Kubrick at LACMA
Scaling Mt. Everest
Twenty-five-year-old Raha Moharrak is the first Saudi Arabian woman, and youngest Arab ever, to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. She accomplished the feat with the first Qatari and Palestinian men to ever reach the peak, and an Iranian man.
The group calls itself Arabs with Altitude and the expedition was made in an attempt to raise $1 million for education projects in Nepal.
Image: Raha Moharrak on being “first”. Mt. Everest aerial view via Wikimedia Commons. Select to embiggen.
World Press Freedom Day
Today is World Press Freedom Day, a time to reflect not just on what are traditionally thought of as press freedoms, but also on ordinary citizen’s ability to share and access information via our digital networks.
Via UNESCO
[S]ecuring the safety of journalists continues to be a challenge due to an upward trend in the killings of journalists, media workers, and social media producers. In 2012 alone, UNESCO’s Director-General condemned the killings of 121 journalists, almost double the annual figures of 2011 and 2010. In addition, there continues to be widespread harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrest and online attacks on journalists in many parts of the world. To compound the problem, the rate of impunity for crimes against journalists, media workers and social media producers remains extremely high.
Responding to this overall context of press freedom, WPFD 2013 focuses on the theme of “Safe to Speak: Securing Freedom of Expression in All Media” and puts the spotlight in particular on the issues of safety of journalists, combating impunity for crimes against freedom of expression, and securing a free and open Internet as the precondition for safety online.
Reporters Without Borders’ annual World Press Freedom Index is a good place to explore how press freedoms work — or don’t work — globally. At the top of the list are Finland, Norway and the Netherlands. Down at the bottom are the same three that that were there a year ago: Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.
Freedom House reports that the percentage of the world’s population “living in societies with a fully free press has fallen to its lowest level in over a decade”:
At first glance, it might seem counterintuitive that media freedom is on the decline. After all, in a world in which news is being produced by a broader range of professionals – as well as citizen journalists and bloggers – information is flowing at faster rates than ever before. And with news being transmitted through a greater variety of mediums – including newspapers, radio, television, the internet, mobile phones, flash drives, and social media – one might expect the level of media freedom worldwide to be improving, not worsening.
As noted, press freedom doesn’t just affect professional journalists, but ordinary citizens committing acts of journalism, activists documenting abuses and members of civil society. Take, for instance, four men in Saudi Arabia interrogated over their attempts to launch a human rights organization. The charge against them, according to Amnesty International: ”founding and publicizing an unlicensed organization as well as launching websites without authorization.”
Related, Part 01: Al Arabiya, Iran, Syria ranked among world’s worst countries for press freedom.
Related, Part 02: UNESCO, Pressing for Freedom: 20 years of World Press Freedom Day (PDF).
Images: World Press Freedom Map (top), via Reporters Without Borders. Crime and Unpunishment: Why Journalists Fear for Their Safety (bottom), via UNESCO. Select to embiggen.
Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
On NPR today, a few observations from Syria.
Those of us from The New York Times who have the assignment and the privilege of reporting inside Syria say it often and so now we say it again: None of our coverage would be possible, or even imaginable, without the Syrians who help and host us. For every detail gleaned, every image made, every analysis developed and every understanding deepened there are Syrians who cut path, often at risk and always with great courtesy during their own time of hardship and need. At top, Karam Shoumali, running with a medical kit across a sniper’s alley. Bottom, Abdulkader al Dhon, pulling up a chair to a fire (with furniture for fuel) made by fighters from the Tawhid Brigade. Inside Aleppo during dark days, and cold, wet nights. These two young men have been essential to our work. All credit belongs to them.
Lonestar Round-Up, Austin TX.
Once upon a time, I was a cameraman with a collective known as H-Gun. We made the first two NIN videos, among many other amazing projects. Once of the craziest documented things that happened was this little snafu with some weather balloons and a spring-wound Bell & Howell.
The One Motorcycle Show Portland, eye and ear candy.
Mahalo
wee dram
#picklePROJECT
