scoop.co.nz Wednesday, 25 June 2003, 10:11 am Press Release: US State Department

Supporting Human Rights And Democracy: The U.S. Record 2002-2003

Richard L. Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State; Lorne W. Craner, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Remarks on The Release of Department's New Annual Publication Washington, DC June 24, 2003

MR. REEKER: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to the State Department. Welcome to our special briefing this morning on "Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record from 2002-2003." As advertised, we have the Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Richard Armitage, to deliver some brief remarks, and then Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Lorne Craner, will have additional remarks and be able to take your questions.

So, with no further ado, I would like to turn the podium over to Deputy Secretary Armitage.

Deputy Secretary Armitage remarks on the Release of Departments New Annual Publication -Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2002-2003. State Department Photo by Michael Gross DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: Thank you, Phil. Good morning.

In 1948, when much of the world was still a post-war landscape of wreckage and rubble, the community of nations came together to build a new moral landscape, one based on a common standard of universal human rights. The governments of the world have reached for that standard ever since with varying degrees of success.

You might say that the U.S. Government has counted those degrees of success in inches. Every year, for the last 25 years, we have released a ten-inch-high report on human rights violations around the world. The bulk alone speaks volumes about the distance the world still needs to travel between the reality of the day and the high standard we all want to reach.

Documenting that distance is an important exercise. In some cases, scrutiny alone can motivate governments and individuals to change for the better. And while we in the United States Government believe in the power of information, we also believe in the importance of action. And so the employees of the Department of State are out in force around the world, working every day to make human rights a reality.

So I am pleased today to release for the first time a public record of those efforts. This document, "Supporting Human Rights and Democracy," looks at our work in some 92 countries with especially problematic and persistent human rights violations.

In these pages, you will find countries such as Burma and Burundi, where brutal regimes and relentless conflict have exacted a terrible daily toll of human misery. Acting alone and in concert with other governments and organizations, the United States has brought pressure to bear on both countries to release prisoners and to respect human rights, to reform the government and to reach for peace. We have worked to help create better living conditions for local populations in both places by supporting projects on everything from post-traumatic counseling to the demobilization and rehabilitation of child soldiers.

But you will also find Bahrain in these pages, a country we consider to be a key player in the war against terrorism, but one which we nevertheless hold to that same high standard. And, indeed, Bahrain has shown a commitment to improving its protection of human rights, which we have supported just as in Burundi and just as in Burma with a variety of civil society projects.

Deputy Secretary Armitage remarks on the Release of Departments New Annual Publication -Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2002-2003. State Department Photo by Michael Gross And I could go on. After all, I haven't even made it out of the Bs yet. But I think you can see the common thread that links the entities together. With friends and with foe alike, the United States is engaged in diplomacy, policy and hands-on projects to redress wrongs, but to also address the structural flaws that can lead to such violations in the first place. Indeed, freedom and human dignity are indivisible. And so it follows that many of our programs and policies are aimed at developing democratic institutions and representative governments.

But what you should really know about all of the demarches and all of the dialogues and the thousands of projects you will read about in these pages is that this is actually what we do every day; this is our daily regimen at this Department of State. It is also a representative sample of the hard work of many hands, including our partners in Congress, other agencies and organizations overseas and here at home, as well as other governments and brave individuals.

And counted among those brave individuals are our own Department of State personnel, such as the staff who stitch together the untold stories that make up this report and those cited in the closing chapter for their extraordinary dedication. I commend them for all of their work and I commend them to you as exemplars of the way in which this Department is implementing the vision of this President and the values of our American people every single day.

So, with that, I am delighted to give the helm to Assistant Secretary Craner, who is the one who orchestrated this mighty effort.

Lorne.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: Well, thank you all for being here for today's release of "Supporting Human Rights and Democracy." For a quarter of a century, the State Department has issued a separate volume, "The Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices." That document has a hard won reputation as the most comprehensive, accurate volume on human rights conditions around the globe.

But many have asked about the connection between these reports and our policy. For all of their value in spotlighting human rights abuse, the Country Reports don't answer a very simple question: "What are we doing about it?"

Since becoming Assistant Secretary two years ago, I have wanted to include in our reporting a compendium of the work we are doing to advance human rights and democracy. We will not shy away from criticizing human rights violations abroad. But, in addition, we want to take concrete steps to help the builders of democracy.

In short, our support for human rights is more than a once-a-year exercise in identifying abuses. It is a day-in/day-out effort of the Department of State, other U.S. Government agencies and U.S. missions overseas. This new annual report, "Supporting Human Rights and Democracy," answers the "What are we doing about it" question for 92 of the world's most serious human rights violators.

I want to thank everybody in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor for their hard work in compiling this report. I want to particularly acknowledge Liz Dugan and Sally Buikema of my bureau, and the editors-in-chief, Cynthia Bunton, of our Country Reports Office, and Rob Jackson of the Office of Promoting Human Rights and Democracy.

I want to thank the other personnel in my bureau who worked on this report, the other bureaus in the Department, other U.S. agencies and U.S. missions overseas who have contributed to the report. Most of all, I want to thank the foreign service officers -- and you will see many of their names in the very back of this book -- who have demonstrated through their activities an unwavering commitment to advancing U.S. interests by support for human rights and democracy around the world.

Thank you, and I'll take your questions.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, there are 92 countries in this report. Does this mean that the countries we don't have in this report have good records? For example, Turkey is not included in this report.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: We were asked by the Congress to issue a report, not on all countries that are members of the UN, as we do for the Annual Country Reports, for this one. We were asked to do a report on countries where there is pervasive torture, disappearances and other serious violations of human rights. And so we came up with a list of 92 where those things occur regularly.

QUESTION: Yes. The last Human Rights Report, U.S. Human Rights Reports, questioning on Venezuela, the independence of powers, the strength of the Venezuelan institutions and the freedom of expression. I just want to know, it's in any way different, this report, and which incident would have in the relationships between Venezuela and the United States?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: No, I think we still -- we still have concerns about Venezuela, including independence of the media, independence of labor unions, and other issues. And I know we are working very, very closely with the OAS to try and better the situation there.

QUESTION: The report talks a lot about the Millennium Challenge Account, at least addresses, says this is going to be important, particularly for Africa. But this program doesn't seem to have gotten off the ground. Can you give us a sense of where you are on that?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: Where we are on it is working through with Congress how much is going to be in the first year. The Millennium Challenge Account is designed to expand by 50 percent over the next -- in the next three years, our assistance, foreign aid abroad, to add an extra $5 billion in year three to that account, and, thereafter, to continue at that level. It's designed to help countries that are advancing politically, economically and socially, that have demonstrated a commitment to improving their lot on those scores.

Where we are right now is walking through with Congress and working through with Congress how much the first year of funding is going to be. But, as I said, it was designed originally to be a three-year ramp-up to the full amount of $5 billion.

QUESTION: Assistant Secretary, what would you say to -- I mean --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: What page are you on?

QUESTION: I have a question about people who are -- what would you say to people who would argue that because Israel and Turkey are not in this list that you have somehow spared U.S.'s -- America's closest allies, who other independent groups have singled out in the past for their human rights abuses?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: If you look closely in the Middle East section, you'll see West Bank and Gaza are in there.

QUESTION: West Bank, Gaza --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: -- are in there.

QUESTION: With regard to Turkey --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: Within Israel, we have never -- we have always said within Israel the human rights situation is good, but the human rights situation in the West Bank caused by Israel and by the Palestinians is not good, and so we address that in this report.

QUESTION: My mistake. But what about Turkey? I mean, Turkey is a --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: We don't find that same level as these other countries, but you will find many, many U.S. allies. You find all of Central Asia in this. You find many countries in the Middle East that are allies. You won't lack for allies, if you look through the report.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, is it fair to say that these are the 92 worst?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: That's a fair assessment, both democratically and human rights. You can have countries that are progressing on democracy, but they still have human rights problems. And you see many of those in here.

Another revealing -- I mean, this is 92 out of 195 or -96 countries around the world. We had a gathering of what was called the Community of Democracies in Seoul last November, and you had well over 100 countries there. If you match up the two lists, there will probably be a little bit of overlap between the two, but not very much at all.

QUESTION: Can you say, as a general matter, that there are places where the United States is less aggressive in promoting human rights for fear of running afoul of an ally?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: No, I think you can certainly say that we don't have a cookie-cutter approach to democracy around the world. The way we are addressing it in some countries, we might not address it in others. And I have to say, as a former practitioner from outside of government, in doing that every country is different.

And where every country ends up is different. Mongolia is a democracy, Mali is a democracy, Mexico is a democracy, but they are all headed in different democratic directions. And so you want to, where you can assist those countries, you want to help them in different ways.

QUESTION: Yeah, first of all, the Press Office ran out of hard copies. Will your Bureau make more available to the press?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: Yes, yeah, they are being printed as we speak. But we also have them on CD, I think.

QUESTION: Well, I know, but it's not quite -- for people as old as I am, it's like really important that we have it. (Laughter.)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: I'll give you mine. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Great, I'll follow that up.

On a somewhat more serious note, I presume that the report covers things like interrogations, torture of detainees, and so on, and so forth. And as you know, there were reports last year, in particular, that the United States was dropping off various detainees from the war on terror to friendly states where more, perhaps, persuasive means could be used in order to obtain information.

Do you address this at all? And do you address the fact of those reports and their impact on your efforts to improve the situation in abusive countries?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: We don't address them in this volume, but I am happy to do so here.

Number one, the U.S. doesn't tolerate, condone or permit torture when we hold people. Before we would be willing to turn somebody over to a third country, we insist that they make the same pledge to us. And absent that pledge, we don't turn them over.

As far as what impact has this had on my talks with other countries, I have to tell you, other than France, it has never come up. And I have spent a lot of time in Central Asia, Zimbabwe, China, Colombia, Peru, many, many countries around the world, where these kinds of issues do come up, and I have never had it brought up with me by any of those countries. So it doesn't affect my ability to do my job.

I think, partly, (a) because, in the beginning, I don't think they would have the nerve to bring it up, given -- but those were in the days when these kind of salacious rumors were flying around. I think now that it's clear that that never was the case, that may be another reason why they don't bring it up.

QUESTION: I read the part about Burma, Myanmar, and this report didn't mention about the recent detained --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: It went to press right before that incident.

QUESTION: Yes. Could you add something on the recent detention of the Aung Sang Suu Kyi?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: Yeah, I testified -- if anybody is interested in this, I testified about a week ago, in front of Senate Foreign Relations on this.

As you all know, we are outraged by what has happened in Burma. We consider the attack on her the work of government thugs.

We have lost our patience with the Burmese Government. And so we are working through with Congress what additional sanctions will be levied. But we are also talking to our allies in Europe and our ASEAN allies about what further steps they can take to try and remedy the situation in Burma, to get Suu Kyi out of jail, and to get a real dialogue going that leads to democracy.

QUESTION: Really related more to the Secretary of State's column in the New York Times this morning. What does the United States think that the neighbors of Zimbabwe can do that, for instance, the West or the United States can't to promote human rights?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: This kind of comes to the last question. What I have found in this job and before is that if -- if the U.S. condemns what a country is doing, and Europe condemns what a country is doing, that's very, very helpful. But it is most helpful in the case of Burma, in the case of Zimbabwe, in the case of Belarus, as another example, if the neighbors start to bring pressure on the regime.

In the case of Burma or in the case of Zimbabwe, they ought to be concerned. They ought to be concerned because those regimes are sullying the reputation of their region, (a); (b), in the case of Burma, you have drug threats; in the case of Burma and Zimbabwe, you have refugee threats; in the case of Zimbabwe, the economic situation in Zimbabwe is dragging down the South African economy.

So what we hope they will do in both cases is to make it clear to both regimes that their kind of government is not welcome in the region anymore. The Africans have talked about NEPAD, about peer review in terms of democracy, and this is certainly a case that's right for peer review by them.

QUESTION: You mentioned that you don't turn over detainees unless you extract a pledge that they will not be tortured.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: Have you followed up with any of the countries to make sure that that pledge has been adhered to?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: You would have to check with Pierre, but I believe we haven't turned over -- in time-wise, we haven't turned over anybody for long enough that they've been in the country for long enough that we would go back and check. I think it's very, very recently that we have turned over people who have not been released within the country. There were a number who were released within Afghanistan. But that is a practice that we followed in extradition cases, for example, where we insist on the same thing, that we go back and follow up on that.

QUESTION: You made a passing reference to France, and I didn't understand.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: The question, basically, was has anybody overseas pushed you on this issue or bugged you on this issue or asked you about it. And the answer was no, but the French.

QUESTION: Can I just follow up on what you said about it's our hope that the neighbors in Zimbabwe and Burma would say that the kinds of governments in Zimbabwe and Burma are not welcome in the region? Do you want to take that a little further and just simply say that it's the U.S. policy that the Government of Mugabe and the Government of Burma, right now, change?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: Well, I think the Secretary this morning talked about Mr. Mugabe leaving.

QUESTION: Yeah.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: And I think when he addresses -- when he calls the Burmese regime thugs, those are not the kind of people we want to see in government.

We have made very, very clear that in both cases we hope that a negotiated process will lead to the exit of those who currently hold power and a democratically elected government.

QUESTION: Some people are in any way skeptical of such reports of human rights. What are you telling to those people, their non-belief in that? Where are the concrete results of such --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: That they don't believe in human rights?

QUESTION: No, that they don't believe in such reports.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: Where are the concrete results? Go to Eastern Europe and see the concrete results. Go to South Korea and see the results. Go to most of Latin America and see the results.

When I started working in Washington 20 years ago, there were almost no democracies in Latin America. Today, almost every country is a democracy. They are not without their troubles. We are not without ours. Those are the concrete results of this kind of work. Go through all of Eastern Europe and much of the former Soviet Union -- again, not without their problems. Go to South Korea. Go to Taiwan. Go to many countries in Africa.

Talk to the people who are in government now. Ask them, "Did you ever come to the U.S. on an exchange program?" "Did anybody from AID help you 10 or 15 years ago?" "Did anybody from the National Democratic Institute help you in the '90s? "

And you're going to find a lot of yeses for the people who are in power who are governing democratically, who are trying to make their economies better. You're going to find a lot of them who say, "I might not be here but for what the Americans did." I have met many, many of those people around the world myself.

MR. REEKER: Thank you all very, very much. Thank you, Lorne.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CRANER: Thanks. [End] Released on June 24, 2003

SourceBy KATHY STEELE ksteele@tampatrib.com Published: Jun 20, 2003

TAMPA - Drive down Armenia Avenue in West Tampa or head to the southern part of Hillsborough County around Ruskin and Wimauma. Latino restaurants, shops, supermarkets, radio stations and social clubs catch the eye in ever growing numbers.

This picture of a diverse and growing Latino population that Tampa Bay area residents have witnessed over the past decade was reinforced Wednesday with the latest Census Bureau data.

The nation's Hispanic population grew at nearly four times the rate of the overall population during the past two years, cementing Latinos' position as the country's largest minority group, the Census Bureau reported.

Hispanics numbered 38.8 million as of July 2002, an increase of nearly 10 percent, or 3.5 million, since April 2000. The U.S. population rose 2.5 percent during the same period, to more than 288 million.

Most Hispanic newcomers in the Bay area, according to community members, have been Mexicans from Mexico and Puerto Ricans who moved from New York or other metropolitan cities in the United States.

Add to the mix people from Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Dominica, Nicaragua and other places.

`A Latin Enclave In The South'

The growth doesn't surprise E.J. Salcines, a West Tampa native and a judge in the 2nd District Court of Appeals. It's merely building on the immigrant tradition that began in the late 1800s with Cubans who worked in the cigar factories in Ybor City.

``It reinforces the diversity that is here and that this area has been known for for over a century,'' Salcines said.

``Tampa was always seen in the early 20th century as a Latin enclave in the South, in Dixie.''

Latinos know Tampa and Hillsborough County are ``a friendly area,'' he said.

The census report on the rapidly growing Hispanic population ``confirms what communities across the country have been witnessing for a while,'' said Gabriela Lemus, director of policy and legislation for the League of United Latin American Citizens.

The federal government considers ``Hispanic'' an ethnicity, not a race, so people of Hispanic ethnicity can classify themselves as any race.

Hillsborough's Numbers

State and local data were not included in this latest batch of numbers.

But the 2000 U.S. census clearly showed that Hillsborough's Hispanic communities were growing, and Hispanics were moving to new areas. For instance, the county's Mexican population nearly doubled since 1990 to 35,321, outpacing the Cuban population of 35,123. Mexicans settled in Brandon, Plant City and Ruskin.

The only larger Hispanic group was Puerto Ricans, with 52,568. Many moved into Town N' Country, an older neighborhood in the northwest portion of the county. In that area, one in four considered themselves Hispanic, compared to one in six countywide.

The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce has taken notice of the census numbers.

It seems there are more Spanish- owned businesses in the area,'' said President Kim Scheeler. We've actively tried to diversify our board and add Hispanics.''

One boom certainly is in businesses that provide services for Spanish- speaking populations, he said. That includes companies such as Capital One, which add Spanish-speaking divisions to cater to that market, Scheeler said.

Reshaping Politics

Signs of power shifts in the state's political parties were hinted at in the 2000 elections.

For the first time since 1948, Orange County, which includes Orlando, voted Democratic in the presidential election, said Lance deHaven Smith, a political analyst at Florida State University.

``Hispanics are probably the most important source of political opportunities for the parties and the focus of attention,'' deHaven Smith said. So far, Democrats seem to be attracting more Hispanics to their side, he said.

Tampa residents got a taste of the new political dynamics in the last city election, said Ricardo Roig, chairman of the Tampa Bay Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Mayor Pam Iorio and Frank Sanchez played for advantage with Hispanic voters, he said.

They're still in their infancy in political development,'' Roig said of Hispanic voters. But these folks are very politically active, politically charged. Hispanics will more and more influence local politics.''

Tabulating population data by race and ethnicity is something of an inexact science because of the way the government categorizes people. The process became even more confusing in 2000 after the Census Bureau allowed people to identify themselves by more than one race.

About 1.7 million people in July 2002 were identified by the government as black and Hispanic, while 36.3 million said they were white and Hispanic.

The Associated Press has used the non-Hispanic population figures for blacks and whites since data from the 2000 census was released in April 2001. The figures include those of one or more races.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Kathy Steele can be reached at (813) 259-7920.

thetowntalk.com Posted on June 6, 2003

Students wanting to learn about a foreign culture this summer can take advantage of a camp approach to education.

The Spanish Summer Camp 2003 will meet in June for those students interested in learning about the Spanish culture and language. The camp will be held at Scott M. Brame Middle School.

"This is a unique program in that we will show the culture through the eyes of those," who are of Spanish descent said Sara O'Neal, a Spanish teacher at Tioga High School.

O'Neal, a native of Lima, Peru, has lived in central Louisiana for more than 20 years. Several Rapides Parish teachers with Spanish ancestry will also teach the camp, O'Neal said.

The two sessions, limited to students between the ages of 6 to 12, will be held June 9-13 and June 6-20.

In the first week, attendants will be introduced to the culture of several Spanish-speaking countries such as Peru, Columbia, Venezuela and Spain.

"We must emphasis Spain, (which) is the mother country," O'Neal said.

The second week, June 16-20, students will concentrate on Spain and study artifacts and the culture.

"This works well with the Heart of Spain on the way," she said.

Attendants have the option to attend half of a day at $150 per week or a full day at $200. Full time registration is due today.

The camp is opened to half-a-day attendants from 8:30 to noon. Full-day attendants will remain at the school until 2 p.m.

There is a $30 non-refundable registration fee.

For more information about the camp, call O'Neal at 449-8700 or visit the camp Web site.

Carita Jordan: 487-6329;

cjordan@thetowntalk.com

Posted on Wed, Jun. 04, 2003 The Miami Herald, BY HARRIET JOHNSON BRACKEY hbrackey@herald.com

Turning today's fear into tomorrow's cash flow, Chubb Group will soon start selling homeowner policies in Florida that cover child abductions, home invasions and stalking threats.

For a price of $85 a year, the coverage can provide, in the case of a missing child, as much as $300,000 to hire a forensic expert to gather evidence, a public relations expert to mount a publicity campaign and a security consultant to help with the search. The policy will replace lost wages for parents, pay for family psychiatric counseling and the insurance firm will post a $50,000 reward.

''Customers were concerned about these kinds of crimes -- in particular child abduction and home invasions,'' says Peter Spicer, Chubb's new products manager. He cites national statistics that show 1.4 million stalking cases a year, 1.3 million home invasions and 58,000 child abductions that are not family-related.

The policies come with strings, however.

For child abductions, the coverage applies only to children under the age of 13 who are taken by non-family members.

''That is an extremely small segment of what we deal with,'' says Nancy McBride, executive director of the Florida branch of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She estimates there are only 100 such abductions a year nationwide that are not resolved or in which the children are killed. That compares to 200,0000 estimated abductions by family members annually.

''This a parent's worst fear and I will say there are a lot of products out there that market to this fear. This is certainly one of them,'' she said.

The policies turn terrible events into mundane terms of coverage and exclusions. For example, stalking coverage applies only if you have a restraining order in effect. The coverage is also portable. That is, if someone busts into your hotel room in New York City, that could be considered a home invasion for a Florida policyholder, but the policy exempts travel to places on the State Department's watch list, such as Colombia or Venezuela.

A spokesman for State Farm insurance said the company had no plans to offer the unusual riders to homeowners. State Farm insures about 20 percent of Florida homeowners, or 975,000 policies, compared to Chubb's 20,000.

However, kidnapping coverage has long been available, but not as part of homeowners insurance. It's been sold mostly to corporations for their key executives or employees working in foreign countries.

Wealthy families, too, tended to buy the so-called kidnapping and ransom coverage. Since 1996, AIG has sold child abduction policies as an add-on to that coverage or as part of a high-net worth family's personal insurance. The child abduction policies from AIG would cover $5 million in costs to search for a child. The annual premium is $1,000 to $5,000.

Chubb's product is far less pricey and includes more than child abductions. Its home invasion coverage, unlike typical burglary insurance, would pay medical expenses as well as replace lost salary during a period of rest and recuperation.

Typical burglary coverage ''does not provide psychological counseling to families to get them emotionally centered again and comfortable in their own home,'' Spicer said. ``The coverage is aimed at people and not just their property.''

Stalking coverage has unusual provisions, too. The homeowner can get up to $3,000 to cover the cost of installing a security system and up to $5,000 to cover the cost of temporarily relocating while the stalker threatens.

Chubb began rolling out the new riders state by state in 2000. One of its initial states was Colorado, which suffered by the infamous murder of JonBennet Ramsey.

All told, 6,000 such riders have been sold in six states plus the United Kingdom, Chubb's Spicer says. Whether any claims have been filed is proprietary information that the company will not disclose.

Chubb began selling the homeowners' riders in Pennsylvania last Monday, where the cost is $110 a year.

On June 26, the coverage will become available in Florida.

Who needs these latest insurance coverages?

The answer's not clear.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement reports that overall violent crime dropped 1.9 percent last year, but two of the covered categories have experienced recent sharp increases.

Stalking cases in Florida jumped 16 percent to 797 in 2002 from 684 the previous year.

Robberies at residences -- which would include home invasions -- are on the rise. FDLE reports there were 5,051 of these crimes reported last year, compared to 4,714 in 2001.

Statistics on child abductions are difficult to ascertain, although crime experts seem to agree that abductions by family members are far more common than those by strangers, which are covered under the new homeowners' riders.

The 58,000 annual nationwide total that Chubb cites is a figure from the Department of Justice. McBride says that in most of those cases, there is a sexual motivation and the child is usually relased soon thereafter, ``if not unharmed, then certainly alive.''

As for other services provided under the Chubb policy, McBride notes that in the last 20 years, a great deal of resources have been made available to parents of missing children. For example, her organization will organize a massive distribution of flyers. It also supports Team Adam, which consists mostly of retired law enforcement officials who mount a SWAT team effort when a child disappears. Both services are provided free of charge.

What's more, media coverage, McBride says, is guaranteed in most cases. And nationwide Amber Alerts, reporting a missing child quickly after the disappearance, are now part of the law.

''I just don't want parents to do something based on fear,'' she says. Of course, she notes, no product can prevent child abductions or murders.

Chubb's Spicer said the company hopes to make the policy riders available in four or five more states by the end of this year, and next year, in much of the nation.

Contact Chubb for more information at www.chubb.com or 908 903-2000.

Tuesday, 3 June 2003, 4:48 pm Press Release: Council on Hemispheric Affairs

www.coha.org Council on Hemispheric Affairs Monitoring Political, Economic and Diplomatic Issues Affecting the Western Hemisphere Memorandum to the Press 03.28

The Federal Communications Commision's announcement today that most likely will weaken regulations affecting media ownership should alarm advocates of balanced news coverage. These proposed reforms will allow conglomerates to increase their market share, and thus profits, by buying up small media outlets and allowing them to reach an ever-larger share of local audiences, at the expense of local news and public affairs programming. It will also provide a bad example for Latin America, where the media already is frequently besieged by governments and private interests.

Supporters of deregulation, on the other hand, claim that less restricted media conglomerates will be more likely to invest in services that ultimately will increase the availability of inexpensive sources of information and entertainment. But even if further deregulation would have such a therapeutic effect, the FCC would be wise to put its proposed rule changes on hold. Instead, it should be protecting a balanced media menu, a vital element of free speech now under siege by media giants in the U.S. and abroad.

A comparative situation in Venezuela could yield germane insights. The relatively modest media empire there is owned by a tiny elite who over the past 18 months have undermined their own professional integrity by joining that country's middle class opposition in a scorched earth campaign to force the resignation of the country's constitutional, if controversial president, Hugo Chavez. In the process, they used their monopolistic TV channels and newspaper columns to engage in a series of unremitting partisan attacks which were so unprofessional that they even posed a threat to the country's basic democratic institutions. During last year's briefly successful coup, their networks backed businessmen, union leaders and self-declared President Pedro Carmona by exclusively reporting on his authoritarian decrees, while ignoring the appeals of those calling for the reversal of his suspension of the supreme court and the national assembly.

Chavez's combative style and controversial reforms certainly merited criticism. But by ignoring substantial numbers of pro government supporters and positive stories about Chavez, a biased media denied the public fundamental information which was essential to accurately assess the nation's ongoing political crisis.

Networks in the United States are also violating responsible journalism in order to engage in partisan loyalties. A study conducted by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting in February, demonstrates that America's four major networks failed to indicate the depth of the country's split over the decision to unilaterally invade Iraq, while overwhelmingly backing President Bush's pre-emptive stance. The report found that at a time when 61% of those polled supported further diplomacy and inspections, anti-war commentators totaled a meager 1% of the sources consulted by the newscasters surveyed.

Fortunately, America's networks are far from threatening this country's democratic institutions. But they may be tempted to heavily favor the administration of the day's viewpoints, especially when it makes commercial sense to their back offices. After all, Bush's appointees have led the charge to relax regulations, particularly FCC chairman Michael Powell, who since taking office has never hidden his indefatigable backing of large media enterprises.

Ignoring evidence of a tilted press, supporters of unregulated media markets argue that the American public is best served by profit-seeking news and entertainment outlets, which will place consumer tastes above the preferences of politicians. But more often than not, media CEO's and their editors ignore public concerns in order to follow their commercial strategy. In its thirst for information, the public routinely fails to use its market power to demand coverage that adequately serves the community. This may explain why audiences in small town America have idly stood by as networks replace relatively high cost local programming with common nationally syndicated shows that appeal to the lowest common denominator.

At best, consumers exercise only modest influence over an industry that sells information and entertainment, commodities possessing highly elastic demand. But how can government policies adequately defend the public interest? In order to discourage media bias, Venezuelan legislators are likely to pass a series of laws meant to evaluate media content. But this approach may backfire, as such laws try defining "fair" coverage. A modest but more constructive approach in tune with industry realities would be to adapt policies aimed at diffusing media ownership so that a plethora of producers and station owners can decide what news is relevant and how best to deliver it to their audiences. Such a conclusion would favor balanced coverage over the deplorable intentions of the Bush administration, in other words, preserving the status quo in order to halt the further commodification of the news and information being provided by America's media outlets.

This analysis was prepared by Manuel Rueda, a research associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Issued 2 June 2003

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