I started this site because of what I perceived to be totally inadequate coverage of the trial proceedings by the local newspaper. As someone who attended the 14-week trial almost every day, I was also concerned about the deleterious effect the newspaper reports were having on public opinion. I desperately wanted to make another view of the proceedings available to the public and starting this website offered me the best opportunity to achieve this goal.

Although the site was started in direct response to Dr. Dhafir’s situation, my interest has always been much wider. I have felt passionately about civil liberties all of my life. I see Dr. Dhafir’s case as just one manifestation of what is happening to civil liberties on a national and global scale. Therefore as well as providing information about the specifics of Dr. Rafil Dhafir’s case, I provide information to help locate this case in the wider context of civil liberties and democracy that I believe it must be viewed in.

Some of the major elements I see affecting civil liberties and democracy – and therefore the world we will leave to coming generations – are: freedom of speech, media monopoly, individual and media self-censorship, militarism, empire building (globalization), erosion of worker’s rights, poverty and debt.

This site provides articles that speak to each of these major elements. My predominant interest is in the effects of the interplay between the elements and how I see these undermining individual civil liberties and self-determination by citizens, communities and countries across the globe.

January 2005

The specifics of Dr. Dhafir’s case are under these categories (links also in side bar):

*Katherine’s Writing
* Court Observers
* Dhafir by others
* By Dr. Dhafir, and
* Media and Judge Letters

The wider context of the case is under these categories (links in side bar):

* Civil liberties
* Democracy
* Globalization/empire, and
* Suggested reading
* Links to alternative media sources under “other links.”

The journalist John Pilger writes:

“It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and the myths that surround it.”
PilgerHomePage

I believe that it is also not enough for citizens in a democracy to see themselves as mere receptors of information “without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and the myths that surround it.” I hope this website will make a small contribution to the informed citizenry that we need in order for democracy to survive.

Katherine Hughes

Go to: Katherine’s Writing

Go to articles by Katherine

Links to interviews of Katherine:

A chronology of articles, letters to the paper, and other writings, about Dr. Dhafir’s case.

November 2005 (after Dr. Dhafir was sentenced to 22 years), with Chris Cook of Gorilla Radio, Vancouver, Canada (30 mins).
Available here.

January 2007, with Marianne Barisonek of www.kboo.fm, Portland, Oregon (30 mins).
Available here.

April 2014, Katherine’s most recent interview giving an update on the case.