Aid Workers, Intelligence Gathering and Media Self-Censorship

The relationship between aid workers and intelligence gathering in conflict zones and the media response has been highlighted by several recent events in Kosovo, Somalia and East Timor. The over-riding issue is a critical one for journalists; in times of conflict do the principles of balanced reporting suffer to support the 'home' side

Media And Government Relations In Papua New Guinea

All is not well with news media in Papua New Guinea. Media and government relations are stressed, a situation adverse to the country's development. Media organisations have to deal with operational difficulties, threats against editorial freedom, and harassment or physical danger experienced by journalists. Yet there are positive factors providing hope for the future, especially that key element, freedom to publish, which goes together with a habit of openess in public life as part of the national culture. That is the main finding of a study made during a working visit to Papua New Guinea

Jazz, Drama, and a Librarian: Advocating Against Book Censorship in Public Schools

Each year, books are challenged and/or banned from public school libraries across the country and most recently there has been an increased number of books with diverse characters banned from public schools. Removing books from public schools restricts students’ abilities to read and reflect upon these texts. Students have a right to access books depicting characters and events that they can relate to and characters and events that they can learn from. These books can become "mirrors" to the reader or "windows" to the world around the reader. Administrators, teachers, librarians, students, parents, and community members should advocate for access to books of all types for all students

Readstricted: Censorship in Public School Libraries

Introduction: For as long as texts have been printed, they have also been subjected to censorship. Each year, books are challenged and/or banned from public school libraries

Who is the real target? Media response to controversial investigative reporting on corporations

In the past decade, corporate targets of American investigative reporting have deployed new legal and public relations counter‐attacks on journalists. Although corporations have largely directed their efforts at managing subsequent news coverage of these controversies, there has been no systematic study of how the rest of the media cover them. We examine elite print reaction to two investigative reports that were publicly challenged by their targets: ABC\u27s 1992 Primetime Live report on Food Lion supermarkets and NBC\u27s 1992 Dateline NBC story on General Motors\u27 trucks. The case studies and content analyses of print coverage of these controversies suggest that greater attention should be paid to how media response to investigative reporting can influence its ability to act as a watchdog on corporate power. In both cases, corporate targets of investigative reporting used litigation and public relations to divert media attention from reporters\u27 charges to questions of newsgathering ethics. Ironically, we find that the more that news organizations under attack defend their right to muckrake, the more they risk the rest of the news media burying the disputed story under discussion of First Amendment rights and media ethics. The study draws conclusions for theories of investigative reporting\u27s contribution to public discourse and policy making

Hemingway, Moravia e il fascismo. La “fortuna” dello scrittore americano in Italia tra gli anni ’20 e gli anni ’60

Among the Italian responses to Hemingway’s death, Alberto Moravia’s stands out for his condemnation of the US writer’s cult of his publica persona. Comparing Hemingway to D’Annunzio, Moravia comes very close to calling Hemingway himself if not a Fascist, certainly someone whose values were close to Fascist ones. Moravia’s essay sparked a lively debate, with many Italian critics and writers coming out in defense of Hemingway, even when they may have been critical of specific aspects of his work. The essay sketches that debate, and then goes on to analyze what were, historically, Hemingway’s own pronouncements on Fascism, Mussolini, and D’Annunzio. The historical record shows that the American writer was unambiguously hostile to Fascism, and as proven both by the banning of Farewell to Arms and by his exclusion from a literary jury that should have chosen the best American books for the Italian public, Hemingway was anathema to Mussolini and his associates. It is interesting and at the same time puzzling that, during the debate that followed Moravia’s article, hardly anyone referred to the historical archive in any depth. While this debate may be typical of Cold War intellectual frays and by now dated, it is worth remembering that criticism of Hemingway has been often marked by political overtones both in the past and in the present. Moreover, the importance of Hemingway’s work for Italian writers and the intensity of the debate surrounding the merits of his artistic accomplishments would suggest that he may well deserve to be included in the canon of twentieth-century Italian literature