Antony Loewenstein

Australians are increasingly not seeing themselves on screen:

“Local television drama is set for a lean year, with network belt-tightening and timid programming adding to instability created by expected changes to media ownership laws.

“Viewers are being let down, said the head of the Screen Producers Association of Australia, with only a “patchy” schedule of local drama production in 2006.

“‘The trend of declining drama out of the networks and the desperate situation at the ABC means it’s very difficult to sustain independent production,’ Geoff Brown, said.

The three commercial networks are avoiding the risky returns on local dramas for a clear reason, he said, trying to clean up their books before changes to ownership laws.

“‘Even though they all deny it, they’re all up for sale,’ he said.”

It seems we can’t rely on private investment or government support of SBS and ABC. But then – and although it’s made in the UK – the League of Gentlemen might have to keep punters amused.

“Prosecutors are proceeding with an espionage case against a Chinese researcher for The New York Times and his trial could begin within six weeks, his defence lawyer said Friday.

“Zhao Yan, who worked for the Times’ Beijing bureau, was detained in September 2004, prompting an outcry by press freedom groups. He is charged with “providing state secrets abroad,” but the government has not given any details of what he is accused of doing.”

The confused communist and capitalist state holds a dubious record:

“China was the world’s leading jailer of reporters for the sixth consecutive year in 2004, with 42 journalists detained, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. It said most were held under national security or subversion laws.”

Let’s not forget, however, that the US is one of the worst offenders when it comes to detaining journalists.

It seems like yesterday that Israel was being praised for bringing peace to the conflict. Now, perhaps, the world will realise the Jewish state’s true intentions.

The IDF now advocates collective punishment and the targeting of civilian areas in Gaza. Notwithstanding the failure of such policies in the past, the IDF suggests it may even cut off electricity so that Palestinians understand the meaning of Israeli might.

Seventy U.S. senators are calling on George Bush to tell Palestinian leaders that “Hamas and other groups that the United States wants terrorist organizations to disarm or be banned from upcoming Palestinian elections.” Again, dictating terms of democracy to a fledging state is a sure way to increase public support for Hamas. Besides, since when does the US or Israel have the right to tell the Palestinian people that only certain candidates are acceptable? Perhaps Abbas should actively campaign for the defeat of Ariel Sharon in the March Israeli elections.

Leading Israeli journalist Amira Hass reports on Israel’s enlightened view of dissent:

“Israel Defense Force soldiers confiscated documents belonging to the Committee for the Popular Struggle against the Separation Fence during a nighttime raid on the northern West Bank village of Qafin, a committee activist said yesterday. Apparently, the soldiers located the committee headquarters in a building search and seized documents and NIS 7,000 and 500 dinars from their offices, said the activist.”

Like the US – afraid of truly free elections across the Middle East due to the likelihood of Islamist parties taking power, as is happening in Iraq – Israel is trying to undermine free elections in Palestine. It is destined to fail on a number of levels. Open elections are impossible to conduct under occupation, though Palestinians will try and convince the world that they can while support for Hamas is partly related to the Palestinian Authority’s corruption and inefficiency.

Until the occupation finally ends, Palestinian “democracy” is little more than a smokescreen. Israel and the US must be so proud.

It seems the American people are concerned about black propaganda:

“Almost three-quarters of Americans think it was wrong for the Pentagon to pay Iraqi newspapers to publish news about U.S. efforts in Iraq, a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows.

“USA TODAY reported earlier this month that the Pentagon plans to expand beyond Iraq an anti-terrorism public relations campaign that has included secret payments to Iraqi journalists and publications who printed stories favourable to the USA. In some cases, the stories will be prepared by U.S. military personnel, as they have been in Iraq.

“The military will not always reveal it was behind the stories, said Mike Furlong, deputy director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element. The global program will be part of a five-year public relations campaign costing up to $300 million.”

The US has long been engaged in propaganda around the globe and Iraq is no different. I encourage the acts to continue, as it will only increase people’s cynicism of the American empire.

Haaretz, December 23:

“Cases of abuse of Palestinians, whether by soldiers or by settlers, have stopped making headlines in the press or eliciting shock. Nor do investigations of these incidents appear to be serious, and complaints are ignored until the story is either published in the media or dealt with by one of the human rights organizations active in the territories. This growing apathy can perhaps be attributed to the continuous satisfaction felt over the disengagement from Gaza, following which Israelis feel that the occupation is about to end. But, meanwhile, the occupation is continuing in all its severity, with all the abuses that have characterized it throughout the years.”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair regularly talks about eradicating poverty in Africa. Perhaps he should take a long, hard look at one of his allies:

“An Ethiopian court has charged 131 politicians, journalists and activists with treason and genocide as the Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, continues to suppress all dissenting voices in the country.

“Two campaigners for the Make Poverty History movement are among the defendants. Daniel Bereket, the head of policy for ActionAid in Ethiopia and Netsanet Demessie of the Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia, have been charged with two counts of treason. If found guilty, they could face life imprisonment.

“ActionAid claims the men were arrested in November for doing their job as anti-poverty campaigners, and have done nothing illegal.

“Brian Kagoro, head of policy for ActionAid Africa, said: ‘Neither Daniel nor Netsanet are anti-state. They may have been critical of the government’s progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, but they are not political activists, and they are not members of the opposition.’

“Others charged include the leader of the opposition, Hailu Shawel, elected members of parliament and Ethiopian journalists.

“Mr Zenawi, an ally of Tony Blair and a member of his Commission for Africa, has accused the defendants of causing the riots that spread through the capital, Addis Ababa, after the general election on 15 May.”

We shouldn’t be surprised. Blair has a history of talking democracy and freedom while supporting dictatorships and oppression.

In my ongoing series of “guess what? The military lies”, Deutsche Welle reports on interesting times in Germany:

“The German ministry of defence has admitted that it is carrying out an internal inquiry into the possible extracting of information on suspected terrorists by Bundeswehr operatives posing as journalists in Bosnia.

“The confirmation of an inquiry on Wednesday, reported in the German media on Thursday, follows allegations that German soldiers attached to the United Nations mission in Bosnia had operated outside official army regulations and interviewed members of the public under a pretence.”

It is imperative that journalists remember their first duty – to tell the truth. As Robert Fisk says in the introduction to his new book, “The Great War for Civilisation“:

“[Journalists should] challenge authority – all authority – especially so when governments and politicians take us to war, when they have decided that they will kill and others will die.”

It seems that even military men with an establishment pedigree are questioning current deployments in the Middle East:

“One of the sons of Australia’s celebrated former defence force chief Peter Cosgrove will be discharged from the army after going AWOL from his barracks and being thrown in military jail.

“Private David Cosgrove, based at Singleton in the NSW Hunter region, also breached a series of strict conditions imposed on him.

“He was given a custodial sentence of up to 14 days in late October. He subsequently breached ‘unit standing orders’ and was administratively warned he was ‘unsuitable for service’.

The military is clearly upset by the revelations. Fighting wars of “liberation” must be taking its toll.

“You know if I had nickel for every time Bush has mentioned 9/11, I could raise enough reward money to go after Bin Laden.”

- Jon Stewart

24 other priceless quotes of the year.

A timely series of essays on the West, Islam and Islamophobia that highlights the problems within Islam itself, the Western war against the religion, integration and assimilation and media mis-representation.

Western and Islamic writers tackle the key issues of the day with poise.

Sometimes, even the New York Times talks sense:

“The messy thing about democracy is that people tend to vote for the candidates they want – a point that seemed lost on Israel yesterday when it threatened to ban Palestinians in East Jerusalem from voting in the scheduled Palestinian elections if Hamas took part.”

Hamas and other Palestinian factions are calling on Mahmoud Abbas to avoid further delays to the January 25 parliamentary poll.

The Palestinians have the right to a free, open and unimpeded vote. If Israel decides to block this right, the world will make the appropriate conclusions.

My final New Matilda column for the year is about the Israel/Palestine conflict and what may lie ahead:

“The greater ramification of Israeli intransigence is a growing belief among Palestinians in a one-State solution. While a two-State answer is still widely accepted in both the Israeli and Palestinian communities – even though the details of such an arrangement remain largely undecided – the increasing unlikelihood of a viable Palestinian State could lead many Palestinians to lose hope and pick-up on the growing sentiment within the Palestinian intelligentsia.”

My New Matilda archive can be found here.