Mediaboss Marketing

Amid the Sino-India border standoff, the Chinese official media has called for Sikkims independence and separation from India and suggested that Beijing should rally the world for the abolition of unfair treaties on sovereignty and defence that New Delhi has allegedly forced Bhutan to sign.

In an unambiguous call to incite violence in Sikkim, the state-controlled media called on Chinese citizens to fuel pro-independence movement in the Indian state bordering China and overturn Indias brutal annexation of the state.

Its near the Sikkims border with China that the Indian and Chinese border troops are locked in a standoff China alleges that Indian troops crossed into its territory in Donglang (Doklam) to disrupt the construction of a road in the area.

India is deeply concerned at the recent Chinese actions and has conveyed to the Chinese government that such construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India, the Indian ministry of external affairs had said on Friday.

But it has cut no ice with the Chinese. Brushing aside Indias concerns, Beijing and its strictly-controlled media have launched a well thought-out verbal offensive against New Delhi, even suggesting that China should take a fresh look at Indias annexation of Sikkim.

Read more: No plans to deny security clearance to Chinese investment amid border row: MHA

Meanwhile, Beijing should reconsider its stance over the Sikkim issue. Although China recognised Indias annexation of Sikkim in 2003, it can readjust its stance on the matter. There are those in Sikkim that cherish its history as a separate state, and they are sensitive to how the outside world views the Sikkim issue. As long as there are voices in Chinese society supporting Sikkims independence, the voices will spread and fuel pro-independence appeals in Sikkim, the nationalistic Global Times said in a brazen editorial.

The Global Times is affiliated to the Communist Party of China (CPC) mouthpiece, Peoples Daily, which is leading the media charge.

With certain conditions, Bhutan and Sikkim will see strong anti-India movements, which will negatively affect Indias already turbulent northeast area and rewrite southern Himalayan geopolitics, the newspaper wrote.

After independence, New Delhi inherited the brutal colonial policies of Britain and pursues regional hegemony at the sacrifice of tiny Himalayan nations, it said.

The newspapers call for Sikkims independence and incite trouble in the northeastern states seems to match with what Indian military, police and intelligence have often claimed that Beijing provides arms, money and logistical support to insurgent groups in the northeastern states of India, encouraging them to indulge in violence and spread unrest.

Although all the editorials and opinions published by the newspaper may not mirror the exact thoughts of the CPC, there is little doubt that the opinion pages of the newspaper are often used by Chinese authorities to send out signals, especially during diplomatic controversies with India.

And, there is no doubt that Global Times tone has certainly been hawkish on the standoff and completely aligned with what the government of China has been aggressively saying about Indias so-called transgressions.

Comparing the situations in Bhutan and Sikkim, it said: India has startling control and oppression over Bhutan, and as a result, Bhutan has not established diplomatic ties with its neighbour China or any other permanent member of the UN Security Council. Through unequal treaties, India has severely jeopardised Bhutans diplomatic sovereignty and controls its national defence.

India imposed a similar coercive policy on Sikkim before. The small neighbours revolts over sovereignty in the 1960s and 1970s were brutally cracked down on by the Indian military. New Delhi deposed the king of Sikkim in 1975 and manipulated the countrys parliament into a referendum to make Sikkim a state of India, the GT editorial said.

The annexation of Sikkim is like a nightmare haunting Bhutan, and the small kingdom is forced to be submissive to Indias bullying.

The newspaper said Beijing should lead a worldwide effort to restore Bhutans sovereignty.

China should lead the international community in restoring Bhutans diplomatic and defense sovereignty. Unfair treaties between India and Bhutan that severely violate the will of the Bhutanese people should be abolished. China needs to put more efforts into establishing diplomatic ties with Bhutan at an earlier date as well.

Go here to read the rest:
Chinese media calls for Sikkim's 'independence', scrapping of 'unfair' Bhutan treaties - Hindustan Times

The National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government in Myanmar has now been in office for more than a year, with Aung San Suu Kyi as de facto head of government. Suu Kyi certainly wields sizable influence. In fact, Suu Kyi has often been criticized, by commentators and members of her own party, for keeping too tight-fisted control of actions by the government, so much so that NLD members of parliament seemingly have little to do.

To be sure, on some policy areas, Suu Kyi does not have the level of control that leaders of other, more established democracies enjoy. The military remains an extraordinarily powerful actor in Myanmar, and one apparently capable of operating, in outlying areas at least, without even clearing policy through the Cabinet. The military retains its percentage of seats in parliament, essential control over its budget, and its strong resistance to any constitutional change. Proponents of constitutional change that might reduce the formal powers of the armed forces, like former NLD lawyer U Ko Ni, have been murdered.

Nonetheless, there are areas of policy over which Suu Kyi should enjoy significant influence, and freedom of the press is one of them. Suu Kyi was a longtime opposition leader, at a time (mostly) when Myanmars media was tightly controlled, the security forces regularly detained reporters, and state media outlets used their pages to mock and condemn her. She could use her bully pulpit to promote independent media, greater freedoms for journalists working throughout Myanmar, and an end to media monopolies. She could step in strongly if journalists were detained, and call for greater transparency in government transparency that might actually work in her favor, since a more vibrant Myanmar press could well expose abuses by the armed forces and, indirectly, apply pressure for constitutional change.

But Suu Kyi has not taken this approach. Instead, over the past year, press freedom in Myanmar seems to have regressed. In some respects, press freedom in Myanmar now seems more restrictive than it was in the final years of the former Thein Sein government. The Suu Kyi government has not tried to change existing laws that are major barriers to a free press. The Committee to Protect Journalists Shawn Crispin notes:

Chief among those laws is section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law, a broad provision that carries potential three-year prison terms for cases of defamation over communications networks. While the law was used only occasionally against journalists under military rule, politicians, military officials, and even Buddhist monks are increasingly using it now to stifle online and social media criticism.

The Myanmar chapter of the PEN press freedom group has estimated that over 55 cases have been filed, under this law, just in the year since Suu Kyis government came into office. Meanwhile, late last month three journalists were arrested in Shan State, under a different Unlawful Association law. These reporters included one from The Irrawaddy; they had been covering one of the countrys ethnic insurgencies as well as allegations of abuses by the state security forces. The return of a climate of fear is very disturbing, wrote The Irrawaddys editor-in-chief, Aung Zaw, after the publications reporter was arrested.

As with the rising toll of defamation cases, Suu Kyi has said nothing about the arrests in Shan State. A spokesperson for her party told the New York Times, For media personnel, press freedom is a key need For us, peace, national development and economic development are the priority, and then democracy and human rights, including press freedom.

Meanwhile, Suu Kyis government has enacted other restrictions on press access. It has made it nearly impossible for journalists to cover parts of Rakhine State in the west. The Suu Kyi government also recently refused to provide visas to UN investigators tasked with analyzing the situation in Rakhine State and allegations of abuse by Myanmar security forces in Rakhine State. In some ways, the Suu Kyi government is looking more and more like its predecessors.

More:
The NLD-Led Government in Myanmar Looks Eerily Familiar on Press Freedom - Council on Foreign Relations (blog)

July 6, 2017

Today is Thursday, July 6, the 187th day of 2017. There are 178 days left in the year.

Today in local history

In 1962, a report from the American Embassy in Japan disclosed that Wilmington was one of the cities that Japanese businesses had identified as "opportunity areas" for investing in the United States.

In 2001, a seismology professor from Duke University was preparing to place a seismograph more than 1,300 feet below the surface of the earth to look for clues into the mystery of the Seneca Guns, the loud booms that occasionally rattle houses along the coast. The 1,300-foot-deep hole was drilled as part of a separate study by the U.S. Geological Survey of the coastal plain's subsurface geology. The professor, Peter Malin, was conducting research into possible seismic activity along the coast, but said he suspected the Seneca Guns were probably an atmospheric phenomenon rather than a seismic one.

Elsewhere on this date

In 1535, Sir Thomas More was executed in England for high treason.

In 1777, during the American Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga.

In 1885, French scientist Louis Pasteur tested an anti-rabies vaccine on 9-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by an infected dog; the boy did not develop rabies.

In 1917, during World War I, Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence and Auda Abu Tayi captured the port of Aqaba from the Ottoman Turks.

In 1933, the first All-Star baseball game was played at Chicago's Comiskey Park; the American League defeated the National League, 4-2.

In 1942, Anne Frank, her parents and sister entered a "secret annex" in an Amsterdam building where they were later joined by four other people; they hid from Nazi occupiers for two years before being discovered and arrested.

In 1944, an estimated 168 people died in a fire that broke out during a performance in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Connecticut.

In 1957, Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title as she defeated fellow American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2. The Harry S. Truman Library, the nation's first presidential library, was dedicated in Independence, Missouri. Sixteen-year-old John Lennon first met 15-year-old Paul McCartney when Lennon's band, the Quarrymen skiffle group, performed a gig at St. Peter's Church in Woolton, Liverpool.

In 1964, the movie "A Hard Day's Night," starring The Beatles, had its world premiere in London. British colony Nyasaland became the independent country of Malawi.

In 1967, war erupted as Nigeria sent troops into the secessionist state of Biafra. (The Biafran (bee-AF'-ruhn) War lasted 2 1/2 years and resulted in a Nigerian victory.)

In 1971, jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong died in New York at age 69.

In 1988, 167 North Sea oil workers were killed when explosions and fires destroyed a drilling platform. Medical waste and other debris began washing up on New York City-area seashores, forcing the closing of several popular beaches.

In 1997, the rover Sojourner rolled down a ramp from the Mars Pathfinder lander onto the Martian landscape to begin inspecting the soil and rocks of the red planet.

Ten years ago: A man on a balcony over the New York-New York casino floor in Las Vegas opened fire on the gamblers below, wounding four people before he was tackled by off-duty military reservists. (The gunman, Steven Zegrean, was later convicted of charges including attempted murder and was sentenced to 26 to 90 years in prison; he died in April 2010 less than a year into his term.) Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, pioneer of the modern historical romance novel, died in Princeton, Minnesota, at age 68.

Five years ago: At a 100-nation conference in Paris, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hailed an accelerating wave of defections in President Bashar Assad's inner circle as the United States and its international allies pleaded once again for global sanctions against the Syrian regime. Former neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman was released from jail in Florida for a second time while he awaited his second-degree murder trial for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin. (Zimmerman was acquitted.)

One year ago: President Barack Obama scrapped plans to cut American forces in Afghanistan by half before leaving office. Double-amputee Olympian Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to six years in a South African prison for murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Philando Castile, a black elementary school cafeteria worker, was killed during a traffic stop in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights by Officer Jeronimo Yanez, who was charged with second-degree manslaughter (Yanez was acquitted at trial). Former Fox News Channel anchor Gretchen Carlson sued network chief executive Roger Ailes, claiming she was cut loose after she had refused his sexual advances and complained about harassment in the workplace, allegations denied by Ailes. (Carlson later settled her lawsuit for a reported $20 million.) The augmented-reality game Pokemon Go made its debut in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

Today's Birthdays: Singer-actress Della Reese is 86. The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is 82. Actor Ned Beatty is 80. Singer Gene Chandler is 77. Country singer Jeannie Seely is 77. Actor Burt Ward is 72. Former President George W. Bush is 71. Actor-director Sylvester Stallone is 71. Actor Fred Dryer is 71. Actress Shelley Hack is 70. Actress Nathalie Baye is 69. Actor Geoffrey Rush is 66. Actress Allyce Beasley is 66. Rock musician John Bazz (The Blasters) is 65. Actor Grant Goodeve is 65. Country singer Nanci Griffith is 64. Retired MLB All-Star Willie Randolph is 63. Jazz musician Rick Braun is 62. Actor Casey Sander is 62. Country musician John Jorgenson is 61. Former first daughter Susan Ford Bales is 60. Hockey player and coach Ron Duguay is 60. Actress-writer Jennifer Saunders is 59. Rock musician John Keeble (Spandau Ballet) is 58. Actor Pip Torrens is 57. Actor Brian Posehn is 51. Political reporter/moderator John Dickerson (TV: "Face the Nation") is 49. Actor Brian Van Holt is 48. Rapper Inspectah Deck (Wu-Tang Clan) is 47. TV host Josh Elliott is 46. Rapper 50 Cent is 42. Actress Tia Mowry is 39. Actress Tamera Mowry is 39. Comedian-actor Kevin Hart is 38. Actress Eva Green is 37. Actor Gregory Smith is 34. Rock musician Chris "Woody" Wood (Bastille) is 32. Rock singer Kate Nash is 30. Actor Jeremy Suarez is 27.

Thought for Today: "Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing." Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter (born this date in 1907, died 1954).

Read more:
FLASHBACK: This date in history, July 6, 2017 - StarNewsOnline.com

Irv Gotti says he wants to shake s--t the f--k up with his new BET anthology series, Tales.

And Gotti, who created and produces the series, did just that in the shows June 27 premiere episode, Fk the Police in which a white man (played by Brody Jenner) was lynched by an African-American mob.

I am not a political guy at all. I just seen the chance to put the mirror up to the world with the concept of Tales, Gotti says. You get a glimpse of what black people go through. Now you see the same scenario being done to white people, so how does it feel? In real life these things are happening, so maybe we should rethink and change.

I created a fictitious world where white people are the minority living within zones separated by rich and poor, he says. Just watching over the past six years the injustices of seeing cops kill black people and nothing happens I felt [NWAs] Fk the Police record could be an interesting concept that can make a statement, cause a little change and get people to think. So I took the shot.

The Queens-born Gotti (born Domingo Lorenzo Jr.) is best-known as the co-founder (with his brother Chris) of Murder Inc Records, working with acts including Ja Rule, DMX and Ashanti. And he says that the music used in Tales will be an integral component of the eight-part series.

The songs I picked are very descriptive, he says. Cold Hearted by Meek Mill is about friendship, betrayal, jealousy and anger so thats what [this] Tuesdays episode will be about. Story To Tell by Biggie Smalls is telling you about adultery, cheating and the whole relationship aspect.

Gotti says he conceived the idea for Tales about six years ago, but it wasnt until two years ago that it finally got the green light. [Tales] was received with open arms but it was a process, he says. I had to fight for things that I wanted. For the first episode, BET was wary about doing a story based on race, and portraying white people like that so I had to really fight to have it that way.

I called up Brody Jenner I told him, I need a favor, I gotta hang you from a tree. He said What! I thought it would shock people seeing a white man hanging from a tree. [The Notebook director] Nick Cassavetes played the role of Rodney King in one scene. [King] got hit 56 times whats your explanation for whopping this guys ass like that? He was on the floor not handcuffed, it was filmed and [all the cops] were let off. With Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman wasnt even a cop and they let him off. Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, we see these things and nothing is happening. It sends the message to black people that Your life aint worth st and we are letting you know that.

The premiere episode also featured Chet Hanks, son of Tom Hanks and Gotti says he has other stars in mind for future roles on Tales.

My celebrity dream cast would be Denzel Washington, Daniel Day Lewis, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, and Samuel L. Jackson, he says. That would be epic.

Tales 8 p.m. Tuesday on BET

Continue reading here:
'Tales' creator flips the script on race in provocative series - New York Post

Via Facebook, former WESH-Channel 2 reporter Bob Kealing has announced his new job.

On Monday, he starts as senior public affairs administrator/PIO for Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma.

I'm honored to be the new spokesman for such a professional and progressive law enforcement agency, Kealing writes.

Lemma, also on Facebook, tells Kealing: I can't tell you how excited we all are to have you join the team. You are going to be great in this new role.

Kealing made the announcement on Wednesday, which was his 53rd birthday. In October, I wrote about him and seven other veteran reporters at WESH.

He explained then why he had stayed so long in Central Florida. We've all been bitten by the ambition bug and had some very tempting offers, he said. Ive been able to do things during my career to grow and remain challenged which did not require uprooting myself and my family. Ive reported nationally and internationally for WESH and NBC. Anyone who knows Orlando knows the next major story is never far away. Its a great news town.

Kealing and his wife, Karen, have been married 19 years. Their children are William, 16, and Kristen, 14.

Personal issues were a crucial reason for staying here, Kealing said. With a young family and a great group of friends and neighbors, that only added to the allure of staying in the City Beautiful, he said. My family loves it here.

In early May, Kealing left the NBC affiliate after nearly 25 years.

Twenty-five years is a line of demarcation, Kealing told me then. Its scary any time you try to jump off in a new venture.

At WESH, Kealing earned five Emmys and shared in two Edward R. Murrow Regional Awards. He reported on the Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman trials and the Pulse nightclub massacre.

Kealing has gained fame as an author. Tupperware Unsealed, his 2008 book on pioneering businesswoman Brownie Wise, became Life of the Party when it was re-released last year. A movie version remains in development.

His most recent book, Elvis Ignited, examines Floridas importance in the career of Elvis Presley.

Kealing also wrote "Calling Me Home: Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock," which came out in 2012, and "Kerouac in Florida: Where the Road Ends," which was published in 2004.

hboedeker@orlandosentinel.com and 407-420-5756.

More here:
Bob Kealing to become Seminole sheriff's PIO - Orlando Sentinel