Anti-War MPs Give Blair No Respite Over WMD Hunt/New WMW

[Gloria]

Excerpts, links up NOW at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR DECEMBER 17, 2003

1//World Press Review, USA--THE ARAB PRESS ON SADDAM HUSSEIN’S CAPTURE (World Press Review correspondent George Ziyad reviews Arab press reaction to Saddam Hussein’s capture.)



2//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--RUMSFELD AND HIS ‘OLD FRIEND’ SADDAM by Jim Lobe (At last in United States military captivity, ousted former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein will soon mark an important 20th anniversary, the kind of anniversary that brings with it an appreciation of the ironies of life, and politics. His captor, Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, might also recall long-forgotten memories - or memories best forgotten - of what he was doing exactly 20 years ago.)



3//The Independent, UK--ANTI-WAR MPs GIVE BLAIR NO RESPITE OVER WMD HUNT (While Saddam's arrest appeared to swing US public opinion behind the war, Mr Blair found that MPs who opposed the war were in no mood to tone down criticisms of his actions. Peter Kilfoyle, a former defence minister, said: "I don't think this makes a difference for us because the war was about WMD and the threat from them. It might make a difference in America where the war was personalised. "They said they would find weapons immediately after the war. I doubt he has in his memory banks the location of all his weapons. But if they have him under lock and key and they can still not find his weapons it will show that the whole thing was a sham.")



4//The Moscow Times, Russia--THE RACE IS ON FOR THE KREMLIN (While President Vladimir Putin's re-election to a second term is treated as a foregone conclusion, other dilemmas facing Putin are not: Should he run as the candidate from United Russia, the party to which he conspicuously lent his name during the Duma campaign? Or should he run as an independent, to cultivate the sense that he represents the whole country, not just one party, and can transcend ordinary politics?… Putin's approval ratings remain stratospheric, with 78 percent saying they trust him fully and 13 percent saying they mostly do, according to the most recent survey by the independent polling agency VTsIOM-A, in November. However, if Putin's challengers can split more than half of the vote, depriving him of a majority, Putin would be forced into a run-off in April and, Shevtsova said, "his legitimacy would suffer.")



5//Inter Press Service, Italy--‘FREE’ SOCIETIES BATTLE TRICKIER MEDIA WOES (India is often called the world's biggest democracy, but journalists there are increasingly becoming targets for reprisals and police coercion, as well as legal action from state governments. Thailand too is perceived as having a relatively open media, but the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has come under fire for undermining critical media and shrinking the space for independent reportage. The Philippines has a reputation for being among the freest and noisest media in Asia, but it is also there where 14 journalists have been killed since January 2001, many from small publications in the countryside…These trends show that societies that have more room for free media rather than, say, nations like Burma or China are facing more sophisticated, subtler and trickier problems. Threats to media come in many other forms apart from open government control, use of advertising, or physical threats -- or a combination of all of these.)