PRESS COUNCIL OF INDIA PASSES ORDER IN COMPLAINT AGAINST CNN-IBN

[ The complaint against CNN-IBN is as follows. The Press Council of India order is in jpg format in left side of blog]

To

The Hon'ble Chairman

Press Council of India

Farid Court House

Copernicous Marg

New Delhi 110 001

In the matter of :

N.Nandhivarman

General Secretary

Dravida Peravai

39, Montorsier Street

Puducherry 605001

-vs-

CNN IBN ,

through, Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai

Express Press Trade Tower

Plot No. 15-16 # Film City

Sector ' 16A # Noida # U.P.

Pin 201 301

AND

In the matter of :

Complaint under Press Council Act

1. I am the General Secretary of Dravida Peravai, a registered political party which had taken up numerous causes and carried out campaigns, which were highlighted in the media, hence we have great respect for the fourth estate, which remains as one of the pillars of our vibrant democracy.

2. In the past when our party fought against land mafia, all print media and electronic media carried our news except one little known group, which posted a news to slander me, and the Press Council of India, headed by Justice Sawant, at that time, admonished that daily, for that judgment redeeming my honour, we always laud the fair play of Press Council of India, in deliverance of justice.

3. For one who had immense faith in the independence of Indian free press, a shock was administered by a prestigious television channel CNN-IBN, which having decided to telecast a programme and made promotional news about it, but suddenly shelved it in eleventh hour. Though it is the prerogative of a channel to telecast or not to telecast a programme, having aired that it will be telecast and backtracking, casts serious doubts about pressures brought to kill news and this is a serious issue involving the Freedom of Press, hence this complaint.

4. The "TV 18 Network" of CNN-IBN, on their own decided to tell the people at large about the on-going happenings of Sri Aurobindo Ashram to ensure corrective measures are carried out to uphold the dignity of ashram. Accordingly, Mr. V.K.Sashi Kumar, Editor Investigations, Ms. Neeti Tandon, Correspondent ; Ms. Kavitta Sharma , Associate Producer and others conducted a through investigation within ashram and outside ashram ; impartially views of Trustees and other officials were taken as well as outsiders views ' and faithfully materials and evidences were collected, mainly as deponent understands , the old press materials were relied upon with unbiased attitude and deliberations of some of those journalists were also inspired their confidence. Sri Aurobindo Ashram is an institution of international fame and repute ' and CNN-IBN is also a global TV network, thus the authenticity of materials and documents relied upon to prepare the program were beyond any iota of doubt, then only the CNN-IBN decided to telecast.

5. Petitioner came to know, that CNNIBN is working on this program for about six months ' they were very cautious since it is associated with the name of Saint Aurobindo , and thus the whole thing seems to have been scrutinized repeatedly , at different stages and finally with the approval of Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai, Chief Editor, it was telecasted from 14^th March, 2008 onwards till 15^th March 2008 evening that this 30 minute program would be telecasted on 15.03.08 at 09.30 pm. The promo was telecast half-hourly in CNN-IBN channel on 15.03.08. Perhaps, in program related news, it was released in news papers also that such a program would be telecasted. The program was named as "Divine trap". But to the surprise of all, without any announcement, that program was dropped. No reason or explanation was offered by CNN-IBN in their channel. A CD of the promo of "Divine trap" as telecast by CNN-IBN is made annexures "A".

6. People have a right to know, for what reason that "Divine trap" was not telecasted. CNN-IBN has a positive obligation to inform people, why even after telecasting such a promo about "Divine trap" ' it was not telecasted. News media cannot kill a story when serious charges were made in promo telecasted for nearly one and half days and to take people for granted.

7. A local Tamil investigative newspaper Makkal Manasatchi, which means People's Conscience released the back ground story about the news of CNN-IBN releasing the promo, "Divine trap" with photographs and stopping the telecast in eleventh hour. This journal had sought the channel to explain the reasons for withdrawing the telecast without telling valid reasons to Indian public.

A copy in original, with English rendering, is made annexures "B".

In such premises, it is humbly prayed for:

(a) an investigation into the matter why the program was stopped just about four hours before the scheduled telecast ;

(b) issuance of show-cause notice ;

(c) pass necessary Order to telecast the program with prior notice , or to give reasons in public why that was not telecasted ;

Dated : 02 June, 2008

Puducherry

(N. Nandhivarman)

Petitioner

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor has told the BBC he will continue to push for Sudan’s leader to be charged with war crimes.

Luis Moreno Ocampo said there was strong evidence that President Omar al-Bashir was behind attacks on civilians in Darfur province.

The Sudanese government has rejected the allegations, saying the ICC’s case threatens peace efforts in Darfur.

A number of countries want the UN to block the attempt to indict Mr Bashir.

WHERE OUR SCIENTISTS ARE HEADING?

Dravida Peravai feels that all research in science is meant to help humanity and unfortunately patent regime promotes profits of companies and not serves the community. While we read this BBC story, for a while it flashed in our memory that during the BJP-NDA rule at Center Gomutra Distillate got US patent. If Morarji Desai had been alive some Government would have got patent to human urine too.

BJP DRIVE TO PATENT COW URINE and COWDUNG

Times of India report stated "Cow urine has been found to enhance the effect of antibiotics. A composition by Indian scientists using cow urine distillate to enhance the antimicrobial effect of the antibiotic present in the formulation has been granted a US patent. This finding could have a significant impact on drug usage. The novel use of the distillate could help reduce the dosage of antibiotics, drugs and anti cancer agents while increasing the efficiency of absorption of anti-biotic and other drugs.

Union HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi who announced the US patent at a function on July of 2002 said the patent demonstrated the use of cow urine distillate as an active enhancer for anti infective and anti cancer agents. The patent No 6410059 was given on June 25th .

There are lot of medicinal plants in India, and in each food item of our usage more particularly in South, the saying is food itself is medicine. Research or patenting any of these had never been on the agenda of BJP governments. Take for example our neem, which is planted everywhere in China, to extract and market neem based products. During the NDA rule being introduced by Comrade George Fernandes to Planning Commission Member Dr.S.B.Gupta, I submitted a plan to plant the Himalayan Yew trees all over Himalayas. These trees were grown in Meghalaya, and the compound of these trees had anti cancer properties. One kilo of those compound extracted from many trees had a value in crores in international markets. These trees were regularly smuggled through Burma to international markets. Such trees can grow in Himalayan region or in such climate. I suggested that all the tribal and other indigenous people and all villagers of that region irrespective of caste or creed be provided with saplings and encouraged to plant these trees all over Himalayas. Those people must be conferred with the right to sell these trees once grown, so that within a decade or so, each family can earn lakhs or crores and come out of poverty. Comrade George Fernandes recalled his first trip by flight over Himalayas and the contrast he saw flying over Himalayas as Defense Minister. He said in those days full of green cover was there, and felling of trees had done havoc to the ecology of the region. My plan was discussed in Planning Commission and an idea emerged to create a Himalayan Authority to save the ecology of Himalayas. But in mid stream, some sadist among bureaucrats killed this scheme by saying India alone cannot create an institution to save Himalayas, but other countries surrounding Himalayas should be brought in and a Trans National Authority be created. This is how our bureaucrats bury good schemes that will wipe poverty, empower economically our poor, and save our ecology. If only Comrade George Fernandes was Prime Minster, I could have broken the beauracratic hurdles. Even this deliberation in Planning Commission was because of him and his proximity with Mr.Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a good man in bad company, as Dr.Kalaignar M.Karunanithi used to describe.

The religious frenzy that drove Murli Manohar Joshi to patent cow's urine also made the then Animal Husbandry Minister of BSP-BJP coalition government of Uttar Pradesh send lorry loads of cow dung to Bhaba Atomic Research Centre in Trivandrum to examine the power of cow dung to shield people from nuclear radiation. I jokingly wrote a guest editorial in Tamil daily Maalai Bhoomi, that if western powers threw nuclear bombs at us we can defend by throwing cow dung on them. Atom Bomb versus Cow dung Bomb is the title of that editorial.

This incident illustrates the researches BJP is interested in and the Patents India gets. There is an article in BBC on Patents which is given below, which prompted me to say that in all research humanity should ultimately benefit.

Patent system ’stifling science’

By James Morgan Science reporter, BBC News

Life-saving scientific research is being stifled by a “broken” patent system, according to a new report. “Blocking patents” are delaying advances in cancer medicine and food crops, says the Canada-based Innovation Partnership, a non-profit consultancy. The full benefits of synthetic biology and nanotechnology will not be realized without urgent reforms to encourage sharing of information, they say. Their findings will be reported next week to UK policymakers and NGOs. The report is compiled by the Innovation Partnership’s International Expert Group on Biotechnology, Innovation and Intellectual Property.

It cites examples of medical advances which have been delayed from reaching people in need - in both the developed and developing world. These include HIV/Aids drugs and cancer screening tests. In pharmacy, we no longer see much discovery - we see firms playing safe and holding onto their turf

Pat Mooney, ETC Group

The authors offer guidelines for a transition from “Old IP” to “New IP”, in which companies, researchers and governments recognize that sharing information is mutually beneficial. “If we are to turn the atoms of publicly funded discovery into molecules of innovation… we have to make sure research avenues stay open,” said the report’s lead author, Professor Richard Gold. “That doesn’t mean there will be no patents. It simply means that patents don’t become a barrier to early stage research. “We do not want to end up in the same situation with nanotechnology that we are in with genetics.”

Fortress IP

The traditional view is that strong patent protection stimulates innovation, reassuring companies that it is safe to invest in research without fear of being stung by rivals. Under this “old” model of intellectual property (IP), biotech firms raced to file a “fortress” of patents around newly discovered genes, closing off avenues of research for their competitors. But this strategy is ultimately counter-productive for both industry and consumers, argues the report, not least because it deters grass roots research in universities. Work on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that can cause breast cancer has been held up by legal disputes over patents held on the genes by Myriad Genetics, a biotech firm based in Utah, US. Meanwhile, patients in European countries were denied access to the cancer screening kits, because national health services were unwilling to meet the cost. The Myriad case is “an anatomy of old IP gone wrong”, said Dr Gold, Professor of Intellectual Property Law at McGill University in Montreal.

“Myriad is not the exception - it is the rule. Others are following and will continue to follow, unless we drastically change things.” To facilitate sharing of information, he believes companies should be encouraged to form “patent pools”, allowing them to cross-license their technologies without losing out on royalties. An example is the pool established by the international partnership Unit aid to provide HIV patients in developing countries with access to affordable anti-retroviral drugs.

Partnerships

Governments should develop public-private partnerships to conduct early stage research, and seek other ways to encourage innovation - via tax credits, for instance. Meanwhile, patent offices must standardize their information gathering and do more to help firms in developing countries gain access to accurate patent information, the report recommends.

Reform now would ensure that society feels the full benefit of new fields such as synthetic biology, a discipline that could lead to cells with novel genomes which perform useful functions, such as making bio-fuels or absorbing greenhouse gases. Dr Craig Venter, the man who led the private sector effort to sequence the human genome, has already raised eyebrows by applying to patent the method he plans to use to create a “synthetic organism”. Fears that these patents may be too broad have been raised by the ETC Group, which campaigns for the reform of biotech patenting. “The patenting system is not functioning. It is more of a barrier than an incentive,” said Pat Mooney, the organization's executive director. “In pharmacy, we no longer see much discovery - we see firms playing safe and holding onto their turf."Meanwhile, in nanotechnology, we have seen some dangerously broad patents, which cut off whole areas of research." Patent offices must get up to speed with new areas of science, so they know exactly how much they are giving away.”

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7632318.stm

Published: 2008/09/24 08:56:10 GMT

Australian Apology: Lessons for Sri Lanka

[Editorial, Eelam Nation]

"A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, .."–the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd on 13 February 2008.

If Nelson Mandela was the greatest statesman of the twentieth century then Kevin Rudd the prime minister of Australia has all the makings of one for the twenty first century. His speech in the Australian Parliament on 13 February tendering the apology to the stolen generation of the Australian Aboriginal people is a study in the paradigms of integrity, democracy, majoritarianism, leadership and statesmanship. President Rajapakse of Sri Lanka and his coterie may not aspire to hold a candle to Kevin Rudd ever in the future, but it will do well to seriously consider these aspects for future reference if need be .

In the feature section is reproduced the full text of Kevin Rudd's speech

From 1910 to the 1970s, between 10 and 30 per cent of Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their mothers and fathers. As a result, up to 50,000 children were forcibly taken from their families?a kind of abduction and or disappearance– but not exactly of the Sri Lankan white van kind.

The Australians, most amongst them white skinned, speaking English and playing some cricket should not be construed as imperialists as some sections of the Sri Lankan ruling alliance are wont to do. Not all white skinned people including albinos and even Norwegians are imperialists. Some highly civilized Sri Lankan nationalists have even questioned the Australian temerity to play cricket at their level of civilization and culture. Disparagingly referred to as a convict nation, Australia is just 220 years old, but with the strongest democracy in the world, in contrast to Sri Lanka that boasts of a Buddhist Sinhala civilization of a 2300 year vintage and devoid of democracy by any stretch of imagination. Periodic elections to elect a president and the Parliament on a platform of how least the Tamils should be accommodated by an ethnic majority who think that they are born to rule over the Tamils, to haphazardly impose their will do not make it a democracy, despite the repeated assurances given by its president, diplomats and foreign ministers, that it is the oldest democracy in Asia. The Sri Lankan state with its record of injustices and atrocities meted out with regularity to the Tamil people to this day has nothing to offer in this regard except its brand of homegrown barbarism.

The national population of the Aboriginal people, last recorded in Australia was at 314,120 people corresponding to only 1.5 percent of the total Australian population. This excludes 28,744 Torres Strait Islanders. The apology was directed towards the stolen generation representing only 0.2 percent of the Australian population. "Last year I made a commitment to the Australian people that if we formed the next government of the Commonwealth we would in parliament say sorry to the Stolen Generations. Today I honour that commitment":said Rudd. This Australian version of the Mahinda Chintanaya assuring an infinitesimal minority in the Australian electorate, made during the prime minister John Howard era was fraught with the risk of depressing his chances and making himself less popular with the Australians and prejudicing his political position.

This apology was given in the backdrop of 65 percent voting against it at a national poll held a few days prior to the speech in Parliament. Rudd's move however has since had a positve impact on the Australians. Within one week of the apology not only did the approval rate for the apology increase but also an almost universal endorsement of Rudd's statesmanship and leadership was recorded in his personal approval rating as preferred prime minister at a national poll that rose to seventy percent, an all time high since 1921 for a prime minister.

Evincing his staesmsnship and calling for a bi partisn effort, Rudd had this to say in his speech: "The mood of the nation on Indigenous policy and politics is now very simple. The nation is calling on us, the politicians, to move beyond our infantile bickering, our point-scoring and our mindlessly partisan politics and elevate at least this one core area of national responsibility to a rare position beyond the partisan divide".

Amidst tears of joy and sorrow(to be reminded of the past) , the Aboriginal people, the oldest living culture, accepted the apology with magnamity reciprocating the sincerity with which it was offered. The national question in Sri lanka is a living problem not only to the Tamil people but also to the Sinhalese. The Tamils do not expect an apology but they certainly expect an equitable solution lined with inegrity, leadership and statesmanship before it is too late. As to whether any Sri Lankan government could rise to that level is as difficult a question as the national question itself.

Eelam Nation Team!

DRAVIDA PERAVAI WROTE TO

AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER

[eelam nation article prompted us to write to Australian PM on 1^st march 2008]

Hon KEVIN RUDD M.P

Prime Minister of Australia and President Australian Labour Party

Respected Prime Minister

We from India, particularly our political party of Tamils wishes to place on record our heartfelt appreciation for your noble gesture towards indegenous people and your policy places you as one among the greatest leaders of mankind with broadmind and clear cut vision for future.We are proud to live in a time when you are living to elevate the consciousness of the political class, which is despised in many countries.We quote your words that gave us the innermost urge to write to you.

"A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, .."–the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd on 13 February 2008.

"The mood of the nation on Indigenous policy and politics is now very simple. The nation is calling on us, the politicians, to move beyond our infantile bickering, our point-scoring and our mindlessly partisan politics and elevate at least this one core area of national responsibility to a rare position beyond the partisan divide".

Dravida Peravai is a socialist party which craves to have party to party level contacts, not for any benefit, but to know your vision for better future for mankind and to draw inspiration towards shaping the political agenda in our country.

With Regards

Yours fraternally

N.Nandhivarman

General Secretary

By PAUL COLLIER

Published: September 21, 2008

Lusaka, Zambia

Still, Zambia is diverging from the rest of mankind. Its tax system has until last month been so lenient that most of the new copper profits have gone to the foreign companies that now own the mines. And the political and economic collapse of neighboring Zimbabwe has meant a loss of trade.

Zambians remain in the "bottom billion" of the earth's poorest people ? those whom Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, declared would be the focus of development efforts for 2008. If the U.N., whose General Assembly convenes today, really rises to this challenge, how can it help the countries in the bottom billion? Presumably by more vigorous pursuit of its Millennium Development Goals, whose shaky progress toward ending poverty by 2015 is now subject to mid-term review.

The Millennium Development Goals have been a major improvement on the unfocused agenda for poverty that preceded them, but the world has changed radically since they were announced in 2000. And the assumptions on which they are based need to be rethought.

The World Bank has just raised the bean count of global poverty to 1.4 billion people, from just under a billion. It had previously overestimated the level of Chinese and Indian per capita incomes, so the count now shows that the number of poor Chinese and Indians far exceeds the number of poor Africans. But this is misleading because Chinese and Indian incomes are rising far faster and more surely than African incomes. The big difference between a poor Asian household and an equally poor African one is hope, not necessarily for the present generation of adults but for their children.

Hope makes a difference in people's ability to tolerate poverty; parents are willing to sacrifice as long as their children have a future. Our top priority should be to provide credible hope where it has been lacking. The African countries in the bottom billion have missed out on the prolonged period of global growth that the rest of the world has experienced. The United Nations' goal should not be to help the poor in fast-growing and middle-income countries; it should do its utmost to help the bottom billion to catch up. Anti-poverty efforts should be focused on the 60 or so countries ? most of them in Africa ? that are both poor and persistently slow-growing.

A further weakness with the Millennium Development Goals is that they are devoid of strategy; their only remedy is more aid. I am not hostile to aid. I think we should increase it, though given the looming recession in Europe and North America, I doubt we will. But other policies on governance, agriculture, security and trade could be used to potent effect.

What do I mean?

Well, take, for instance, the American biofuel scam (the ethanol subsidies that have diverted 30 percent of American corn away from the food supply) and the European ban on genetically modified seeds, imitated by Africa, have both contributed to Africa's worsening food shortage. Where is the United Nations pressure for an end to these follies?

Why, also, did the United Nations not intervene militarily when the democratic government of Mauritania, another country in the bottom billion, was overthrown by a coup last month? Where is an alternative initiative to open international trade to poor countries now that the Doha round talks have collapsed? Above all, with a five-year-old commodities boom transferring wealth to some of the countries of the bottom billion, where are the international guidelines on taxation and investment that might help these countries convert earnings from exports of depleting minerals into productive assets like roads and schools?

I applaud Ban Ki-moon. Like Robert Zoellick, the World Bank president, Mr. Ban is offering more thoughtful leadership on development strategy than has been provided for decades. But he has been stymied by the powerful countries' failure to rally to his call to focus on the poorest countries. No nation, not even the United States, is now sufficiently dominant for its actions to be decisive. International coordination is needed more than ever. For all its manifest limitations, the United Nations must work.

International coordination has been, indeed, the great achievement of the Millennium Development Goals; all the major donor countries have bought into them. But they should now be revised so as to focus on the challenge of helping the bottom billion to converge with the rest of mankind ? and on a more realistic timescale. We need not just a "Year of the Bottom Billion," but several decades. This session of the United Nations is an appropriate moment to get started.

Paul Collier, a professor at Oxford, is the author of "The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It."

SUN TV EXPOSED AUROBINDO ASHRAM in 2003

CNN-IBN KILLED INVESTIGATIVE STORY in 2008

The days of brave investigative journalism of the Ramnath Goenka brand which exposed the darkest days of emergency and the intervening period where A.S.Panneerselvan of Outlook and Sudha G.Tilak of The Telegraph exposed the crimes happening within Aurobindo Ashram is over. Now in India, new breed of journalists, products of globalization, have arrived. For them plight of individual women is not worthy of reporting but if it is about cine actresses or celebrities, they jump into the fray. CNN-IBN which prides as investigative media for two days telecasted the promo about "Divine Trap", an investigative story done by its own reporters for two days, and few hours before telecast killed the story, and till date not given a public explanation, why it went back after airing the promo. Unlike CNN-IBN of 2008, SUN TV of 2003 did not shelve its report. The link given below is about the SUN TV Report, wherein the story will start with the sexual harassment of Jharkand girls, sisters, living till date as devotees and inmates, due to Court orders.

http://ishare.rediff.com/filevideo-TRUTH-:CRIME-REPORT-ON-ASHRAM-id-213736.php

After viewing the SUN TV report, you would be keen to know the present day plight of the Jharkand sisters. Let me put in a nutshell their current situation.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE :

Initially from May-June 2004, the harassment began in the form of defecation in Jayashree's and Arunashri's rooms at Ambabhikshu House on a regular basis. Thereafter the defecation was extended and done in all the five sisters' rooms along with tampering and damaging of their cycles, passing of vulgar and obscene comments and making vulgar and obscene gestures by some inmates of the Ashram, who were residing at Ambabhiskshu House. From mid June 2004 onwards Arunashri and Nivedita received totally five pornographic obscene chits thrown inside their rooms. The five sisters gave written complaints before various authorities: the Bar Association of Pondicherry and Tamilnadu (because the inmate lawyer Nirmal C. Swain was masterminding the sexual harassment through and with the resident inmates of Ambabhikshu House), the Ashram trustees, the police and National Commission for Women Delhi (NCW) which handed over our sexual harassment case to the State Women Commission, Pondicherry (SWC). The police also collected three other obscene pornographic chits on 13.10.2004 from Ambabhikshu House from the rooms of Rajyashree, Nivedita and Hemlata.

Without conducting an enquiry, SCW allegedly submitted a report to NCW and on 19.01.2005. It came to light that the SCW directed Ashram Trustees to provide separate accommodation in separate buildings to male members and female members to prevent any kind of sexual harassment. The sisters requested SWC to furnish a copy of the alleged report to them but SWC failed to respond.

Subsequently the sisters went to New Delhi and there they were informed by the NCW that no such report existed. Thereafter the sisters requested NCW to reopen their case and also approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for relief against the continuing sexual harassment. NHRC started the enquiry but on coming to know that NCW had reopened the case, NHRC passed an order to that effect.

NCW reopened the case of sexual harassment by appointing the Chairperson of Department of Women and Child Development, Pondicherry (DWCD) as the enquiring officer. Because of the continued sexual harassment that the DWCD reported to the Government of Pondicherry, a GO was issued on 23.02.2007 appointing Mr. Vasant Kumar, I.A.S. to conduct a magisterial enquiry for the complaints of such sexual harassment of the sisters. The enquiry proceedings were thereafter handed over to Mr. Vijay Kumar Bidhuri, I.A.S. by another GO dated 10.12.2007. The sisters as well as the accused inmates have been enquired into and presently the enquiry report is pending submission. We urge the report be made public without delay.

HOUSE GRAB CASE :

In SUN TV you will in end be told about the anticipatory bail obtained by the Managing Trustee of Aurobindo Ashram , who was named in FIR. But the clout ensured that when charge sheet was filed, he is left out. Adding further spice to the crime story, he had been made witness.

The people of India must urge their journalists, to emulate the example of western journalists like Ms.Rachael Wright who did a story in BBC on Auroville.

N.Nandhivarman, General Secretary Dravida Peravai