MediaVigil, Journal of Global Communications and Justice

Opposition claim comes as UN gets humanitarian access to Misurata and efforts are on to evacuate those stranded. Libya's opposition leaders have said that at least 10,000 people have died since the start of the conflict in February. Al Jazeera's correspondent, Mike Hanna reporting from Benghazi, said: "Given the intensity of the conflict, it doesn't come as a surprise. "We have focused on areas like Misurata, where the humanitarian crisis is well documented, however it is happening throughout Libya, the full extent of the crisis is not known and there is no real idea of (casualty) figures." The United Nations says it has been guaranteed humanitarian access to Misurata, while Britain says it will fund efforts to evacuate thousands of stranded migrant workers by boat from the besieged port city. A Libyan official told Valerie Amos, the UN humanitarian chief, that Muammar Gaddafi's government was willing to set up "safe passage" out of th...

We should look to Bolivia for inspiration Bolivia under President Evo Morales is seeking a radical development model based on equality and environmental sustainability – and there are lessons we can all learn In 2006, I was working at the UN in Mexico City, which happened to be hosting the World Water Forum that year. On the large civil society march (which the risk-averse UN security team had advised staff to stay away from) one sovereign government was represented: Bolivia. The message was that water was a public good, not a private commodity. Water was the emblematic issue at the core of the peaceful revolution in Bolivia that had swept a new and radical government to power just two months earlier. Packed with new ministers who had been at the heart of the mass demonstrations in rejection of the privatisation of urban water, the new administration became one of the first governments in the world to enshrine the right to water in its constitution. Bolivia has got used to s...

"There weapons are GUNs and our's are Civil Disobedience". The poster has a picture of Gandhi implying peaceful struggle and disobedience. University students held demonstration in front of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in New Delhi on 28th March, in solidarity with Arab uprising, and against Saudi brutal invasion in Bahrain in the continued presence of Fifth Fleet of US on Friday. The protest was organized under the banner of Indian People's Solidarity with Arab Uprising. Bahrain has imposed martial law. It has invited troops from Saudi Arabia earlier this month to brutally suppress unrest by pro-democracy protesters. The reporting by western corporate media in general is blatantly communal, divisive and appears to be guided by US and UK foreign policies for it refers to protestors as mostly Shia and Saudi Arabia as Sunni-ruled states. Do these media houses ever report disturbances in the Christian world by designating them as a conflict between catholics and protest...

For me, this is pretty much a “no-brainer” type of statement. While there may have been a period of time when I was in Elementary, Junior High, or High School where I reflexively supported the nuclear industry because “We’re America and we can do everything,” once I actually started thinking seriously about the topic of nuclear power, it became glaringly obvious to me that it is unsupportable. I am not a scientist but as I’ve watched and read as thing have unfolded in Japan, it has been reinforced once again that the scientists are often just as clueless as the rest of us. For every scientist who resigns over design flaws, I would wager there are one hundred who just see it as business as usual (and no, I don’t have anything to back that statement up other than a gut feeling – so we’ll call it a WAG.) Chernobyl. Three Mile Island. Fukushima. These are just the best known few of the nuclear disasters that we are aware of. Yet here we sit, two weeks after the massive earthquake in Ja...

Press Release Participants Endorsed the Statement of Concern on UID Number Seeking Stoppage of the Scheme Patna 21/2/2011: A National Seminar was organized jointly by A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies (ANSISS), Patna, INSAF and Citizen’s Forum for Civil Liberties, New Delhi on “Idea of Unique Identification (UID) Number/ Aadhaar Project” on 21st Feb 2011 at ANSISS, Patna. The chief guest Dr. Usha Ramanathan noted Jurist of Supreme Court, emphasized on the concept of UIDAI. The Unique Identification Authority of India is an agency of the Government of India responsible for implementing the envisioned Multipurpose National Identity Card or Unique Identification card (UID Card) project in India. It was established in February 2009, and will own and operate the Unique Identification Number database. The authority will aim at providing a unique number to all Indians. The authority would provide a database of residents containing very simple data in biometrics. She focused on the...

Press Invite National Seminar on Idea of Unique Identification (UID) Number/Aadhaar Dear Madam/Sir, This is to invite you to attend and cover the first National Seminar on Idea of Unique Identification (UID) Number/ Aadhaar Project on 21st February, 2011 at A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna from 9.30 AM to 4 PM The Seminar will deliberate on Bihar Government’s agreement with UIDAI which was signed on 20 August 2010 along with related issues. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Finance got a ‘Preliminary briefing by the representatives of the Ministry of Planning / Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on the `National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) Bill, 2010' on 11th February, 2011 for the second time. So far UIDAI has failed to satisfy the Parliamentary Committee. This seminar will examine the constitution of UIDAI which was set up by Government of India in January, 2009 as an attached office of the Planning Commission. Prime ...

Press Release Surveillance Architecture, Radio Collar, RFID, PII & UID Number/Aadhaar A Raja, Nandan Nilekani & Sam Pitroda Undermine Parliament & Citizens Rights States, Citizens, Constitution Not Consulted New Delhi, 16/2/2011: If tagging of Indian students with Radio Collar in US is deemed an assault on human rights and is deemed offensive, which it indeed it is, how are proposals of Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations and Nandan Nilekani's UID Number/Aadhaar project that intends to tag all Indian residents acceptable? Both Pitroda and Nilekani work from the premises of Planning Commission of India. In a statement on the matter of Tri-Valley University scam released to media dated 12th February, S.M. Krishna, Union External Affairs Minister, Government of India said, "You will be happy to know that radio tagging has been removed from some students and other cases are being actively pursued....