Month: October 2019

Texas lawmakers on Monday debated a proposed state shield law, the Associated Press reported.

The Free Flow of Information Act, which would provide a qualified privilege for confidential sources, was discussed at the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee. This is the third session in which a shield law has been debated in Texas.

This session, three bills are on the table – one in the Senate and two in the House.

“The Free Flow of Information Act gives judges a framework to allow confidential sources to be protected with certain exceptions,” Fred Hartman, chairman of the Texas Daily Newspaper Association and the Texas Press Association, told the Houston Chronicle.

Supporters of the bill argue that it is needed in order to give whistleblowers and reporters protection as they uncover matters of public importance. But prosecutors have opposed the bill, saying it would hinder their ability to obtain evidence.

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One of those things we hate to see: a TV station that apparently doesn’t "get it" when it comes to how the news media works. The Associated Press reports that:

A South Texas public television station has refused to turn over financial documents to the Valley Morning Star unless a reporter reveals confidential sources, the newspaper reported Saturday.

Reporter Bruce Lee Smith on Friday tried to pick up financial documents he had requested from KMBH television and radio, run by RGV Educational Broadcasting Inc. as the local Public Broadcasting System affiliate.

When Smith arrived at the television studio, he was told KMBH officials would release the documents only if the reporter signed a letter in which he agreed to disclose confidential sources who provided background information to him about the station’s finances and operations.

The station did not comment on the AP report, but let’s hope that more reasonable heads prevail, or that it was all a misunderstanding, and that a broadcaster really doesn’t expect a reporter to reveal sources in a "bargain" to get information that should have been released anyway.

A U.S. District Court judge in New York ruled that a New York Times reporter cannot be forced to testify about his personal observations in a wrongful arrest case involving two Occupy Wall Street protestors.

The judge ruled that Times freelancer Colin Moynihan's personal observations were protected by the state's strong shield law. City officials subpoenaed Moynihan to testify about whether police officers warned two protestors to move out of the park before arresting them on Jan. 10, 2012 at Zuccotti Park.

Moynihan, who covered the Occupy Wall Street protests extensively for the newspaper, wrote a blog post on the Times website the next day about the arrest of the two protestors who refused to leave the park. What was in question in the wrongful arrest suit was whether the police officer warned the pair before arresting them. City officials subpoenaed Moynihan, who was at the scene, to testify.

U.S. District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled in an 8-page opinion released Tuesday that a reporter's personal observations while newsgathering are protected just like notes, videos and photographs.

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"Exempting firsthand observations from the scope of the reporter's privilege would severely chill journalists from engaging in valuable firsthand reporting, such as performed by Moynihan here," Rakoff wrote.

The City argued that Moynihan was an ordinary bystander and should not be exempt from testimony, according to court documents. In addition, the City said that Moynihan would be the best witness because he was "unbiased" and that all other eyewitnesses were unavailable because their testimony would be tainted by their associations to the defense or the plaintiffs.

Judge Rakoff wrote that just because a "journalist is a disinterested witness" is not enough to subpoena him, especially when other witnesses are available. Under the New York shield law, the city must prove that no alternative sources for the information exists before being allowed to subpoena a reporter for his testimony.

The newspaper's attorney, David McCraw, said it was a great victory for the press.

"The decision makes two things very clear: that the reporter’s privilege attaches to a journalist’s eyewitness testimony and that a litigant must try to get the information from other sources before a journalist will be dragged into court, even if the reporter’s perspective may be more objective," said McCraw, "I am sure the decision will help other journalists in the future.”

Promises of confidentiality made to compile an oral history of "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland must be upheld by the court to protect the participants, even though the British government says the records contain information about the murder of a mother of ten, according to parties fighting subpoenas in oral arguments before a federal appellate court yesterday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston (1st Cir.) is considering the appeal over subpoenas issued by the Department of Justice to Boston College, which holds the records. The U.S. government was acting on behalf of the British government, which is seeking to prosecute those responsible for the murder.

Boston College's Belfast Project was an attempt to create an oral history of interviews with members of the Irish Republican Army and Loyalist paramilitary groups, according to the district court opinion in the case and a blog that was created in opposition to the subpoenas and to serve as a clearing house for related court documents. The project was proposed by Ed Maloney and some of the interviews were conducted by Anthony McIntyre.

"At the heart of this case is the failure of the district court properly to appreciate the risks at issue, namely the likelihood of harm to the appellants," Eamonn Dornan, attorney for the appellants, told the court in the opening moments of his argument. Dornan also argued that release of the interviews, secured under confidentiality agreements, could chill the valuable First Amendment values served by the project.

Promises of confidentiality were "what made possible" the Belfast Project, Dornan said.

The appellants in the case, Maloney and McIntyre, were highly involved in the project. While Boston College was the party named in the subpoena, Maloney and McIntyre had sought to intervene in the case to assert their own interests in quashing the subpoena. Their request was denied, and it is this decision as well as the district court's refusal to quash that are before the First Circuit.

Jim Cotter, who also represents Maloney and McIntyre, said that if the First Circuit affirms the district court, the consequences for foreign correspondents could be significant.

Boston College was subpoenaed by the Justice Department in 2011 and ordered to produce, among other things, interview materials concerning Dolours Price and "any and all interviews containing information about the abduction and death of Mrs. Jean McConville." The information was sought at the request of the British Government under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, as evidence potentially probative in their investigation of McConville's death.

McConville, a mother of ten living in Belfast, was allegedly murdered in 1972 for being a suspected informant. The British government claimed that the interview materials with Price may contain information relevant to their investigation, according to the Boston Globe.

The project ran from 2001-2006, and interviewees were promised that their statements would remain confidential until their death, in order to protect them from retribution, according to the opinion. Retaliation against interviewees was thought to be of a particularly high risk because the Irish Republic Army has been known to enforce a strict "code of silence."

Despite the fact that the existence of the Belfast Project — and even some of its participants — have been known for some time, disclosing specific statements still presents a risk of retribution, Cotter said. "Knowing that someone talked is different than knowing the details of what they said."

At the argument, Dornan argued that release of the information contained in the interviews could subject McIntyre and Maloney to retribution because it could potentially lead to the prosecution of former militants. He also suggested that release of the information could upset peace between the IRA and the British government brokered under the Good Friday Agreement.

The district court applied a balancing test, comparing the government's need for the information against Boston College's interest in confidentiality, and ordered the college to produce the documents to the court for in camera review, meaning that the court would review the interviews privately. Maloney and McIntyre sought and received a stay from the Court of Appeals pending that court's review.

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A New York trial court ruled that The Wall Street Journal does not have to turn over years' worth of e-mail messages and reporter notes to business mogul Sheldon Adelson because those documents are protected by the state's shield law.

Judge Donna M. Mills ruled in a four-page opinion last week that Adelson “failed to overcome the qualified privilege for non-confidential news gathering material” provided by the state shield law. Adelson claimed that the records could shed light on his defamation suit against a former employee who accused him of condoning prostitution. Wall Street Journal reporter Kate O’Keefe wrote about the prostitution accusation against Adelson in an article.

To overcome the qualified reporter's privilege in New York, litigants must show that the material they are seeking is highly relevant, critical to their claim and not obtainable through another reasonable method. According to the opinion, Adelson "has not shown why he is entitled to the material sought."

Laura Handman, who represented the newspaper in its efforts to have Adelson’s subpoena quashed, said that a decision to force the disclosure Adelson requested “would have raised a number of disturbing questions” for journalists.

“Courts, happily, are so far unwilling to allow rummaging through newsgathering material for cases that are of questionable merit,” she said.

The dispute arose out of a lawsuit in Florida, where Adelson is suing Steven Jacobs for defamation. In a separate lawsuit, Jacobs, a former employee of Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Corporation, is suing the company in an employment case in Nevada.

Adelson's lawyers subpoenaed The Wall Street Journal’s parent company demanding all communications and documents exchanged between Jacobs and the newspaper, plus phone records showing any evidence of the newspaper's staff talking with Jacobs, since Jan. 1, 2010.

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In a brief urging the New York court to quash the subpoena, the newspaper's lawyers called the subpoena “a classic ‘fishing expedition’” and accused Adelson of using it as a thinly veiled excuse to seek information that he could use in the Nevada trial.

The matter could still be appealed to a higher New York state court.

· Story link

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Identical reporter-source shield bills, titled the Free Flow of Information Act of 2007, have been filed in both the U.S. House and Senate (HR 2102 and S 1267). The legislation grants a limited privilege to reporters to protect the identities of their confidential sources. The exceptions involve national security, prevention of death or bodily injury, and disclosures involving trade secrets of significant value, personal health and privat e financial information where a judge determines that the harm outweighs the public interest in the information. Reps. Rick Boucher, D-VA., John Conyers, D-MI, John Yarmuth, D-KY, Mike Pence, R-IN, and Rep. Howard Coble, R-NC, co-sponsored the House bill. Sens. Richard Lugar, R-IN, Christopher Dodd, D-CT, Pete Domenici, R-NM, and Lindsey Graham, R-SC, and Mary Landrieu, D-LA, are co-sponsoring the Senate bill. (5/2/07)

Police and forensic officers investigate a truck and refrigerated trailer where 39 bodies were discovered in Thurrock, England.

British police say the 39 bodies that were discovered in a refrigerated trailer in Essex are all believed to be Chinese nationals. An investigation into possible human smuggling and murder was sparked when the truck container was found east of London on Wednesday.

The truck’s driver, a 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland, remains in custody after being arrested on suspicion of murder. On Thursday, police secured a warrant to hold him for up to an additional 24 hours as they continue to investigate.

British media are reporting the driver’s name is Mo Robinson; police have refused to confirm publicly whether that is the driver’s identity.

“We continue to ask journalists and those on social media not to speculate about the identity of the lorry driver,” Deputy Chief Constable Pippa Mills said, adding, “This is an incredibly sensitive and high-profile investigation, and we are working swiftly to gather as full a picture as possible as to how these people lost their lives.”

Giving new details about the case on Thursday, police say they believe 38 of the people were adults and that one was a young adult woman — who was initially reported to have been a teenager. Eight of the people were women, and 31 were men.

“We read with heavy heart the reports about the death of 39 people in Essex, England,” the Chinese Embassy in the U.K. said in a statement. It added that Chinese officials are in “close contact with the British police” to clarify and confirm what happened.

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“Authorities will conduct autopsies to determine the exact cause of death and then try to identify the victims, which could take weeks,” NPR’s Frank Langfitt reports from London. He adds, “Britain’s national crime agency is trying to identify the criminal gangs who may have been behind the smuggling operation.”

In another update to the case, investigators now say the truck and trailer did not enter the U.K. together.

The truck traveled from Dublin to the Welsh ferry port of Holyhead on Sunday, police say. Meanwhile, the trailer traveled from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge to the Essex port of Purfleet on the Thames River, arriving just after midnight local time Wednesday morning. The two were coupled together and left the port less than an hour later, police say.

Police were called to the scene at the Waterglade Industrial Park by medical personnel at 1:40 a.m. (8:40 p.m. ET) Wednesday, when they made the tragic discovery of dozens of bodies in the container.

On Thursday, police confirmed that three properties in County Armagh, Ireland, have been searched in connection with their investigation.

The deaths of dozens of people raised echoes of another harrowing incident from 2000, when the bodies of 58 Chinese migrants were found suffocated in a trailer at the English port of Dover. As in that case, the container had traveled to the U.K. from Zeebrugge.

In the 2000 case, the driver of the Dutch-registered truck was eventually sentenced to 14 years in prison. Several years later, a Dutch court sentenced seven members of a Chinese gang to up to six years in prison on charges related to the ensuing inquiry.

Indonesian president expected to focus on managing economy over next 5 years

Indonesian President Joko Widodo seeks to set the country on course to an advanced economy as he starts his second five-year term with a new Cabinet for development and enhancing international cooperation.

His “Onward Indonesia” new Cabinet is generally seen as strong and well balanced as he has retained his economics team from his first Cabinet and added new faces, including his erstwhile rival in the April presidential election, Prabowo Subianto, who takes over as defense minister.

The new lineup “reflects a mixture of political compromise and the need for strong economic leadership,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist with London-based global information firm IHS Markit.

Bringing in opposition leader Subianto into the new government will go a long way toward healing the bitter postelection political divisions that were creating unrest in the nation, he said. And on the economic front Widodo has also made some interesting appointments unveiled on Oct 23.

The president aims to speed up economic development with the appointment of young entrepreneur Nadiem Makarim, founder of Gojek, as culture and education minister and Wishnutama Kusubandio, co-founder of NET TV, as minister of tourism and creative economy.

The president’s decision to retain former World Bank executive Sri Mulyani Indrawati as finance minister and his old political ally, Luhut Pandjaitan, as coordinating minister for maritime affairs, natural resources and investment give a clear signal to international investors and the business community that Indonesia will continue on its course of economic growth and stability.

Wellian Wiranto, an economist who covers Indonesia for the Singapore-based Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, or OCBC, said the reappointment of Indrawati as finance minister has “rightly assured investors of a continuation of Indonesia’s orthodox fiscal policies, including measures to broaden the country’s narrow tax base”.

On Oct 25, the president told a media briefing that he wanted to expedite talks on a trade deal with the European Union and wrap up a review of trade with the United States. Joint works with China could also be updated.

’10 new Balis’

Over the next five years, Widodo is expected to focus on managing the economy, continue with his signature big-ticket infrastructure development policies and pro-poor initiatives.

The man who talked of creating “10 new Balis” and oversaw the completion of Jakarta’s first metro line in his first five years in office, now has an ambitious $33 billion plan to establish a new capital city on the island of Borneo and further develop the transport and communication links that are crucial to an archipelago that stretches across three time zones and thousands of islands.

To realize his ambition Widodo has appointed a slew of new ministers on the economic front including coordinating minister for economic affairs Airlangga Hartarto; trade minister Agus Suparmanto; state-owned enterprises minister Erick Thohir and a new head for the investment coordinating board, Bahlil Lahadalia.

The new Cabinet also lays the foundations for shifting the country’s economic reliance from resources exports to manufacturing and added-value products, so that the nation of 272 million people can move from a middle-income country to an advanced economy by around 2045.

Internationally, Widodo is expected to continue to build strong economic ties with China, notably through joint infrastructure projects.

Economic cooperation between Indonesia and China is likely to accelerate in the coming years as he continues to give high priority to development of critical infrastructure such as ports, roads and industrial parks.

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China’s Vice-President Wang Qishan and Widodo discussed bilateral relations in their meeting in Jakarta on Oct 21. As a special envoy of President Xi Jinping, Wang attended Widodo’s inauguration ceremony on Oct 20.

Wang said Beijing appreciated Widodo’s commitment to promoting the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, and his active support for and participation in synergizing the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Indonesia’s development strategies, according to a Xinhua report.

Capital fund experts advise entering market now, before it’s too late

Despite China’s cut in subsidies for new energy vehicles and the slowdown of sales growth, investors at a recent forum said now is a good time to invest in the nascent sector that is believed to be the future of the automotive industry.

China put in place a financial stimuli plan for electric cars, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles in 2009, but officials have been cutting subsidies, most recently in June, and will stop them altogether by the end of 2020.

The move, coupled with the overall slowdown of China’s car market and recent fire accidents, has affected sales of new energy cars in the country, which overtook the United States as the largest market for such vehicles in 2015.

Although sales maintained a 20.8 percent growth year-on-year to total 872,000 in the first three quarters, they have fallen for three consecutive months since July, according to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Despite the situation, Fosun Capital Co-chairman Zhang Liangsen said it is a now-or-never opportunity for investors.

“The new energy vehicle industry is quite young. And any new industry is likely to see tremendous development in a short period of time, especially in China, where there are 40 million engineers,” said Zhang at a forum held by Securities Daily in Beijing earlier this month. “We can see most of our past concerns have been solved and many of our current concerns will be solved in two years,” he added.

Baidu Capital Chief Financial Officer Zhang Jinling said despite the subsidy cuts, the new energy vehicle industry is expected to see growth because the government is not withdrawing its support, but rather shifting it to vehicle use including building charging infrastructure. She said the new features of such vehicles are of principal importance. They range from connectivity to some autonomous driving functions, which will make them fast-moving consumer goods.

When asked about the time required for the investment to generate returns, Zhang said Baidu has enough patience.

“The new energy vehicle is no doubt the direction of future automotive development,” she said. “Like any other new industry, there will be some setbacks and obstacles. But I can tell you that we can and we will wait.” Baidu is one of the investors behind electric vehicle maker WM Motor, which delivered 12,799 vehicles in the first three quarters as the best-selling startup this year in China.

Brian Gu, a former senior executive at JP Morgan and now president of startup Xpeng Motors, said like many other sectors including smartphones, the growth of the new energy vehicle industry will speed up when their market share reaches 10 percent. “When it reaches 10 percent, which may take two to three years from now, people will feel they have something to do with electric cars, because such vehicles are easy to find around them,” said Gu.

Gu said the charging infrastructure and cost will further improve when the number of electric vehicles reaches that threshold.

Last year, China’s new energy vehicles totaled 1.25 million, accounting for 4.4 percent of total vehicle sales in the country, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Besides startups, electric vehicle brands of traditional carmakers are speeding up their efforts to sharpen their competitive edge.

Ma Fanglie, president of BJEV, the new energy vehicle arm of State-owned BAIC Group, said the carmaker has been going upward with increased investment in research and development.

“Cutting the subsidies may not necessarily be a bad thing. It can help weed out the incompetent companies and allow the competitive to stand out,” Ma said.

He said 20 percent of BJEV’s sales revenue is spent on research and development.

In August, it opened a $291 million experimental and testing facility, which is the largest of its kind in the country.

Ma said 80 percent of its sales are medium-and high-end models, priced above 120,000 yuan ($16,985). Its sales in the first three quarters totaled more than 100,000. BJEV has been China’s best-selling electric vehicle brand for six years in a row.

LANZHOU – No casualties have been reported after a 5.7-magnitude earthquake hit Xiahe county, Gannan Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Northwest China’s Gansu province, at 1:56 am Monday, local authorities said.

Strong tremors were felt in the county and many people rushed out to the streets after the earthquake. Local governments of all the townships in the county are evaluating the impact of the quake.

The quake was felt obviously in the neighboring cities of Tianshui and Lanzhou.

According to the China Earthquake Networks Center, the epicenter was monitored at 35.10 degrees north latitude and 102.69 degrees east longitude, at a depth of 10 km.