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Posted 8:32 AM by The Moderator

The New York Times > Business > Media & Advertising > Senate Votes to Repeal Media Rules: " Senate Votes to Repeal Media Rules
By STEPHEN LABATON

Published: June 23, 2004


ASHINGTON, June 22 - The Senate voted on Tuesday to repeal rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission that make it easier for the nation's largest media conglomerates to expand and enter new markets.
The rules, approved last June by a divided F.C.C., largely removed previous ownership restrictions on media companies. They struck down the rule that in most markets had prevented one company from owning both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city. In the largest markets, the new rules also enabled a company to own as many as three television stations, eight radio stations and a cable operator. And they allowed the largest television networks to buy more affiliated stations, although Congress later rolled back that provision.
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The new rules have already been blocked temporarily by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, which is considering a challenge.
By a voice vote, the Senate approved a provision to repeal the rules and restore tougher restrictions. Supporters of the effort said that the Senate's decision provided them with a backstop in case the appeals court did not rule in their favor. But the legislation still faces formidable political obstacles - a similar measure was dropped from a different bill this year after encountering stiff resistance from both the Bush administration and Republican leaders in the House, which would need to reconcile the latest measure in a conference committee."

Posted 12:21 AM by The Moderator

Press Release: Closing Europes corruption gap: TI chapters from 26 countries in Europe and Central Asia meet in Yerevan: "
Press Release:
International corporations decide to add anti-corruption principle to UN Global Compact
Transparency International welcomes decision by UN Global Compact members to make anti-corruption a tenth principle, but calls on corporations to put principle into action by adopting tough anti-corruption policies
New York/Berlin, 24 June 2004
A tenth principle calling on companies to work against corruption was added to the existing nine principles of the UN Global Compact, according to an announcement today by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Transparency International (TI), the world's leading non-governmental organisation committed to fighting corruption, welcomed this announcement, which successfully concludes a consultation process that involved the Global Compact's more than 1,200 corporate and civil society members. The anti-corruption principle will be added to the Compact's nine existing principles of good corporate citizenship in the areas of human rights, labour and the environment, now endorsed by some 1,700 participants.
'The overwhelmingly positive response of participants to the addition of an anti-bribery principle shows that companies are waking up to the need to fight corruption,' said TI Chairman Peter Eigen, speaking in New York today at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit, where Kofi Annan made the announcement. TI has consistently advocated the explicit inclusion of transparency as an essential core principle in the Compact. According to Eigen, who is also a member of the Secretary-General's Advisory Council on the Global Compact, 'corruption is anathema to everything the Compact stands for. By tackling corruption"

Posted 6:48 PM by The Moderator

Dick Cheney and the $5 Million Man: "Dick Cheney and the $5 Million Man

by DOUG IRELAND

06/18/04 'The Nation' -- The Securities and Exchange Commission has finally opened a formal investigation into allegations that Halliburton (in partnership with French petro-engineering company Technip) funneled $180 million into a slush fund to pay bribes in the construction of a $6 billion Nigerian gas refinery--a scandal that French authorities have been probing for a year (for background, see Doug Ireland, 'Will the French Indict Cheney?' December 29, 2003).

The energy conglomerate formerly headed by Dick Cheney disclosed the SEC probe (as it was required to do by law for any legal action potentially affecting the company's stock) on June 11. The timing of the disclosure was no accident--it was a Friday, the last day of the interminable Reagan funeral ceremonies, and Wall Street was thus closed. The national press corps focused on little else but the burial, so the SEC investigation got scant attention in the weekend papers (even the New York Times ran only a brief AP dispatch on its website).

Although the US media have shown little interest in the story, the investigation of the Halliburton Nigeria scandal by France's most celebrated investigating magistrate, Judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke, has continued making headlines in Paris--where the latest revelations bring the scandal right to the front door of Halliburton's Houston headquarters. "

Posted 9:31 PM by The Moderator

WTO Again Rules for Brazil in Cotton Row
Fri Jun 18, 2004 07:03 PM ET REUTERS

GENEVA/BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization on Friday ruled the United States broke global trade rules by lavishing subsidies on its cotton farmers, backing a Brazilian complaint, the two governments said.
In a final verdict, which could have a big impact on free trade negotiations underway in Geneva, the WTO reaffirmed an initial April ruling that U.S. policy seriously hurt Brazilian cotton producers, the nation's government said.

"This alerts our international partners to a situation that is unsustainable," said Roberto Azevedo, chief of legal cases at Brazil's Foreign Ministry. "Because of these American subsidies prices are depressed in the international market and thousands go hungry, thousands of people live in absolute misery."

The United States, which insists that its cotton policy is in line with WTO rules, said it would appeal the ruling.

U.S. cotton subsidies will remain unchanged for at least a year or two due to the length of the appeal process, U.S. congressional aides said. That would mean no immediate change in cotton supports.

The lengthy decision, which was given only to the two sides, will not be made public for weeks. But the result came as little surprise as the WTO has never in its nine-year life overturned preliminary findings.

Brazil did not rule out sanctions against the United States if its appeal was knocked down and it kept up the subsidies.

"We don't favor this kind of solution, it's the last resource the nation has the right to use, it's one exit, one avenue," said Azevedo.

MASSIVE SUBSIDIES

The WTO decision goes to the heart of the debate at troubled negotiations to reform world farm trade, where angry poorer countries argue the massive subsidies of their richer rivals depress prices and keep them out of lucrative markets.

It will be particularly welcomed by West African producers such as Benin and Chad. They have pleaded for their crop to be given special consideration at Geneva talks on lowering barriers to farm trade because of the heavy losses they have suffered.

Trade sources said Brazil successfully argued that the United States had exceeded agreed subsidy limits for cotton, leading to over-supply which in turn had contributed to depressing world cotton prices.

In the 2001-2002 season alone the United States paid out nearly $4 billion in subsidies to its 25,000 cotton farmers for a crop valued at only $3 billion, the sources said.

Brazil said the ability of U.S. farmers to sell cotton cheaply, because of the subsidies, cost its producers $600 million in lost sales during the 2001 marketing year alone.

It was the first time that a developing country had challenged the crop support programs of a big trade power, and analysts and diplomats said that other cases could follow.

Posted 8:04 AM by The Moderator

Corp Watch: Controversial Commando Wins Iraq Contract
Occupation authorities in Iraq have awarded a $293 million contract effectively creating the world's largest private army to a company headed by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer, a former officer with the SAS, an elite regiment of British commandos, who has been investigated for illegally smuggling arms and planning military offensives to support mining, oil, and gas operations around the world. On May 25, the Army Transportation command awarded Spicer's company, Aegis Defense Services, the contract to coordinate all the security for Iraqi reconstruction projects.

"I am pleased to confirm that we've been awarded a contract to assist the Project Management Office (PMO) in Iraq by the United States Department of Defense," said Spicer, who started Aegis just over a year ago on Picadilly in London, only a short walk from Buckingham Palace. "The contract involves coordination of security support for reconstruction contractors and for the protection of PMO personnel."