Young people from G7 countries call on leaders

Thursday 27th April 27 2023 at 1:29 PM

Honour commitment to nuclear disarmament 

Hiroshima: 27th April 2023: (Seven Seas News Bureau)::

Youth delegates from G7 countries, meeting in Hiroshima, are calling on  G7 leaders to seize the opportunity presented by their upcoming Summit and take action on nuclear disarmament, reminding them “possession or use of nuclear weapons is illegitimate as recognized by the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and our future security cannot be dependent on distrust”. 

Meeting in the city that symbolises the devastating humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, the 50 delegates issued a statement calling on the leaders of the G7 to listen to the survivors of the nuclear attack on the Hiroshima in 1945, known as hibakusha, and recognise the moral imperative of nuclear disarmament. 

The statement says: “We urgently demand action on nuclear weapons to honour the lived experiences of the hibakusha and other communities affected by nuclear weapons, and to secure a safer world free from weapons of mass destruction for generations to come.”

The delegates went on to urge the leaders to follow the framework of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) as the best way to achieve disarmament: “Given the conflicts and crises we face today, we believe that the time for action against nuclear weapons is now. As young people, we champion the TPNW as the most effective path to eliminating nuclear weapons.”

The ICAN Hiroshima G7 Youth Summit took place from 25-27 April and was organised by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and hosted by The Center for Peace, Hiroshima University (CPHU). It brought students and youth activists from 19 countries, including all G7 countries to the city to learn about the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons from atomic bomb survivors and other experts, and to discuss actions to realise a world free of nuclear weapons.

Among the summit’s other recommendations to the G7 leaders are the promotion of research into the impact of nuclear weapons on communities, particularly marginalised communities, in order to support victim assistance and environmental remediation; involve marginalised communities in decisions on nuclear policies; and to shift funding from nuclear weapons to sustainable investments in mitigating the effects of climate change, programmes for education, and peacebuilding.

IFJ on case against Reporter K.K. Shahina

IFJ Deeply Concerned over Criminal Charges against Indian Investigative Reporter
Media Release: India                                                                     January 15, 2013                 
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is extremely concerned to learn of the criminal charges filed against investigative reporter K.K. Shahina by police in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
Shahina, who currently works with the weekly magazine Open,  faces charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including criminal conspiracy and intimidation of witnesses with intent to commit a crime. The chargesheet filed in the sessions court in the district of Kodagu in Karnataka state, also indicts her under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which is most commonly invoked to deal with terrorist offences.
These charges stem from a story  published under Shahina’s byline in the weekly magazine Tehelka in December 2010, which appeared to cast doubt on the prosecution of a prominent Islamic cleric and political figure on terrorism charges.
Shahina who then worked as correspondent for Tehelka in the state of Kerala, based her story on interviews with key witnesses in the case against Abdul Nasar Mahdani, an Islamic cleric who heads the Peoples’ Democratic Party, active mainly in the state of Kerala. Mahdani has since been arrested and charged by Karnataka police for conspiracy to detonate a series of low-intensity bomb blasts in the state capital city of Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) in July 2008.
Shahina’s story cited several of the witnesses named by the Karnataka police as saying that their testimony has been misinterpreted or distorted in making out the charges against Mahdani.
In March 2011, Shahina was honoured with the Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding woman media person. The awards citation mentioned her investigative work in defence of civil liberties, among other contributions.
Facing the possibility of arrest since January 2011, Shahina approached the district court in Kodagu for anticipatory bail, but was turned down. It was only in July 2011 that the Karnataka High Court granted her provisional immunity from arrest. With charges now formally registered in the sessions court, she will be required to appeal for renewal of her bail and also travel from her base of Kochi city in Kerala, to Madikeri in Kodagu district for every hearing.
The IFJ calls on the authorities in Karnataka state to reconsider their intent to prosecute Shahina, whose work has been an example of investigative journalism in the cause of civil liberties.
“We see this prosecution as an instance of seeking to silence fair and independent reporting through legal injunction. We fear that the process of the law, with the demands it makes on the time and energy of the defendant, is often punishment in itself and will severely impair this journalist’s professional effectiveness.”
For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +612 9333 0950
The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries

IFJ on case against Reporter K.K. Shahina

Find the IFJ on Twitter: @ifjasiapacific

Find the IFJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/IFJAsiaPacific 

Indian Investigative Reporter K.K. Shahina

Press Conference by IDPD on Nuclear Famine

A Billion People at Risk: IDPD warned Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) has since long being campaigning for complete elimination of nuclear weapons as these could annihilate not only the man kind but whole the flora and fauna on earth. Even a limited use of these weapons could put crores of peoples at risk. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) has carried out a study in this regard which is being released internationally now said Dr.L.S.Chawla while addressing the press conference today at IMA House Ludhiana. He said that latest study by the IPPNW has warned that even a limited nuclear exchange could endanger the lives of 100 crorers people in the world.
Dr Arun Mitra – General Secretary IDPD said that Dr. Ira Helfand, the author of Nuclear Famine: A Billion People at Risk—Global Impacts of Limited Nuclear War on Agriculture, Food Supplies, and Human Nutrition, said the new evidence that even the relatively small nuclear arsenals of countries such as India and Pakistan could cause long lasting, global damage to the Earth’s ecosystems “requires a fundamental change in our thinking about nuclear weapons.”
Working with data produced by scientists who have studied the climate effects of a hypothetical nuclear war between India and Pakistan, Dr. Helfand and a team of experts in agriculture and nutrition determined that plunging temperatures and reduced precipitation in critical farming regions, caused by soot and smoke lofted into the atmosphere by multiple nuclear explosions, would interfere with crop production and affect food availability and prices worldwide.
Dr Bharti Uppal- Finance Secretary IDPD gave a presentation.
Among the specific findings:Corn production in the US would decline by an average of 10% for an entire decade, with themost severe decline (20%) in year 5. Soybean production would decline by about7%, with the most severe loss, more than 20%, in year 5.

There would be a significant decline in middle season rice production in China. During the first 4 years, rice production would decline by an average of 21%; over the next 6 years the decline would average 10%.

Increases in food prices would make food inaccessible to hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest. Even if agricultural markets continued to function normally, 215 million people would be added to the rolls of the malnourished over the course of a decade.

Significant agricultural short falls over an extended period would almost certainly lead to panic and hoarding on an international scale, further reducing accessible food.

The 925 million people in the world who are already chronically malnourished (with a baseline consumption of 1,750 calories or less per day), would be put at risk by a 10% decline in their food consumption.

While the IPPNW report calls for further research into the effects on additional crops in additional agricultural regions, Dr. Helfand said this preliminary study “raises a giant red flag” about the danger of nuclear weapons and the urgency of their elimination.

“The death of one billion people over a decade would be a disaster unprecedented in human history,” he said. “It would not cause the extinction of the human race, but it would bring an end to modern civilization as we know it.

“The danger identified in this report requires a fundamental change in our thinking about nuclear weapons. We must now recognize that it is not just the arsenals of the nuclear super powers that threaten all humanity.  Even the smaller arsenals of emerging nuclear powers like India and Pakistan pose a global threat.”

Noting, however, that even one US Trident submarine has the ability to destroy 100 cities and create a global famine, Dr. Helfand said “Even the most ambitious current proposals for nuclear arms reductions would leave the US and Russia with many times the nuclear fire power needed to create a global disaster on the scale described in this study.”

Dr D P Singh Arora – President IMA Ludhiana while paying homage to victims of Chernobyl Nuclear disaster in Ukraine on 26th April 1986 where 93000 people lost their lives demanded that this accident followed by the Fukhushima Nuclear disaster should be eye opener. Learning lesson from these Government of India should put moratorium  on the nuclear power plants. The electricity produce by these plants is neither safe nor economical. There is no foolproof method to manage the nuclear waste. Moreover the nuclear power plants pose a potential threat for the production of nuclear weapons.

Dr N S Bawa – Vice President IDPD said that the doctors have to realize their duty to save the world from catastrophe. Dr Deepak Prashar was also present on the occasion.  

Dr Arun Mitra
General Secretary – IDPD
Phone: 94170 00360

Attacks on Journalist​s

Press Council chief serves dismissal notice on CM
22.2. 2012

Shri Prithviraj Chavan,
Chief Minister of Maharashtra,
Mumbai,

Dear Chief Minister,

A delegation of eight journalists from Maharashtra met me today and apprised me of a large number of physical attacks on journalists/media houses in the State of Maharashtra including the recent one on Times of India building in Mumbai allegedly by Shiv Sena people.

I was informed that in the last ten years well over 800 journalists were physically attacked, while in the last two and half years
213 journalists were attacked by political workers and anti-social elements. More shocking was the day light – murder of veteran journalist J.Dey.

In this connection I had written two letters to you but there was no response from your side to either of them. Did I not even deserve the courtesy of a reply?

Freedom of the Press is a guaranteed Constitutional right under Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution, and it is the duty of the Press Council of India to uphold the freedom of the press in view of section 13 of the Press Council Act.

It is the duty of the State Government to maintain law and order in the State, but it seems to me that your Government is neither able to maintain law and order nor prevent attacks on journalists, which seriously imperils freedom of the press.

You are, therefore, requested to now show cause why I should not recommend to the President of India to dismiss your State Government under Article 356 of the Constitution since your Government apparently seems to have failed to uphold the Constitution as it has failed to uphold the freedom of the press under Article 19 (1) (a).

Please give a reply to this letter within three weeks from today after which I will take such action as is fit in the circumstances.

Yours sincerely,
(Markandey Katju)
Courtesy: kracktivist 
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Obama speaks during a press conference

President Barack Obama speaks during a press conference at Buckley Air Force Base, Colo., Jan. 26, 2012. (DoD photo by Senior Airman Marcy Glass, U.S. Air Force/ Released)