I want to take this occasion of the 10th birthday of OhmyNews to congratulate Mr. Oh Yeon Ho, the founder and CEO of OhmyNews and its present and former staff members who have contributed to the creation and development of an important new institutional form in the field of journalism.

In his original plans for the creation of OhmyNews, Mr. Oh spoke about the need for a 21st century form of journalism, and about the desire to pioneer such a journalism. (1) OhmyNews has been exploring how to create a form of journalism that builds on the open processes of the Internet and the contributions of netizens. Important to Mr. Oh when he began OhmyNews was whether the quality of journalism determined the media environment. He wanted to counter where the power and wealth of a media organization would determine the impact a news article would have.

This… weiter lesen

I recently returned home from a trip to China. Back in New York City, I was left with the feeling that there is something significant happening in China. Some have referred to Beijing as the equivalent in the 21st century of the interesting environment that Prague symbolized for the 1990s. In the air in Beijing one senses that something new is emerging, something that must build on the old but will emerge with its new characteristics.

In Beijing, I had many interesting conversations trying to understand the significance of what is happening there. One was with a friend who is from China but who has lived outside of China over 20 years. She was back visiting China for a special event and also planned to visit her parents who live in China, as she does every year.

Comparing current day Beijing with the Beijing she knew as a university student, she… weiter lesen

Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, has issued a 1-1/2 page report to the General Assembly on the progress in the implementation of the Goldstone Report. This is his response to General Assembly resolution 64/10 calling upon Israel and the Palestinians to carry on internal investigations of the violations of international law documented in the Goldstone Report. (1) The substance of the report is contained in 4 paragraphs on pages 2-3. Under the subheading of “Observations”, the gist of the 4 paragraphs is:

1) At the beginning of 2009 he “visited both Gaza and South Israel in order to help end the fighting and to show my respect and concern for the deaths and injuries of so many people during the conflict in and around Gaza.” He goes on to say he was and remains, “deeply affected by the widespread death, destruction and suffering in the Gaza… weiter lesen