The Shadow over Blair/UK--New Word Media Watch....

[Gloria]

Up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR SEPTEMBER 27, 2004

1//The Independent, UK--THE SHADOW OVER BLAIR (Three years ago, Mr Blair spoke of the "high ideals" that were the driving force behind his Government. When he makes his keynote speech to the conference tomorrow, he is planning to strike a defiant note, insisting that the war on Iraq was right. The Prime Minister dismissed reports on BBC's Breakfast with Frost that he had undergone a "wobble" earlier this year over his low personal standing in the polls as a result of the Iraq war. "I am not the wobbling sort," he said. Iraq now threatens to be his nemesis. One poll yesterday showed that Labour's majority could be slashed to 24 seats at the general election. The Cabinet, as this newspaper revealed last week, has been warned that Labour could lose three million votes because voters are dismayed at the way Mr Blair has been blown off course.)



2//The Daily Star, Lebanon--DESPITE SECURITY WOES, IRAQ OFFERS HUGE POTENTIAL TO INVESTORS (Businessmen and economists gathered here to discuss reconstruction prospects in violence-racked Iraq said Saturday that lack of security was a major impediment to investment but that the country still offers enormous potential. Participants in an Iraq reconstruction conference differed, however, on whether a new law that opens up the country to foreign investors was the right answer to decades of a state-controlled economy which left the private sector "completely disenfranchised," as one banker put it…"The problem is that you're approaching an economy that has been state-managed for 35 years (under the Baath regime of ousted president Saddam Hussein) ... and if you open the floodgates to foreign investors, you'll never give the private sector a chance to get on its feet and compete, and you will not allow domestic wealth creation," he said.)



3//The News International, Pakistan--WANA FIGHTERS SOPHISTICATED, BRUTAL: MILITARY(Al-Qaeda-linked fighters battling Pakistani troops along the border with Afghanistan are sophisticated and brutal combatants who carry satellite phones and mutilate their enemies’ corpses, according to a profile unveiled by an army commander. Major General Niaz Khattak, field commander in the mountainous frontier district of South Waziristan, said fighters hiding there had falsely convinced local tribes that they were waging a Jihad, or holy war, against "infidels".In the first-ever profile presented to journalists, the general who has led several offensives against al-Qaeda-linked militants this year painted a picture of hardened, well-trained, and brutal fighters with little adherence to Islamic values.)



4//Institute for War & Peace Reporting, UK--COMMANDERS RECRUITING DISARMED SOLDIERS ("We received the list of the commanders who have recruited the disarmed soldiers and we sent it to our main office in Kabul to hand it over to the defence ministry," said Krsmanovic, who refused to identify the commanders or where exactly they operated… To date, over 16,000 soldiers and officers have been disarmed through the DDR programme. Of that number, more than 13,000 have undergone training - during which they receive 30 US dollars a day - in such areas as basic literacy, de-mining, agriculture, small business, teaching, carpentry, tailoring, mechanics and metal work. Some of the latter have joined the Afghan National Army or the Afghan National Police. Participants are paid 30 US dollars a month during the training period… Many of the fighters who have participated in the programme say they’ve become discouraged when they see other demobilised soldiers in their classes rejoining the militias.)



5//The Moscow Times, Russia--PUTIN TELLS REPORTERS TO FIGHT TERROR (President Vladimir Putin urged journalists to stop being simply observers and join the fight against terrorism, apparently by making sure that news coverage does not help terrorists achieve their goals."Terrorists cynically use the capabilities of mass media, and democracy on the whole, to multiply the psychological and informational impact in the course of hostage-taking or conducting other terrorist acts," Putin told more than 100 representatives of international news agencies at a conference Friday…One element of the fallout from major acts of terrorism in recent years has been new pressure on the media, which have faced increasing restrictions since Putin came to office in 2000.)