PS Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: btw

[KovenRonald at aol.com]

PS, Prof. Vincent --

On the matter you mention of the International Organization of Journalists, 
it is a matter of record that that international journalists association never 
lifted a finger in defense of the hundreds of Czechoslovak journalists purged 
and forced into menial jobs after Soviet tanks repressed the Prague Spring . 
(Kaarle Nordenstreng actually apologized for that after the collapse of the 
Czechoslovak Communist government.)

It is a matter of record that after the change in regime the top Czechoslovak 
leaders of the IOJ were convicted and jailed for running various illegal 
rackets to help finance the IOJ, including a smuggling ring to bring in Western 
electrical appliances for the benefit of the local Nomenklatura.

The IOJ simply collapsed after the collapse of the Soviet Union because it 
lost its source of confidential subsidies. 

If you had been reading the official publications of the IOJ before that, as 
I was, you would never have found any deviation from the Soviet official line. 
On the contrary, the line was celebrated.

As for rhetorical tricks, I never saw a better one than Kaarle Nordenstreng's 
issuing of a declaration that the International Federation of Journalists 
explicitly rejected. Kaarle had it printed up with a list of the organizations 
"present" when it was adopted, in an obvious attempt to create the impression 
that it had approved a Soviet-line statement.

I could go on. But such facts are very inconvenient.

Sincerely, Ronald Koven

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/pipermail/plenary/attachments/20051107/d1d5c1f2/attachment.htm