, the Red Brigades kidnapped and killed Aldo Moro, former prime minister. The Japanese Red Army was an Asian version of this. Japan was also the home of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist cult that tried to kill thousands in the Tokyo metro system using nerve gas in 1995. In Europe, the Irish Republican Army has been a Catholic terrorist organisation for almost a century. Spain and France face a terrorist challenge from ETA, the Basque terrorist organisation.

Africa is ravaged by so much civil war and internal strife that few people even bother to check which groups can be labelled terrorist. They stretch across the continent. Possibly the most notorious is the Lord's Salvation Army in Uganda, a Christian outfit that uses children as warriors. In Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers have long constituted one of the most vicious and formidable terrorist groups in the world. They were the first to train children as terrorists. They happen to be Hindus. Suicide bombing is widely associated with Muslim Palestinians and Iraqis, but the Tamil Tigers were the first to use this tactic on a large scale.

One such suicide bomber assassinated Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. In India, the militants in Kashmir are Muslim. But they are only one of several militant groups. The Punjab militants, led by Bhindranwale, were Sikhs. The United Liberation Front of Assam is a Hindu terrorist group that targets Muslims rather than the other way round. Tripura has witnessed the rise and fall of several terrorist groups, and so have Bodo strongholds in Assam. Christian Mizos mounted an insurrection for decades, and Christian Nagas are still heading militant groups. But most important of all are the Maoist terrorist groups that now exist in no less than 150 out of India's 600 districts. They have attacked police stations, and killed and razed entire villages that oppose them.

These are secular terrorists (like the Baader Meinhof Gang or Red Brigades). In terms of membership and area controlled, secular terrorists are far ahead of Muslim terrorists. In sum, terrorism is certainly not a Muslim monopoly. There are or have been terrorist groups among Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, and even Buddhists. Secular terrorists (anarchists, Maoists) have been the biggest killers.
Why then is there such a widespread impression that most or all terrorist groups are Muslim? I see two reasons. First, the Indian elite keenly follows the western media, and the West feels under attack from Islamic groups.

Catholic Irish terrorists have killed far more people in Britain than Muslims; yet the subway bombings in London and Madrid are what Europeans remember today. The Baader Meinhof Gang, IRA, and Red Brigades no longer pose much of a threat, but after 9/11 Americans and Europeans fear that they could be hit anywhere anytime. So they focus attention on Islamic militancy. They pay little notice to other forms of terrorism in Africa, Sri Lanka or India: these pose no threat to the West. Within India, Maoists pose a far greater threat than Muslim militants in 150 districts, one-third of India's area. But major cities feel threatened only by Muslim groups. So the national elite and media focus overwhelmingly on Muslim terrorism. The elite are hardly aware that this is an elite phenomenon.

Raheel Raza
Promoting Interfaith and Intercultural diversity
President - Forum for Learning
Artistic Director
SAMA - Sacred Arts & Music Alliance
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3. PWYP-Africa EITI validation reports

Dear colleagues,  

Further to your requests, here is some information you may find useful. EITI Validation Reports are posted on the EITI website after they have been approved by the EITI Board. Below are links to the Validation Reports of the four countries which have to date completed the validation process and had their final reports reviewed and approved by the Board. As several countries are currently in the midst of preparing their draft or final reports, I thought you may find it helpful to use the following reports as a reference.

Azerbaijan Validation Report:
http://eiti.org/document/Azerbaijan2009Validation  
Liberia Validation Report:
http://eiti.org/document/Liberia-2009-Validation-Report 
Mongolia Validation Report:
http://eiti.org/document/Mongolia-2010-Validation-Report  
Timor-Leste Validation:
http://eiti.org/document/Timor-Leste-2010-Validation-Report  

Timor-Leste is the latest country to complete validation. The Board has reviewed and approved Timor-Leste’s validation report. Based on the assessment presented in the validation report, the Board has designated Timor-Leste as an EITI Compliant country.

The Board normally takes decisions at its Board Meetings. However some decisions can be taken between Board Meetings via electronic communication on a no-objection basis. The Board received Timor-Leste’s final validation report on 12 April but there was insufficient time for the Board to review this final report prior to the Board Meeting which took place on April 15-16. The review was completed in June by the Validation Committee and the Validation Committee subsequently made a recommendation to the full Board that the Board approve the report and designate Timor-Leste as EITI compliant via electronic communication on a no-objection basis.

Best regards,
Radhika

Radhika Sarin
International Coordinator
Publish What You Pay
rsarin@publishwhatyoupay.org 
+44 20 7031 0204

c/o Open Society Foundation
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London W6 0LE,
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (0)20 7031 0200
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4. Declaration of Table Mountain:
    - Abolishing insult and criminal defamation laws in Africa and
       setting a free press higher on the agenda

http://www.declarationoftablemountain.org/home.php  

In country after country, the African press is crippled by a panoply of repressive measures, from the jailing and persecution of journalists to the widespread scourge of 'insult laws' and criminal defamation. As the start of an intensive campaign to improve this appalling situation, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) adopted the Declaration of Table Mountain on 3 June 2007 in Cape Town, South Africa, during its annual meeting.
 
The Declaration is an earnest appeal to all Africans, particularly those in power, to recognise that the political and economic progress they seek flourishes in a climate where the press is free and independent of governmental, political or economic control. Through this Declaration, WAN-IFRA has stated its conviction that Africa urgently needs a strong, free and independent press to act as a watchdog over public institutions, a crucial role that the press is hindered from and punished for playing by the widespread resort to 'insult laws' and criminal defamation, in particular.

Major African and international non-governmental organisations that, day after day, defend and promote freedom of expression and freedom of the press have now endorsed the Declaration and expressed their readiness to contribute to this campaign. Together, with determination, we will now aggressively press our case in the hope for a better future for African media freedom.

We are calling on you to sign the Declaration and join our campaign. 

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s) and not do necessarily reflect the views of the AfricaFiles' editors and network members. They are included in our material as a reflection of a diversity of views and a variety of issues. Material written specifically for AfricaFiles may be edited for length, clarity or inaccuracies.

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