Monday, January 19, 2009

Murderous

Today 200 years ago, Edgar Allan Poe was born.

A short story he wrote: The Murders of Rue Morgue.

Two novels he did not write:

The murder in Istiklal Caddesi

Today two years ago, Hrant Dink was murdered.
The mills of justice are still grinding. Or not.



The murder in 8 Lesnaya Ulitsa


104 days before Hrant Dink got murdered,
on October 7th, 2006 Vladimir Putin celebrated his birthday,
and perhaps some gentlemen intended to surprise (?)
their beloved President with a very very special present,
Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated.


Well, and I'd not be surprised when in 365 days the 'patriotic gentleman' who today killed Staneslav Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova , will also be not behind bars.

10 comments:

  1. I think Russia and Turkey have some kind of special relation ship..)))

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  2. Hans, this termination of people goes on all around the world. I was reading just yesterday that 900 Peasant leaders and environmental campaigners have been killed by mysterious death squads linked to the army, in the Philippines, because they appose a Gold mine. Try also looking at Indonesian, Cambodian or Argentinean history. The world is a frightening place.

    Sean, I ponder as to why the government or certain groups target these journalists. Surely they could not individually be thought of as a force to bring down the government. Or is it considered 'Theatre', it is not aimed at those killed but rather those who are watching.

    Nonetheless, it is society that suffers because people fear to report the truth.

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  3. Life seems to have little value these days particularly if you happen to be a journalist.
    Even here I know of someone who was threatened to report a story in a certain way or the family would suffer...

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  4. Hans,
    yes; it's however not 'just' a bilateral matter.
    Looking around one could come to the conclusion that what depends surveillance, censorship and intimidation, globalisation works, better and better. Suppression of Press Freedom and civil liberties seems easier to get realised than respecting the Un Charta, the Convention against torture and the Geneva Convention, let alone to stop inciting wars but instead solving solvable problems for the better.

    Ardent,
    it's both, by 'crushing vermin' (it's the prefered ductus of Mr. Putin) you send a message to everybody else: 'Shut up, or ...'.
    This is why so many journalists sooner or later would start to use 'the scissors in their mind'.

    Janice,
    You find (at least) attempts everywhere. There exist various methods to 'kill' Press Freedom: lobbying, corruption, intimidation, blackmailing (very popular: "either … or we cancel our advertising objectives").
    Well, and when this does not help, some gentlemen think 'it's time to execute (an example).

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  5. Somehow I doubt the perpetrators of either crime will ever be brought to justice

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Of course, I was joking..))
    And I am not posting about what happens in the world in general but in particular Turkey, where are least 90 journalists walk around with bodyguards and where almost everyday a journalist is prosecuted...
    Kindest
    hans

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  8. Dear Hans,
    your second comment is / was such a good addition to the first; you should not have removed it. :)
    I did, 'of course', see the sarcasm behind your very first remark and did not mind it, at all. Sarcasm is no suppressed minority in the state of my mind.
    Apropos 'minority': There won't change a lot for the better in any country, unless the legendary 'silent majority' starts to speak out. Ah, ... better to stop before getting diagnosed with logorrhoea.

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  9. Dear Sean,
    You mean my comment about 'culture relativism' which makes it de facto inpossible to criticize anything since there is always someone, or something else worse going on in the world..))?
    Yes, this makes any discussion dead, senseless...
    kindest
    hans

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