-Caveat Lector-
And the winner is .... the MAI!
We think you should send the following item to the editor of your local or
regional newspaper -- or perhaps paraphrase it into an actual _Letter to the
Editor_ in which you upbraid the Official Source News Media (the slavering
minions of phillistine press lords) for missing the story and getting
scooped, as it were, by civil society.
********************************************
Project Censored's 1999 list of most censored stories
________________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
http://www.ainfos.ca/
________________________________________________
Threats to U.S. sovereignty through secret 'Multinational Agreement on
Investment' Top Project Censored's 1999 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 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.
The stories, plus timely articles and reviews about the media and a resource
guide are included in the new Project Censored Yearbook: Censored 1999: 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, in-depth 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.
THE TOP 10 UNDER-REPORTED STORIES OF 1998 ARE:
1. SECRET INTERNATIONAL TRADE AGREEMENT UNDERMINES THE SOVEREIGNTY OF
NATIONS:
The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) plans to set in place
protections for foreign investment by giving corporations near equal rights
to nations, pressuring nations to to relax or nullify human, environmental
and labor protection in order to attract investment and trade. 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.
<<SNIP>>
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed
without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational purposes.
Mike Dolan, Field Director
Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch
ph 202.546.4996 x322
fx 202.547.7392
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