| Thursday, September 25, 2003 |  |
| Reporters Without Borders |
 25 Sep 2003 @ 13:59Reporters Without Borders is an association officially recognised as serving the public interest More than a third of the world's people live in countries where there is no press freedom. Reporters Without Borders works constantly to restore their right to be informed. Thirty-one media professionals lost their lives in 2001 for doing what they were paid to do -- keeping us informed. Today, more than 120 journalists around the world are in prison simply for doing their job. In Nepal, Eritrea and China, they can spend years in jail just for using the "wrong" word or photo. Reporters Without Borders believes imprisoning or killing a journalist is like eliminating a key witness and threatens everyone's right to be informed. It has been fighting such practices for more than 17 years. Defending press freedom… every day Reporters Without Borders, kept on constant alert via its network of over 100 correspondents, rigorously condemns any attack on press freedom world-wide by keeping the media and public opinion informed through press releases and public-awareness campaigns. The association defends journalists and other media contributors and professionals who have been imprisoned or persecuted for doing their work. It speaks out against the abusive treatment and torture that is still common practice in many countries. The organisation supports journalists who are being threatened in their own countries and provides financial and other types of support to their needy families. Reporters Without Borders is fighting to reduce the use of censorship and to oppose laws designed to restrict press freedom. The association is also working to improve the safety of journalists world-wide, particularly in war zones. It is committed to assist in the rebuilding of media groups and to provide financial and material support to news staffs experiencing hardships. Finally, since January 2002, when it created the Damocles Network, Reporters Without Borders acquired a judicial arm. In order to ensure that murderers and torturers of journalists are brought to trial, the Network provides victims with legal services and represents them before the competent national and international courts, so that proper judicial procedures can be implemented. Reporters Without Borders : an international organisation The organisation's initiatives are being carried out on five continents through its national branches (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland) and its offices in Abidjan, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Montreal, Nairobi, New York, Tokyo and Washington. It also works in close co-operation with local and regional press freedom organisations and with members of the "Reporters without Borders' Network," who represent Afghanistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Myanmar ("Burma"), Cuba, Eritrea, Haiti, Peru, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Russia, Tunisia and the Ukraine. Complete contact information about the organisation's various branches is available at : www.rsf.org www.rsf.org : a news website devoted to press freedom Reporters Without Borders' maintains this trilingual (French, English and Spanish) website in order to keep a daily tally of attacks on press freedom as they occur throughout the world. Updated several times a day, it functions like a press-freedom news agency. It gives Internet users an opportunity to act as a group to demand the release of jailed journalists by signing on-line petitions. To circumvent censorship, it presents occasionally articles that have been banned in their country of origin, hosts newspapers that have been closed down in their homeland and serves as a forum where journalists who have been "silenced" by authorities can voice their opinions. This website, which welcomes 35,000 to 45,000 visitors per month, also provides complete reports on cases covered in the press, as well as a daily "barometer" summarising the most recent attacks on press freedom. Three key events support the cause of press freedom Every year, on 3 May, Reporters Without Borders celebrates World Press Freedom Day. On this occasion, it publishes a full report of the status of press freedom in more than 150 countries. In addition, the association offers news staffs around the world an opportunity to support incarcerated journalists through its "sponsorship" programme. Once a year, Sponsorship Day provides an occasion to break the silence and openly discuss the situation of these journalists who have been jailed because they chose to keep us informed. On 10 December of every year, the association awards the Reporters Without Borders - Fondation de France Prize to the journalist who has contributed the most to the cause of press freedom in his(her) country. The funds that make it possible for Reporters Without Borders to carry on its daily fight are derived from the annual sale of two photo magazines, public donations and the support provided by various institutions. Click on the image to download the campaign : Fasten your seatbelts and let's go see… Cuba, Tunisia, Turkey... Three countries that tourists dream about. This summer, Reporters Without Borders invites you to look on the other side of the picture postcard, to see the hidden face of these countries, where censorship is ever-present. You won't hear any interviews with opposition figures on the radio in Havana. Tunisian TV never fails to sing the praises of the country's president. And in Turkey, you won't hear any Kurdish music on the air waves. All the product of well-oiled systems of clamping down on dissident voices. Consult the press release |
| GALILEO END OF MISSION STATUS By Carolina Martinez Jet |
 25 Sep 2003 @ 10:06Propulsion Laboratory September 21, 2003 The Galileo spacecraft's 14-year odyssey came to an end on Sunday, Sept. 21, when the spacecraft passed into Jupiter's shadow then disintegrated in the planet's dense atmosphere at 11:57 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The Deep Space Network tracking station in Goldstone, Calif., received the last signal at 12:43:14 PDT. The delay is due to the time it takes for the signal to travel to Earth. Hundreds of former Galileo project members and their families were present at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., for a celebration to bid the spacecraft goodbye. "We learned mind-boggling things. This mission was worth its weight in gold," said Dr. Claudia Alexander, Galileo project manager. Having traveled approximately 4.6 billion kilometers (about 2.8 billion miles), the hardy spacecraft endured more than four times the cumulative dose of harmful jovian radiation it was designed to withstand. During a previous flyby of the moon Amalthea in November 2002, flashes of light were seen by the star scanner that indicated the presence of rocky debris circling Jupiter in the vicinity of the small moon. Another measurement of this area was taken today during Galileo's final pass. Further analysis may help confirm or constrain the existence of a ring at Amalthea's orbit. "We haven't lost a spacecraft, we've gained a steppingstone into the future of space exploration," said Dr. Torrance Johnson, Galileo project scientist. The spacecraft was purposely put on a collision course with Jupiter because the onboard propellant was nearly depleted and to eliminate any chance of an unwanted impact between the spacecraft and Jupiter's moon Europa, which Galileo discovered is likely to have a subsurface ocean. Without propellant, the spacecraft would not be able to point its antenna toward Earth or adjust its trajectory, so controlling the spacecraft would no longer be possible. The possibility of life existing on Europa is so compelling and has raised so many unanswered questions that it is prompting plans for future spacecraft to return to the icy moon. Galileo was launched from the cargo bay of Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1989. The exciting list of discoveries started even before Galileo got a glimpse of Jupiter. As it crossed the asteroid belt in October 1991, Galileo snapped images of Gaspra, returning the first ever close-up image of an asteroid. Less then a year later, the spacecraft got up close to yet another asteroid, Ida, revealing it had its own little "moon," Dactyl, the first known moon of an asteroid. In 1994 the spacecraft made the only direct observation of a comet impacting a planet-- comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's collision with Jupiter. The descent probe made the first in-place studies of the planet's clouds and winds, and it furthered scientists' understanding of how Jupiter evolved. The probe also made composition measurements designed to assess the degree of evolution of Jupiter compared to the Sun. Galileo made the first observation of ammonia clouds in another planet's atmosphere. It also observed numerous large thunderstorms on Jupiter many times larger than those on Earth, with lightning strikes up to 1,000 times more powerful than on Earth. It was the first spacecraft to dwell in a giant planet's magnetosphere long enough to identify its global structure and to investigate the dynamics of Jupiter's magnetic field. Galileo determined that Jupiter's ring system is formed by dust kicked up as interplanetary meteoroids smash into the planet's four small inner moons. Galileo data showed that Jupiter's outermost ring is actually two rings, one embedded within the other. Galileo extensively investigated the geologic diversity of Jupiter's four largest moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa. Galileo found that Io's extensive volcanic activity is 100 times greater than that found on Earth. The moon Europa, Galileo unveiled, could be hiding a salty ocean up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) deep underneath its frozen surface containing about twice as much water as all the Earth's oceans. Data also showed Ganymede and Callisto may have a liquid-saltwater layer. The biggest discovery surrounding Ganymede was the presence of a magnetic field. No other moon of any planet is known to have one. The prime mission ended six years ago, after two years of orbiting Jupiter. NASA extended the mission three times to continue taking advantage of Galileo's unique capabilities for accomplishing valuable science. The mission was possible because it drew its power from two long-lasting radioisotope thermoelectric generators provided by the Department of Energy. "The mission was a testimonial to the persistence of NASA even through tremendous challenges. It was a phenomenal mission," said Sean O'Keefe, NASA administrator. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL designed and built the Galileo orbiter, and operated the mission. Additional information about the Galileo mission and its discoveries is available online or here Check here for information about NASA |