-Caveat Lector-
The Committee for National Solidarity
Tolstojeva 34, 11000 Belgrade, YU
Subject:
SECRET INTERNATIONAL TRADE AGREEMENT UNDERMINES THE SOVEREIGNTY
OF NATIONS
Date:
Wed, 11 Aug 1999 04:35:30 CST
Activist Mailing List - http://get.to/activist
http://www.sonoma.edu/ProjectCensored/
Project Censored's Top 25 1998
Introduction
Top Censored Story: " SECRET INTERNATIONAL TRADE AGREEMENT UNDERMINES
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF NATIONS "
Story #2: "CHEMICAL CORPORATIONS PROFIT OFF BREAST CANCER "
Story #3: "MONSANTO'S GENETICALLY MODIFIED SEEDS THREATEN WORLD
PRODUCTION "
Story #4: "RECYCLED RADIOACTIVE METALS MAY BE IN YOUR HOME"
Story #5: "U. S. WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION LINKED TO THE DEATHS OF A
HALF A MILLION CHILDREN"
Story #6: "UNITED STATES NUCLEAR PROGRAM SUBVERTS U.N.'S
COMPREHENSIVE
TEST BAN TREATY"
Story #7: "GENE TRANSFERS LINKED TO DANGEROUS NEW DISEASES"
Story #8: "NO MERCY FOR WOMEN AS CATHOLIC HOSPITAL MERGERS"
Story #9: "U. S. TAX DOLLARS SUPPORT DEATH SQUADS IN CHIAPAS"
Story #10: "ENVIRONMENTAL STUDENT ACTIVISTS GUNNED DOWN ON CHEVRON
OIL
FACILITY IN NIGERIA"
Story #11-25: (Short Synopses)
Censored 1998 Judges
Judges Comments
Introduction
Threats to U.S. sovereignty through secret 'Multinational Agreement on
Investment' Top Project Censored's 1998 list of 10 most censored
stories.
ROHNERT PARK, CALIF - Some developments in the course of history have
such potential to impact nations and humans that it would be
irresponsible to ignore them. Yet few mainstream news organizations
have reported on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which
would set in place a vast series of protections for foreign
investment.
According to reports in the alternative press, the MAI would threaten
national sovereignty by giving corporations near equal rights to
nations. This agreement has the potential to place profits ahead of
human rights and social justice, and that is why our judges named this
story the No.1 censored or under reported story of 1998.
MAI, hatched in secret negotiations that began in 1995 among
the
U.S. and 28 other nations, could thrust the world economy closer to a
system where international corporate capital would hold free reign
over
the democratic values and socioeconomic needs of people. The MAI will
also have devastating effects on a nation's legal, environmental and
cultural sovereignty. It will force countries to relax or nullify
human, environmental and labor protection to attract investment and
trade. Necessary measures such as food subsidies, control of land
speculation, agrarian reform and health and environmental standards
can
be challenged as "illegal." This same illegality is extended to
community control of forests, local bans on use of pesticides, clean
air standards, limits on mineral, gas and oil extraction, and bans on
toxic dumping.
The stories, plus timely articles and reviews a resource guide
are included in the new Project Censored Yearbook: Censored 1998: The
News That Didn't Make the News. [For review copies, contact Seven
Stories Press, 212-995-0908]
The apparent goal of the latest international trade
negotiations
is to safeguard multinational corporate investments by eliminating
democratic regulatory control by nation states and local governments,
the authors report.
More radical than NAFTA or GATT, MAI would thrust the world
much
closer to a transnational laissez-faire system where international
corporate capital would hold free reign over the democratic wishes and
socioeconomic needs of people.
Mostly ignored by mainstream press, coverage of this issue was
offered in the following sources: IN THESE TIMES, "Building the Global
Economy," Jan. 11, 1998, by Joel Bleifuss; DEMOCRATIC LEFT, "MAI
Ties," Spring 1998, by Bill Dixon; TRIBUNE DES DRIOTS HUMAINS, "Human
Rights or Corporate Rights?" April 1998, Volume 5, No.s 1-2, by Miloon
Kothari and Tara Krause.
The winners of what are commonly referred to as the Pulitzer
Prize of investigative reporting were announced today at a ceremony at
Sonoma State University, where Project Censored is based.
Prof. Peter Phillips, director of the program, said the annual
project is conducted by more than 125 faculty, student researchers and
interns, and community experts. The final 25 censored stories are
ranked in order of significance by a panel of national judges
including
members of the media, authors and educators.
Phillips said he hopes to see a network of alternative press
sharing significant stories the public needs to know as control of
mainstream media, and therefore, what most people know, falls into the
control of an increasingly reduced number of corporate board rooms.
MOST CENSORED STORIES OF 1998
No. 1. CENSORED
SECRET INTERNATIONAL TRADE AGREEMENT UNDERMINES THE SOVEREIGNTY
OF NATIONS:
Some developments in the course of History have such potential to
impact
nations and humans that it would be irresponsible to ignore them. Yet
few
mainstream news organizations have reported on the Multilateral
Agreement on Investment (MAI), which would set in place a vast series of
protections for foreign investment. According to reports in the alternative
press,
the MAI would threaten national sovereignty by giving corporations
near
equal rights to nations. This agreement has the potential to place
profits ahead of human rights and social justice, and that is why our
judges named this story the No.1 censored or under reported story of
1998
MAI would thrust the world economy much closer to a system
where
international corporate capital would hold free reign over the
democratic
values and socioeconomic needs of people. The MAI will also have
devastating effects on a nation's legal, environmental and cultural
sovereignty.
It will force countries to relax or nullify human, environmental and labor
protection to attract investment and trade. Necessary measures such as food
subsidies, control of land speculation, agrarian reform and health and
environmental standards can be challenged as "illegal" under the MAI. This
same
illegality is extended to community control of forests, local bans on use
of
pesticides, clean air standards, limits on mineral, gas and oil extraction,
and
bans on toxic dumping.
Sources: IN THESE TIMES, "Building the Global Economy," January 11,
1998,
by Joel Bleifuss; DEMOCRATIC LEFT, "MAI Ties," Spring 1998, by Bill
Dixon; TRIBUNE DES DRIOTS HUMAINS, "Human Rights or Corporate Rights?"
April
1998, Volume 5, No.s 1-2, "Giving The World Away" by Elaine Weinreb, Vol
27, No 11'ECONEWS' December 1997
____________________________________________________________________
Secretary General
Mrs. Jela Jovanovic
Art historian
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Om
[CTRL] Project Censored "ENVIRONMENTAL STUDENT ACTIVISTS GUNNED DOWN ON CHEVRON OIL FACILITY IN NIGERIA" / "GENE TRANSFERS LINKED TO DANGEROUS NEW DISEASES" / "U. S. TAX DOLLARS SUPPORT DEATH SQUADS IN CHIAPAS" / Etc.
Mrs. Jela Jovanovic, Secretary General Wed, 11 Aug 1999 12:36:41 -0700
