On Thursday May 1st, Al-Jazeera reporter Sami al-Haj was released after six and a half years at Guantanamo. Upon his arrival in Sudan early on Friday, Al-Hajj was carried off a US air force jet on a stretcher and immediately taken to a hospital. His brother, Asim al-Hajj, said that he did not recognise the cameraman because he looked like a man in his 80s. Al-Hajj told reporters at the hospital that "rats are treated with more humanity" than the inmates at Guantanamo, whose "human dignity [is] violated".

Al-Haj, 38, was detained in December 2001 by Pakistani forces along the Afghan-Pakistani border while covering the U.S. led-offensive to unseat the Taliban. He was later transported by the U.S. military to Guantanamo Bay in June 2002. He began a hunger strike in January 2007 to protest his continued incarceration. In a letter from 2007, Al-Haj reported that throughout the 130 interrogations to which he has been subjected in Guantánamo, “the interrogations were all about al-Jazeera and alleged relations between al-Jazeera and al-Qaeda". he also reported that teh US military tried to induce him to work as a spy for American intelligence in return for US citizenship for him and for his family.

"Sami al-Haj is the latest journalist to be freed by the U.S. military after spending years behind bars on the basis of secret evidence and without formal charge or trial," says Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Joel Simon. "We are delighted that Sami al-Haj can finally be reunited with his family and friends. But his detention for six years, without the most basic due process, is a grave injustice and represents a threat to all journalists working in conflict areas."

Al-Haj, who is Sudanese, is the second journalist to be freed by the U.S. military in the last month after being held for a prolonged period without due process. On April 16, Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein was released from U.S. custody in Iraq, ending a two-year ordeal in which he fended off unsubstantiated accusations from the U.S. military that he had collaborated with Iraqi insurgents. All told, 10 journalists have been held for extended periods by the U.S. military and then released without charge.

The U.S. military continues to hold Jawed Ahmad, a journalist for Canada's CTV, at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Ahmad has been held without charge since October 26, 2007, according to CTV.

Read More | Prisoner345.net | Journalist released from Guantánamo details abuse | Sami al-Hajj Hits Out At US Captors | Democracy Now | Committee to Protect Journalists | Reporters Without Borders | Al Jazeera You Tube Report On Al-Hajj release

Sami al-Haj…Guantanamo Nightmare | Previous Coverage From Democracy Now: Sami Al-Haj and Bilal Hussein | Brother of Jailed Cameraman Says Imprisonment Part of U.S. “Political Operation Against Al Jazeera” | Al Jazeera Director Demands More Information on Secret Memo | Al Jazeera in the Crosshairs

The Federal Communications Commisision will hold a hearing about the future of the Internet on Thursday, April 17th on the campus of Stanford University. The 12pm hearing will be preceded by entertainment from the Raging Grannies.

In 2007, several organizations confirmed that Comcast, which is a giant cable company, had been secretly blocking and degrading particular applications over several months, while denying its actions publicly. After consumer groups and law scholars filed a petition with the FCC asking the agency to find that Comcast's misdeeds violated consumers' rights, Comcast packed the seats in a hearing at Harvard University with its own supporters, preventing the public from attending. Activists from Free Press, a consumer advocate group, caught part of Comcast's "sleeper cell" on tape snoozing through the hearing. Free Press estimated that hundreds of interested people, meanwhile, were turned away for lack of space.

Many media advocacy organizations hope that the FCC will change its habit of siding with industry and that net neutrality will be preserved. Internet users are concerned that corporate gatekeepers will try to block, filter, and discriminate against websites and services that are used every day. Media Alliance writes, "Anyone who depends on the Internet for accurate information, connecting with like-minded folks, or promoting events and actions has a huge stake in a neutral Internet. "

"Talk Back to the FCC" speaker practice sessions are planned for cities around the Bay Area this week: Monday at 6pm in Berkeley | Tuesday at 4:30 in San Francisco | Wednesday at 6:30 in East Palo Alto

Comcast Blocks the Internet, Then the Public Media Alliance

On March 4th, Skidmark Bob of Free Radio Santa Cruz 101fm interviewed Lyn Gerry, host and producer of the Unwelcome Guests radio program and collective member of A-Infos Radio Project.

A-Infos Radio Project was formed in October 1996 by Lyn Gerry and other activists to provide the means to share radio programs via the Internet. The project's goal is to support and expand the movement for democratic communications worldwide by offering an alternative to corporate media. A-Infos Radio Project was the first grassroots media project of its kind on the Internet, allowing free upload and download of programs, and has attracted a wide variety of audio material. Read More and Listen to Audio

see also: State of Media 2008 Interview with John Anderson

Corpy pregunta, "¿Por que no tenemos una pagina en Indybay para representar la comunidad de Watsonville?

"I enjoy reading the news on this website as a refreshing alternative to the news in the local newspaper (which I read as well.) Living and working in Watsonville, we have a very weak and one-sided newspaper. People that I work with have become increasingly frustrated about the lack of fair coverage about the struggles that workers have been having with the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, as one example. The Register Pajaronian has hired local executives from the Granite Rock corporation to "represent" the voice of the district in this town.

"Watsonville es una ciudad con población igual de Santa Cruz. ¡Hay muchas personas aqui que quieren participar en hacer las noticias!" Leer Más

militant sista comments, "This is great that there is support for news in Watsonville... working and organizing in Watsonville myself, I believe for now... write the stories and use indymedia. I also recommend you visit and work with the Watsonville Brown Berets and Migrawatch."

The Cabrillo College CIS (Computer Information Systems) Department and the Cabrillo GNU/Linux Users Group organized a speaking engagement with Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman. Stallman spoke on "Copyright vs. Community in the Age of Computer Networks" on February 4th at Cabrillo College in Aptos.

“Copyright developed in the age of the printing press, and was designed to fit with the system of centralized copying imposed by the printing press," Stallman said. "But the copyright system does not fit well with computer networks, and only draconian punishments can enforce it... if we seriously hope to serve the only legitimate purpose of copyright—to promote progress, for the benefit of the public—then we must make changes in the other direction." Read More

Project Censored, 9/11 Truth and dozens of other media activist organizations are hosting the Truth Emergency Santa Cruz Media Summit on January 25th, 26th and 27th at the UC Convertion Center (611 Ocean Street) in Santa Cruz. The media summit is a collaborative gathering of media veterans, scholars, activists & whistleblowers assessing and deploying powerful tools and messages to rectify history, awaken a critical mass, and effectively expose the accelerating corporate coup d'état.

This is not a media conference to dissect or condemn the conglomerates, demand reforms, or even celebrate the increasing vigor of independent journalism. Conference organizers say "it is intended as a strategy session for already active and influential players to coordinate their most revealing messages, forge tactical alliances, introduce new distribution technologies, and mutually enhance each other's strongest work." Read More

Audio: Interview with co-organizer David Kubiak

The Third World And Native American Students Press Collective (TWANAS) was established in 1979 as a response to the violent racism, sexism, classism and homophobia at the University of California Santa Cruz campus.

TWANAS is a quarterly student-run publication dedicated to the liberation of "Third World" and Indigenous peoples. With the inaccurate and scarce reporting of issues concerning communities of color in current campus media, there is a persistent need for students of color to collectively mobilize to create a space that addresses issues that otherwise would not be addressed. The TWANAS collective strives to create a publication that demands justice for all peoples and that serves as a vehicle for true unapologetic expression.

The deadline to submit to this Fall's issue is Monday, October 29th. TWANAS staff meetings are held weekly at the Baytree Conference room on Mondays at 7pm. Read more