BBC Radio 4, 20 March 2011
So many thousands of lives lost, and millions disrupted; Japan’s mighty engines of industry stilled, and widespread anxiety and fear of what damage and death lies ahead from the nuclear menace.
Articles
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Reflections on the 50th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall
William Horsley, former BBC German Correspondent: Live interview broadcast on BBC World Service World Update
The Initiative on Impunity and the Rule of Law
[The] Political Aspects Study, [analyses] the nature of alleged climates of impunity in terms of political and judicial processes, the impact of formal and informal channels used to seek compliance with international norms and commitments, and alternative future courses of action at national and international level.
The Bundesbank’s Doctrine of Discipline
BBC World Service, 1 February 2011
For the Federal Republic of Germany, sound money is seen as a precious birthright. And the modern Bundesbank, when it was created in 1957, was given powerful tools to defend the stability of the D-Mark: strict independence from the politicians in holding down inflation and setting interest rates.
Getting at the truth of Sri Lanka’s civil war
BBC College of Journalism website, 26 July 2010
Who cares – especially when governments make it hard or dangerous to get the story? Should the Western media be doing more in places like Sri Lanka?
A Minute’s Silence to honour killed journalists on World Press Freedom Day 2010
UK National Commission for UNESCO website, May 2010
On Tuesday May 4th, everyone working in the Reuters newsroom in one of the skyscrapers in London’s Canary Wharf observed a minute’s silence to remember journalists killed in the pursuit of their profession. Press Freedom Day spawns countless events—vigils, rallies and debates –in countries around the world. In Britain May the third was a bank holiday—hence the one-day delay.
A Ten-Point Survival Guide To Quality Journalism
Intelligence Squared staged an debate on the Future of News in central London on 24th March. I found ten points in the ensuing discussion that shed light on the prospects for the future of news and journalism on the internet…
Russia strengthens ties with Germany
Germany’s September elections have focussed attention on the country’s strategic energy partnership with Russia, but as international affairs writer William Horsley discusses, other countries are nervous about those unpredictable ties with Moscow.
Twenty Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall: What Became of Press and Political Freedom?
This page is a placeholder for a transcript of the event of the same name held at Chatham House.
Europe: media freedom in retreat
While some member-states violently obstruct media freedom, European Union manipulation conceals truths. A campaigner unveils a disingenuous strategy that’s eroding vital independence.
Viele kleine Leute die in vielen kleinen Orten viele kleine Dinge tun koennen das Gesicht der Welt veraendern
(Many small people, who in many small places do many small things, can alter the face of the world).
That slogan scrawled on the Berlin Wall summed up the huge significance of the moment as thousands of jubilant East Germans scrambled on top of the Wall and hacked at it with pickaxes on the night of November 9, 1989. The message was that freedom of speech and political freedoms are inseparable. The people of Eastern Europe had, virtually as one, rejected the yoke of communist propaganda as well as political oppression, and chosen freedom. For the rest of the world, too, it was an inspiration, fresh proof that free speech and free media are vital building blocks of a free and open society and that they can overcome tyranny. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 and free media blossomed across the whole continent, it seemed as if the victory of free expression was complete. So it is a bitter disappointment now to survey the media landscape of Europe, both East and West, and find that the health and freedom of the media are in a weakened and, in parts, a severely debilitated state.
As next year’s 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall approaches there is still plenty to celebrate in terms of political freedoms and the possibility of pluralism. But the legal constraints and political and commercial pressures on the media have again grown intense and often insidious, especially in the East. Political leaders have grown bolder in making use of every means available to manipulate or control the media in order to consolidate their own power.