Posted on 12/26/2004 1:30:15 AM PST by Truth666
However, the government said two thirds of the capital was under about four feet (1.2 meters) of water in some areas. About a third of the countrys 330,000 population live in the highly congested capital island.
Maldives is a cluster of 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered some 800 kilometres (500 miles) across the equator and is vulnerable to any rise in sea levels.
The fate of tens of thousands of tourists in the Maldives was not immediately known.
The US not signing the Kyoto Treaty will soon wake up the media..It is only big news if the US is at fault./sarcasm..but true
It does...and it seems like even once they can access places and communication is at least better, that it's still going to be a very long time before we get even halfway accurate numbers (from anywhere) since they keep saying so many people were swallowed up by the water...and others swept to so many other places that just trying to figure out who is where and who is missing and who is injured, etc...I can't even imagine.
Some will never be found.
http://www.spiegel.de/
REKORD-ERDBEBEN IN SÜDOSTASIEN
Monsterwelle reißt mehrere tausend Menschen in den Tod
8.9 Richter scale...that's the largest I've heard about in my lifetime!
Seriously. The media in Europe is NOT a free and independent media as in the US. Germany is the perfect example!
The Germans have DPA (Deutsche Presse Agentur) who feeds the media their news. This is kind of like AP and UPI only with heavy state influence.
The news and MOST TV channels (ARD, ZDF, HR3, SWF, DW...) are run by a state appointed political affiliated (Chef Redaktuer) individuals. Everyone knows how important these guys are and its reflected by how much squabbling you have between the ruling parties when one of these positions gets filled. The parties know it will affect the media slant coming from them.
You have the GEZ which pays for the programming with tax revenue largely. Again, the government even controls the money flow in the media.
The BBC is entirely state controlled and the French are going to bring you a free TV channel all over the US which will have news service too. The French government put out $30,000,000 for a start-up support.
So yes, when the German government chose to be against the war in Iraq, all the media toed the line and more or less acted as an agent of the government perpetuating it's side with no viable alternative being offered. A completely one sided picture was generated.
Today they dont want to highlight the war on terror nor the threat with Islamists. So Van Goghs murder is hardly mentioned and widely already off of any media in Germany. The hijackings of planes in Russia, Beslan, car bombs, Munich Oktoberfest bombing, Madrid bombing are all quickly eliminated from the media press cycle after the mandatory obligatory press release (You cant not cover it). Harping on the issue would give the US position credibility! So there is no statement from the German government (Which found it necessary to make comments about Abu Gahrib) and the state media quickly forgets issues while focusing a lot of attention on others.
Big movie special the night of the US elections on German State sponsored TV? Fahrenheit 9-11.
Are you really surprised the Germans believe there is a conspiracy in the US media (Rupert Murdock), no real war on terror or threat and that the war in Iraq was purely for oil?
Red6
You're right! That's the biggest earthquake on earth since 1964, when a 9.2 hit Alaska.
CNN has a full article on it now. Thousands dead.
There is no reason for an Information Operation campaign to be conducted here (Maldives).
War on terror
Iraq
Turkish EU membership
Euro adoption
Those are issues where the government WILL use its influence in the media to direct pubilc opinion. And in Germany, France and most of Europe the governments can do this very effectively because of their degree of influence in the media.
Red6
Australia is getting ready to provide aid and assistance (I may be being sent - still waiting for final word), and I would assume other nations will do the same. We have an advantage in Australia over most western nations as for us, this happened on the 26th rather than Christmas day - makes it a little bit easier to get things organised when it's not actually Christmas.
Instead of answering the questions about what constitutes a blackout or censorship?
Dude...back off the eggnog.
From what Ive seen on Indian news channels,communication facilities have been rather badly hit given that most of the capital,Male has been flooded.That's one big problem with Maldives being such lowlying islands.If the situation there gets real bad,India or the US or UK may have to provide assistance.
No media blackout--a tidal wave is like a hurricane's storm surge, wiping out everything in its path. In order to have communication, there needs to be phone lines, transmission lines, cell phone towers--and they're gone, along with hundreds--if not thousands--of people, houses, vehicles, utilities and who knows what else. It's a very grim situation.
You need to update your fabricated headline...
"Fate of tens of thousands of european tourists being censored"
you need to add:
"but one body is accounted for"
See http://news.newkerala.com/world-news/?action=fullnews&id=50195
"British tourist dies as tidal waves engulf Maldives"
The unidentified British tourist died of a heart attack as the waves hit his resort, a local official said, adding that several "water cabanas" built on stilts had been swept away by a wall of water.
A blackout for a time makes sense. Those on the scene need to sort things out, etc.,( as many have said here.) Friends and relatives will get news piecemeal, then the rest of us. An unthinkable disaster.
Just a thought...horrible...are we now going to be faced with PC disaster reporting? It's being rammed down our throats every day in every other way.
<< ... Gayoom has spent much of his 26 years dictatorship warning of the dangers that "global warming," erosion and shifting weather patterns pose to low-lying island states like his own.
"We still face 'the threat' of 'sea level rise,'" he told Rooters in a recent interview.
"There is encroachment of the sea on many islands, there is erosion of our beaches." >>
Couldn't miss an opportunity to push the "global warming" barrow, the bastard.
According to the Discovery Channel...they ran a 'disaster' night a few months back that left me popeyed with terror at three am...the US East coast will get theirs when that unstable volcanic island in the eastern Atlantic (sorry, can't recall name of island), splits in half and falls into the sea. A tsumami will race west and hit the US in eight hours. Death toll in millions. This is if that asteroid with our number on is hasn't struck first.
The US not signing the Kyoto treaty is undoubtedly what led to that earthquake and resulting tsunami. NYTimes headline for Monday.
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