One would think Putinistan would rate quite highly, and it does, but Iraq is the worst place in the world for bringing the murderers of journalists to justice, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists' study Getting Away with Murder.

The list of the 13 worst from CBC.ca:

• Iraq: 79 unsolved journalist murders in a total population of 28 million (rate of 2.82 murders per million people).
• Sierra Leone: 9 murders among 5.5 million people (rate of 1.64).
• Somalia: 5 murders among 8.2 million people (rate of 0.61).
• Colombia: 20 murders among 45.6 million people (0.44).
• Sri Lanka: 8 murders among 19.6 million people (0.41).
• Philippines: 24 murders among 83.1 million people (0.29).
• Afghanistan: 7 murders among 25.1 million people (0.28).
• Nepal: 5 murders among 27.1 million people (0.19).
• Russia: 14 murders among 143.1 million people (0.10).
• Mexico: 7 murders among 103.1 million people (0.07).
• Bangladesh: 8 murders among 141.8 million people (0.06).
• Pakistan: 8 murders among 155.8 million people (0.05).
• India: 5 murders among 1,094.6 million people (0.01).

From the BBC:

An annual survey of media freedom has reported a mixed picture in East Asia - with some losses and some gains.

The US-based Freedom House organisation says China tightened some restrictions in 2007, but also tolerated more investigative journalism into cases of official corruption.

The report noted gains last year in Thailand and Malaysia, but said Vietnam and Laos continue to fare poorly.

It ranked North Korea as the world's most restricted media environment.

Here's Freedom House's Freedom of the Press 2008 Survey Release.

You can find Freedom House's findings on Canada on page 40 of the Draft Country Reports.

Canada scored 18, the U.S. 17. Finland and Iceland, the media freedom havens, scored nine each.

In comparison, Turkmenistan scored 96, Uzbekistan 92. But if you crave media freedom, North Korea is not the place for you. It scored 98, the worst ranking of any country in the world.

This morning, I got a chance to interview BBC journalist Alan Johnston -- someone I thought I'd never meet in person. Someone that I thought at some points would probably not survive his captivity last year at the hand of militant Islamists in the Gaza Strip.

Anyway, after I was done with the official questions, I let it slip that I had blogged extensively about his case, from the time he went missing until he was freed and beyond (if you don't believe me, look here). I even had up the "Free Alan Johnston" button on my blog.

At this news, his pupils dilated and his body jolted. And then his face broke out in a big smile, and he said, "Oh! Thank you so much!"

Here's another snippet from my CTV.ca story. The set-up is that Johnston's captors gave him a radio, and through that, he was able to hear messages from Brian Keenan and Terry Waite, two fellow Britons who had spent years as hostages in Lebanon in the late 1980s:

"Brian Keenan said things I desperately wanted to hear at that time. He said, 'Hundreds of thousands of people are lighting a candle for you. We are waiting, and we shall not walk away.' And I paced up and down my cell, repeating that again and again and again."

Needless to say, I'm gratified to learn of his obvious and genuine gratitude (almost 10 months after the fact) for what little I did.

If you ever signed the online petition, blogged about Johnston's case in your own little patch of cyberspace -- or even just read about him here and sent him a silent good wish -- I'm sure he'd shake your hand and thank you as well (he seemed like a very decent fellow).

There's a lot of nastiness and injustice in the world, and it can be overwhelming. But when you see a case that strikes a chord with you, please don't stay silent about it. You might never get cross paths with the person you're trying to help, get a direct thanks or even have them learn about your efforts, but I'm sure they will be grateful all the same.

From CTV.ca:

For BBC journalist Alan Johnston, his time as a captive in the Gaza Strip reminds him of the adage that freedom is like air -- you only really notice it when it's gone.

"I had taken everyday freedoms of life completely for granted, as we all do, and I only really noticed their catastrophic loss when they were gone," he told CTV.ca on Wednesday.

"It's a sad thing, but I think you have to have been a prisoner of some kind, your freedom has to have been taken from you completely, for you to completely understand its importance and value and beauty."

From al-Jazeera.net:

Turkish legislators are debating a proposal to soften a law restricting freedom of speech that has been used to prosecute several writers.
 
A vote on the proposed amendment to Article 301 of Turkey's penal code, which bars insults to the Turkish identity or the country's institutions, is expected on Tuesday or early Wednesday.

The ruling party, which proposed the change, has a majority in the 550-seat parliament and the amendment is expected to pass.

Turkey says close to 7,000 people have been prosecuted under that law and its precursor since 2003, including Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel prize winner.
 
A total of 745 were convicted in that period.

Read to the end of this story excerpt.

From the April 28 Moscow Times:

The State Duma passed in a first reading Friday a bill that would allow courts to close media outlets for publishing libelous statements, a law critics say would give authorities an additional tool to crack down on dissent.

The bill would add "dissemination of deliberately false information damaging individual honor and dignity" to the list of offenses for which a media outlet can be shut down.

Pop quiz: This bill is not related to what scurrilous recent act of reportage aimed at the personal life of a major Russian political figure?

Tesco Lotus, a subsidiary of multinational retailer Tesco, is suing Kamol Kamoltrakul, a Thai commentator and academic for his attacks on the chain's expansion within Thailand.

Can you say "libel chill"?

From the Globe and Mail:

The Department of National Defence has produced a guide instructing the military how to justify its arguments for censoring records requested by the public and journalists.

On Sunday, a number of co-ordinated attacks were carried out on U.S. and Afghan military outposts in the Korengal Valley of eastern Afghanistan. Hmm. Who do we know that does stuff like that?

First, a pinch of REM ...

And then a dash of That Petrol Emotion ...

Allan Johnston, who spent nearly four months in captivity in the Gaza Strip, is speaking out on what he sees as a dangerous climate for press freedom.

A tale of sorcery, black magic and loss -- either real or imagined -- from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Read on ... if you dare.

From CBC.ca:

Charges have been dropped against an Australian TV comedy troupe who crashed last year's APEC summit posing as Canadians.

Eleven cast and crew from satirical show The Chaser's War on Everything were charged with breaching a security zone in connection with the prank.

The comedy team got close to U.S. President George W. Bush's hotel by flying the Maple Leaf and claiming to be a Canadian motorcade.

They were found out when Chaser team member Chas Licciardello climbed out of a car dressed as Osama bin Laden.

From the BBC:

A top Taleban commander in Pakistan has halted peace talks with the government, his spokesman says.

Last week Baitullah Mehsud ordered a ceasefire amid reports that he was close to reaching a peace deal with the new government.

But his spokesman says talks have broken down because the government refuses to order troops out of the tribal areas by the Afghan border.

It would seem to me that having Pakistan withdraw its troops from South Waziristan before a deal is reached with Mehsud would provide the militant leader with a significant advantage. But maybe that's just me.

My headline may be a bit misleading. Read on:

However the spokesman said that they did not plan to start fighting again at this stage.

"Taleban remain firm in the ceasefire but Mehsud warned that if the government launched any action his fighters would retaliate," Maulvi Omar said.

Okay, so they're not talking, but they aren't shooting either. My mistake.

Sarah Fulford is the 33-year-old editorial boss of Toronto Life magazine, long considered to be somewhat Rosedaleian in its preoccupations.

So what's with the new emphasis on topics near and dear to 20 and 30-somethings?

From the Guardian blurb: He quit his job to continue covering the Afghanistan conflict, got shot during an ambush but went back again six months later. Photojournalist John D McHugh explains why he has returned once more.

For untold millenia, the Earth could keep the carbon content of its atmosphere roughly in balance. But the carbon spree that began with the Industrial Revolution has thrown that process wildly out of whack, claims a new study.

From the NYT:

With print revenue down and online revenue growing, newspaper executives are anticipating the day when big city dailies and national papers will abandon their print versions.

That day has arrived in Madison, Wis.

Barry Bearak of the New York Times dishes on his four days in incarceration while trying to cover the elections in Zimbabwe.

As I sat in a local Starbucks about 4:30 p.m., I did see streetcars heading eastward on Queen St. I took that to be tangible evidence that the great transit strike of 2008 was indeed over.

As public-sector strikes go, I'll take 10 transit strikes for every summer garbage strike. :)

However, I didn't get abandoned by the transit system at midnight on a Friday. My employer, CTV.ca News, was very generous.

And as this Toronto Star article noted, the people who get hurt the worst by a transit strike are those who can afford it the least -- students and the poor:

BBC reporter James Rodgers got to go on a rare trip inside Chechnya, a place the Kremlin insists is "getting back to normal." However, Rodgers sees fertile ground for the seeds of future conflict.

Had no problems getting a cab this morning (mind you, I did call at 6:15 a.m.).

Coming home, the cab co. said it could be up to a 30-minute wait. When I left my desk 20 minutes later, there was a cab waiting for me.

The high end of the DVP (401 down to Eglinton) was congested, but I didn't see traffic armageddon out there. The 401 wasn't congested. Neither was the Gardiner.

If the TTC workers were going to spring a surprise strike, then perhaps the weekend was the best time to do it.

My weekend just got considerably more disrupted.

The Amalgamated Transit Union has voted down the contract agreement reached last weekend and will be going on strike as of midnight if a new offer isn't made.

I'm going to bed, but check CTV.ca Toronto for updates.

From the Guardian:

Becoming a journalist is nearly impossible "if you don't have rich parents", according to Orwell Prize winner Johann Hari.

The 29-year-old Independent columnist, whose first media job on the New Statesman in 2001 earned him £9,000 ($18,141.30) a year, spoke out as he received the Orwell Prize for political writing last night.

"Basically, if you don't have rich parents, it is increasingly impossible to become a journalist in Britain – and that is really bad, not just for social justice but for the newspapers themselves," Hari told the audience at the Orwell Prize as he accepted the £3,000 award.

"When I graduated, I suddenly realised that if you want to become a journalist, you have to work unpaid in central London for as long as two years – and I just couldn't afford it. There was no way I could."

In her book No Logo, author Naomi Klein touched on the theme that cultural industries jobs in Canada, including journalism, were defaulting to those who had the financial support to accept unpaid internships.

I've heard of jobs in T.O. that pay in the low $30K range, which doesn't buy you much of a life in the Big Smoke.

From the NYT:

President Hamid Karzai strongly criticized the British and American conduct of the war here on Friday, insisting in an interview that his government be given the lead in policy decisions.

Mr. Karzai said that he wanted American forces to stop arresting suspected Taliban and their sympathizers, and that the continued threat of arrest and past mistreatment were discouraging Taliban from coming forward to lay down their arms.

From the Globe and Mail:

Russia's super-rich love to flaunt their wealth. Soon they will have a magazine called Snob to help them.

Mikhail Prokhorov - whose wealth is estimated at about $22-billion - plans to spend $150-million setting up a magazine, website and television station called Snob, the general director of the new venture told Reuters this week.

Is it simply a matter of supply and demand being out of whack, to be balanced by letting market forces work their magic? This  analysis for the BBC suggests it's a bit more complicated than that.

From the Globe and Mail:

Dozens of amateur videos and photographs, willingly provided by an outraged public, have helped police in Montreal make fresh arrests in the wake of Monday's hockey riot.

In a modern twist on the age-old art of snitching, citizens are e-mailing photos, offering amateur videos and turning to police websites to help investigators identify individuals involved in the downtown fracas.

Police credit public co-operation for boosting the number of riot-related arrests yesterday to 23.

For example, police posted six new photos of rioters on a department website yesterday, some showing vandals damaging a police car. All were provided by people mixed in with the throngs of revellers marking the Canadiens' first-round playoff series victory.

RSF.org is reporting that Russian authorities kicked the Globe and Mail's Jane Armstrong out of Chechnya a week ago, purportedly for not having her papers in order.

Here's the news release.

(h/t to Canadian Journalist)

From the BBC:

A top Taleban commander in Pakistan has ordered his followers to stop all attacks in the country.

Baitullah Mehsud is the man the Pakistani authorities say ordered the killing of Benazir Bhutto.

Pamphlets containing his order appeared in tribal areas along the Afghan border. Mehsud said anyone found violating the order would be punished.

Pakistan's new government has said it will deal with Islamic militancy through dialogue and development.

I wonder if it will be much different than this truce?

Meanwhile, the NYT reports that Pakistan is close to reaching a deal with the militants.

Jeff Rubin, chief economist for CIBC World Markets, predicted today that oil prices will top US$200 per barrel by 2012. Gas? Get ready to pay $2.25 a litre by then.

From Globe and Mail Update:

In a report titled Food Inflation: Coming to a Grocery Store Near You, (CIBC World Markets economist Avery) Shenfeld noted that while consumers are seeing higher costs of grain prices in food such as bakery products and pasta, that has been offset by stable or falling prices for other products, partly because of the strong Canadian dollar.

“Even relative to our closest neighbour, food prices have been remarkably tame in the last year,” Mr. Shenfeld said. “But after looking at what's behind that exceptional gap, it's clear that Canada's good luck on food prices is likely to run out in 2009.”

You might want to revisit this April 1, 2007 post: The Green Revolution's Outer Limits.

The BBC story looked at whether the world can produce enough food to feed the estimated nine billion expected to inhabit it by mid-century -- in other words, is a second act to the Green Revolution of the 1960s possible? Barring an unforeseen scientific breakthrough, it would appear unlikely.

There are other parts to the series:

March 28, 2007: Tiny island with a global warning

March 31, 2007: Obesity fueled by cheaper food

This page archives the podcasts of the Feeding the World series.