Ly Kim-Song; a great journalistic backbone: 1943-2007 Any idiot can cover a firefight, it has often been said among journalists. The real trick is getting in, getting out and not fouling up the job by getting yourself killed. Success depends on common sense, solid equipment and most importantly your backup. For many a journalist and photographer in Cambodia Ly Kim-Song was that backup. Mr Song, as he was known to everyone, died suddenly on Sunday, January 14, after a period of illness. He was 64. Song was born in the southeastern province of Svay Rieng where he spent his formative [...]
His beaming smile lines highways and towers over bridges and mountains from the big cities to the most remote rural villages. Hugo Chávez is everywhere to be seen in Venezuela. So are the heroes that have inspired Chávez’s version of socialism in the 21st century, the most ubiquitous being Che Guevara and South America’s liberator, Simón Bolivar. Traveling across Venezuela, it is hard not to be bombarded by state propaganda, which often appears a throwback to the Soviet era, while opposition propaganda is almost non-existent. It seems every inch of public space is being used to spell out the ideals [...]
The WPR Commentary Week in Review is posted every Friday. Drawing from more than two dozen English-language news outlets worldwide, the column highlights the week’s notable op-eds. Though some claimed President Bush attempted to duck the issue in his State of the Union address, the Iraq war continued to dominate op-eds from Jan. 21 through Jan. 26. The Chinese satellite blast certainly made a good showing though, and various other often-ignored corners of the world were examined in opinionated print this week — namely Kosovo and Ecuador. Philip Bowring’s Jan. 21 piece in the International Herald Tribune claimed that China’s [...]
