Morocco central bank holds benchmark interest rate steady

2009-12-23

Morocco's central bank on Tuesday (December 22nd) kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 3.25%, MAP reported. The Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) statement from Rabat noted that "inflation remained moderate, notwithstanding some slight fluctuations linked to the volatility of fresh food prices". Last March, BAM cut the key interest rate from 3.5%.

UN website targets Maghreb women

2009-12-23

The United Nations on Tuesday (December 22nd) launched a new website aimed at enhancing women's political participation in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) and the Tunisia-based Center of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR) organized the womenpoliticalparticipation.org website to make educational and training resources available to Maghreb women in French, Arabic and English. Ahead of the site's launch, regional experts met in Algiers on Sunday for a CAWTAR and UN-ISTRAW forum on quotas for female office-holders.

Western Sahara informal talks could resume in January

2009-12-23

UN Western Sahara envoy Christopher Ross is trying to organize a second round of informal talks early next year, MAP quoted a UN spokesperson as saying at a press briefing on Monday (December 21st). Morocco and the Polisario held their first informal meeting last August in Austria. As parties to the 34-year-old conflict, Algeria and Mauritania also sent delegations to the "restricted" session.

Tunisian journalists fear fall in press freedom, professional ethics

Members of the Tunisian journalists' union recently raised concerns about an alleged decline in ethics in their field, while another group of media professionals claimed that press freedoms were under fire.

By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia from Tunis — 23/12/09

Two different groups of Tunisian journalists are raising the alarm – one about what they call a deterioration of press freedoms, the other about an alleged rash of unprofessional press attacks on public figures.

Last week-end, the ethics committee of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists condemned personal attacks on national, media and political figures.

There is a critical difference between exercising freedom of expression and attacking the personal character of a citizen or a journalist, the union committee declared.

In its December 19th statement, the group also reminded Tunisian journalists that "libel and defamation is a crime punishable under Tunisian law, and … a stark violation of the profession's code of ethics".

The union's call came a week after Tunisian journalists and media activists, concerned by alleged "restrictions and obstacles in all stages of their work", created the National Committee for the Defense of Freedom of Expression and the Press in Tunisia.

In a statement released on December 10th, the latter group claimed that authorities' measures had created "unilateral, stagnant and backward media" that act as a "totalitarian tool for propaganda".

The activists' committee also called for the immediate release of detained journalists and "putting an end to the crackdown on opposition and independent newspapers". It also demanded that the government stop "interfering" with the official union and allow it to hold its legal convention independently.

Zied Heni, a journalist and one of the committee's founders, said Tunisia had witnessed a "serious deterioration" of freedom of the press.

Earlier this year, new government-mandated distribution rules prompted three Tunisian opposition parties to stop publishing for a week. In a press statement published on November 10th, the papers claimed they had been barred from collecting their editions from printing houses. The editors claimed this had forced printers to deliver copies straight to distribution companies, making it easy to tamper with delivery and carry out disguised confiscations.

On top of these allegations, a number of prominent cases involving journalists followed Tunisia's October elections, including the jailing of Taoufik Ben Brik and attempts to quash blogging. Furthermore, on November 2nd, the opposition Ettajdid Movement accused the government of confiscating copies of its paper Attariq Aljadid.

At the time, authorities declined to comment on Ettajdid's complaint, and in a November 6th press conference, Tunisian Justice Minister Bechir Tekkari said that journalists "who commit crimes are still punishable under the law and can't use their profession as excuse to get away with what they did".

Attariq Aljadid writer Sofiene Chourabi told Magharebia last week that the recent show of solidarity among journalists was encouraging.

"I think that the partial consensus that we saw on the launch of the call for media freedom … shows the extent of the danger the press is facing in Tunisia", he said.

Chourabi called on the government to get rid of restrictions on press freedoms and act on its promises to develop the media sector.

For his part, journalist Faten Ghanmi said that self-censorship was now just as destructive to the media as state-sponsored censorship.

"Transparency in the field of journalism requires avoiding censorship, especially the self-imposed censorship that the authorities impose in an indirect way," Ghanmi said, adding that journalism "needs to be rid of these controlling factors before journalists can defend themselves against other pressures".

Afghanistan another Vietnam, says captive US soldier

An American trooper in Taliban captivity says that the United States has lost its grip on the Afghan war, urging the American people to help stop the 'nonsense.'

"I'm afraid to tell you that this war has slipped from our fingers and it's just going to be our next Vietnam unless the American people stand up and stop all this nonsense," said US soldier Bowe Robert Bergdahl in a video released by the militants on Friday, the AFP news agency reported. American media outlets, however, say the GI shown in the video is yet to be identified as Bowe.

The private first class went missing from his base in an eastern Afghanistan Taliban stronghold of Paktya near the volatile Pakistani border in June. The 23-year-old is the first US soldier to be captured by the Taliban over more than eight years of US-led counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan.

The US defense officials established the soldier's identity in a similar video in July in which he likewise called for the troops "withdrawal" and addressed the American people, saying that "you have the power to make our government bring them home."

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP that the soldier "is not being tortured or tormented" by the militants. According to a CNN report, Bowe also insisted in the recent video that he was being treated humanely.

Ahmadi said the Taliban had released the second video "to show to the world that this is an invasion of Afghanistan, they (the foreign forces) are invaders, we want to show we are winning this war and the invaders will be either killed or captured like this."

The country is struggling with unprecedented violence despite the presence of around 113,000 US-led forces. The war-stricken population of Afghanistan has lost thousands of lives as a result of the war between the Taliban insurgents and various foreign forces.

While US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton insisted in July that "we are going to do everything we can to get him," Ahmadi says "We are ready to release him in exchange for the release of our prisoners but the Americans are not ready to release our prisoners in exchange for their soldier."

Iran cleric slams Israel for harvesting organs

After the Israeli military admitted to harvesting organs from dead Palestinians, a senior Iranian cleric has voiced outrage at Israel's organ theft.

"Zionist [Israeli] media and press have also admitted to this. Stealing organs from the bodies of Palestinians is the business of the usurping Zionist regime," said Tehran's Interim Friday Prayers Leader Seyyed Ahmad Khatami.

Over the weekend, Israel's Channel 2 TV broadcast an interview conducted in 2000 with the then head of Israel's Abu Kabir forensic institute, Dr. Jehuda Hiss who revealed that forensic pathologists harvested organs from corpses, including Palestinian bodies in the 1990s.

The Israeli military confirmed the report but claimed that "This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer."

The cleric pointed to Israel's moves to prevent sending humanitarian aid to the people of the Gaza Strip and said Israel is the worst violator of human rights.

Ayatollah Khatami urged international courts to bring Israeli leaders to trial for their criminal acts.

The Israeli massacre of Palestinians in December 2008-January 2009, which left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead, continues to trigger international disquiet.

A notable high-profile condemnation of the raids came when a UN-commissioned fact-finding mission issued a 575-page report mostly highlighting the Israeli aggression against the people in the beleaguered coastal sliver.

The report documented deliberate targeting of centers, such as schools and mosques, known to be holding Palestinian civilians, by the Israeli army.

More Filipinos evacuated amid volcanic eruption fears

Mount Mayon in Central Philippines has spewed red lava and is venting sulfur dioxide gas and other toxic emissions as 50,000 people have been evacuated.

The activity comes after two weeks of earthquakes, incandescent lava and minor ash falls indicated that an eruption is imminent.

The evacuation of Albay province residents to emergency shelters began in mid-December as the Director of the Philippines Institute of Volcanology and Seismology warned that a volcanic eruption is looming.

Of the 37 volcanoes in the Philippines, 18 are still active. The most well known volcanoes in the country are Mount Pinatubo, the Taal volcano and Mount Mayon, all of which are located in the northern island of Luzon.

Mount Mayon, the most active volcano in Philippines, has erupted 47 times since 1616, killing at least 1,300 people and destroying homes and communities. Its most recent eruptions took place in 1947, 1984 and 1993.