China - G8 - Lisbon Treaty
In the Papers
Thursday, July 09, 2009
The G8 summit in l’Aquila is on the front pages of all the big dailies in Italy. Corriere della Serra’s headline is “G8 promotes rules for the global economy”. It focuses on the positive – agreement on a stern approach to North Korea and Iran, agreement on climate targets for 2050 etc. La Stampa too has that same photo of Obama with Berlusconi on front of the town hall in l’Aquila. It’s headline, “Agreement on climate and on Africa.”
The Indian press would beg to differ. The Times of India says developed countries tried to wriggle out of short term climate commitments. While there was agreement on cutting emissions by 50% by 2050 (80% for developed nations), developed countries reneged on commitments to use 1990 as the base year for reducing emissions. There were no commitments either for targets for 2020. Indian officials have called this “a step backwards”.
The Huffington Post has a page full of videos and images from l’Aquila. One shows the G8 leaders with the four shorter members huddled together in the centre. They are then framed by the taller US and Canadian premiers on the left and their British and Swedish counterparts on the right. I imagine it wouldn’t have been acceptable to frame Berlusconi or Sarkozy with a taller leader on either side. It’s all in the details! Some other details getting attention in the Huffington Post: members of the Italian parliament who went on hunger strike in order to urge G8 leaders to press China to end the violence in Xinjiang.
Speaking of which the front page of the International Herald Tribune shows Chinese soldiers massing on Wednesday in the main square of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. The city has settled into a tense stillness, the paper says, after 156 deaths were registered on Sunday following an army crackdown. The Uighur uprising was followed by reprisal attacks by Han residents. The Communist Party boss in Xiniang said he will execute those who have “committed crimes with cruel means”.Libération also has a photo of that impressive rallying of army forces in Urumqi.
Moving toThe Irish Times where the front page is dealing with the Lisbon Treaty. A date has been fixed for a second referendum on the text in Ireland, the 2nd October. The Minister for Europe Dick Roche said, “What is needed now is a united effort to achieve the common purpose of keeping Ireland at the heart of Europe.” The editorial echoes these comments saying the stark and frightening reality that now faces Ireland is the choice between standing financially isolated and being a part of a strong and supportive European Union. The complacency and bickering of the main parties saw the referendum being lost the last time round, it says. It concludes by warning against making the same mistake in the run up to the October vote.
The left-leaning Guardian reports on a scandal affecting Rupert Murdoch’s News Group newspaper empire. It paid out more than £1m to settle legal cases that threatened to reveal repeated involvement in using criminal methods to get stories. This includes hacking into mobile phone messages, gaining unlawful access to confidential personal data such as tax records, bank statements. Government ministers, sports stars, actors were targets of private investigators.
The man featured in the front page photo is Andy Coulson. He is now the PR guru for David Cameron but as former editor of the News of the World, the Guardian reveals that journalists under his supervision were engaging in hundreds of illegal acts.
The former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil told The Guardian that this is “one of the most significant media stories of modern times. It was systemic in the News of the World and to a lesser extent in the Sun, he said. Murdoch’s news empire is generally seen as right-leaning although Murdoch famously brought his support to Tony Blair’s bid for Number 10 in the nineties. The Guardian meanwhile sees Murdoch’s media empire as one of its main opponents.
