Censorship spreads with fear and greed

By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

The bad news is that censorship is increasing. The good news is that people around the world are fighting back online and publishing their own news.
One of the most censored topics is Indigenous Peoples' rights, especially those stated in the recently adopted United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the right of mobility in ancestral territories, regardless of national borders.
Those topics will be the focus of the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II next week, Nov. 7 - 10, 2007, at San Xavier on Tohono O'odham land, near South Tucson.
Although the border summit may be censored by mainstream newspapers, you can either attend or listen online: http://www.earthcycles.net/
The Censored Blog has a running poll of the most censored topics. American Indian readers feel the most censored topic on the list, by far, is the silencing of traditional and grassroots' voices by those in power. They write to say that their own "puppet tribal government" has increased the oppression of their traditional people. By silencing or ignoring their ceremonial leaders, tribal governments, fashioned after the US system, continue to enter into leases and corporate agreements that put the future of seven generations at risk.
Following this censored topic, readers voted the most censored issue is the nuclear, uranium and coal genocide of Indigenous Peoples, which is the result of international corporate profiteering, political vice, death squads and censorship.
Next in line, readers voted the most censored issues are Leonard Peltier, border deaths and racism in border news reporting, Zapatista gatherings along the US/Mexico border and the Indian delegations from the north in Venezuela.
Online, Victor Rocha at Pechanga Net (http://www.pechanga.net/) has continued to publish the censored issues, along with the U.N. OBSERVER & International Report (http://www.unobserver.com/) NarcoNews (http://www.narconews.com/) and CounterPunch (http://www.counterpunch.org/.)
Scroll down to read more about censored issues (http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/), including Homeland Security waiving all federal laws to build the border wall. Major newspapers, and even alternative presses, have censored this case: Two priests, Fr. Louie Vitale and Fr. Steve Kelly, are serving 5-month prison sentences for protesting US torture inflicted at Abu-Ghraib, Guantanamo and Afghanistan. The priests knelt in prayer outside of Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
The arrests of Maoris in New Zealand follows the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Maoris are among the Indigenous Peoples' engaged in struggles for their ancestral lands around the world. New Zealand is now leading the world in oppression of Indigenous Peoples. The mainstream news coverage of the police storm tactics and imprisonment of some Maori without bail, has been biased and one-sided. In Australia, few news reporters have reported fairly on the struggle for Aboriginals' rights.
Thanks to all of you for reading.
brendanorrell@gmail.com