Feb 3, 2003 5 min read

Suddenly, the dangers journalists sometimes face in trying to do their jobs is no longer just another foreign news story about events thousands of miles away. Suddenly, those dangers are not only the subject solely of some press association study. Suddenly, it’s about one of us, and those dangers hit home. Freelance writer Ruth Morris, 34, … was kidnapped last week by Colombian rebels. Another kidnap victim was fellow journalist, John Dalton… About 50 armed men stopped the journalists at a roadblock, identifying themselves as members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Rebels placed black hoods over their faces before leading them into the jungle at gunpoint. … The latest kidnappings are part of a wave of attacks on journalists and press freedom in many countries. The Committee to Protect Journalists says 19 were killed worldwide last year, including Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, murdered on videotape in Pakistan. Despite these kidnappings, an independent press must not and will not back down from upholding the people’s right to know the truth about their world. On United Nations’ credibility:

At a time when United Nations is about to play a crucial role on whether to support, or oppose, U.S. military action in Iraq, the U.N. has undermined its credibility to an astonishing degree. How else to view the new chairman of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights – Libya?

That’s Libya as in Moammar Khadafy’s dictatorship. That’s Libya, the tyrant that refuses to admit U.N. human rights investigators to observe how it administers justice and treats its political prisoners.

But Mr. Khadafy’s record is well known nonetheless. The grim facts have been carefully chronicled by the private watchdog group Human Rights Watch: rigged trials, detention without trial; torture and assassination of political opponents; abduction and “disappearance” of dissidents. …

It’s this kind of self-serving politics that cost the U. S. a seat on the commission recently, even as it enabled other nations with atrocious human rights records to become members of the panel. They include Syria, Cuba and Algeria. Human Rights Watch calls Libya’s record on abuse “appalling.” The same might be said of the United Nations for allowing this commission to transform itself from the world’s monitor of human rights abuses into a clubhouse for the world’s worst offenders.

On Iraq:

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Iraq should cooperate fully with the U.N. arms inspection team, and he said this issue should be addressed by the entire world community. But he would not be drawn out further. Koizumi most likely does not want to sully Japan’s relations with the United States, especially now, when it must cooperate with the United States in addressing problems with North Korea. But an attack on Iraq will have a serious impact on the Middle East and the global economy. It will also affect future Bush administration policy toward the ‘axis of evil’ and the role of the United Nations. A growing number of European critics, concerned over unilateral U.S action, argue that the Iraqi problem is really the American problem. Japan cannot watch from the sidelines. Most of our oil comes from the Middle East. If the war triggers new terrorism, Japan could become a target. Successive Japanese administrations have been very poor at providing calm, straightforward and constructive criticism of the Americans and their actions. But this is the time for the Koizumi administration to do precisely that.

On Saddam Hussein:

‘Stop the war!’ That’s the message shouted by pacifists at U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. There is no room in their world of ideas that Saddam Hussein is the problem. Neither the fact that Iraq has more than a decade to do what some now believe will happen if the country gets just a little more time. If there is armed action against Iraq, the full responsibility lies with Saddam Hussein.

On the pharmaceutical industry:

When it comes to complexity of pricing, pharmaceuticals are a good match for gasoline. Canadian pharmacists have been warned by major drug manufacturers to stop selling drugs to Americans at prices 20 to 80 percent lower than in the U.S. Now, GlaxoSmithKline says if they don’t stop, the manufacturer will cut off supplies. It claims improper temperature, humidity and radiation levels during shipping could make the drugs unsafe. It is true that drugs requiring specific controls can be damaged by mishandling. But it also appears many people who need these drugs cannot afford U.S. prices. Thus, they go to Canada or buy them over the Internet. One province on the U.S./Canadian border estimates its pharmacists sell $400 million worth of drugs to Americans, double what it sells to Canadians. … Rather than ugly threats, we want to know why the very same drugs in the very same packaging can be sold for so much less in Mexico and Canada. Why do 100 Zocor pills cost $137 in Canada and $372 in the United States? It can’t be all temperature control. It’s about like trying to find out how the price of gasoline is established.