Comments on: www.censorship.com http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2008/03/19/wwwcensorshipcom/ Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:15:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: The Left should oppose repression | Antony Loewenstein http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2008/03/19/wwwcensorshipcom/#comment-473296 The Left should oppose repression | Antony Loewenstein Sat, 01 Nov 2008 05:34:51 +0000 http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2008/03/19/wwwcensorshipcom/#comment-473296 [...] and has done so for years against anybody who mouths any criticisms of the Cuban regime, including my good self - that my forthcoming book, on the internet in repressive regimes, is really a front for a [...] [...] and has done so for years against anybody who mouths any criticisms of the Cuban regime, including my good self - that my forthcoming book, on the internet in repressive regimes, is really a front for a [...]

]]> By: Tim Anderson http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2008/03/19/wwwcensorshipcom/#comment-413408 Tim Anderson Sun, 18 May 2008 23:31:33 +0000 http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2008/03/19/wwwcensorshipcom/#comment-413408 BTW Anthony , re your comment "elections are not free and fair" in Cuba - have you ever seen an election in Cuba? do you know how they work? do you know how the candidates are chosen and how elections take place? you say "one man" has run the country for 50 years - do you know what powers the national assembly has? what do you know of the other Cuban ministers? You say "robust political debate" remains an impossibility - Anthony, do you speak or read Spanish? have you read any Cuban debates? All these are assertions without any indication of evidence - I look forward to a clarification of where these assertions come from. Or are you are a journalist who needs no evidence? all is self-evident? - best wishes - Tim BTW Anthony , re your comment “elections are not free and fair” in Cuba - have you ever seen an election in Cuba? do you know how they work? do you know how the candidates are chosen and how elections take place? you say “one man” has run the country for 50 years - do you know what powers the national assembly has? what do you know of the other Cuban ministers? You say “robust political debate” remains an impossibility - Anthony, do you speak or read Spanish? have you read any Cuban debates? All these are assertions without any indication of evidence - I look forward to a clarification of where these assertions come from. Or are you are a journalist who needs no evidence? all is self-evident? - best wishes - Tim

]]> By: Tim Anderson http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2008/03/19/wwwcensorshipcom/#comment-413403 Tim Anderson Sun, 18 May 2008 23:06:37 +0000 http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2008/03/19/wwwcensorshipcom/#comment-413403 thanks for that Anthony notice that I raised questions (not 'facts') about your trip, because - your project so closely resembles the RSF project - much the same countries - a large number of journalists have in fact been taking State Dept, USAID and RSF money to write about Cuba - you (like Paul McGeogh before you) did in fact link up with people who are in fact paid by the US government thanks for the lecture on Cuba, I think I have seen a bit more of the country than you, over the past decade you have recycled a few cliches about the country and rarely use evidence, except the occasional anecdote a bad journalistic habit that, trying to prove points with anecdotes as for your asserted track record - I don't think anything in one's real or imagined reputation insulates them from questions especially when they join in imperial-driven campaigns best wishes Tim On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 5:05 PM, Antony Loewenstein wrote: Dr Anderson, This is an email that I would rather not have to write, but your insistent comments about my visit to Cuba warrant a response. Your constant statements, publicly and privately, that my 2007 visit to Cuba was paid for by the US or some US-affiliated group is both defamatory and an outright lie. My publisher, Melbourne University Publishing, provided an advance and I spent the money, along with my own savings, on my overseas travels. Nobody else contributed a cent to my four-month journey. My forthcoming book, due in September, takes a critical look at the role of the internet in one-party states, including Cuba (and also Egypt, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and China). Despite the many advances in Castro's Cuba - social welfare system, its solidarity with other Latin American and Third World countries, and of course, my support of Cuba's sovereignty against US intervention and its criminal blockade - there are fundamental problems with freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of association. You remain mute on these matters, embarrassingly writing in 2005 that that the country's media has no, "mind numbing, commercial advertising." Well, yes, but robust political debate remains an impossibility, and allegiance to the Castro "brand" is essential. Political prisoners are a reality, yet you deny this, too (and they aren't all involved in trying to overthrow the regime). Elections are not free and fair. Clearly you have no issue with a regime allowing one man, Fidel Castro, to run the country for nearly 50 years. These are all the tell-tale signs of a police state. These are points often made by writers such as Noam Chomsky and Eduardo Galeano, hardly figures that could be accused of taking dollars from Washington; people who do not offer unqualified support of Cuba. The recent debate on Cuba in the UK-based Red Pepper magazine is another example of important and necessary debates over Castro's legacy. I have never claimed to be an expert on Cuba, but my work focuses on the ability of the web to challenge authoritarianism, something that a blind man can see exists in Cuba. Some critics within Cuba are not on the US payroll, many of whom I did meet. As somebody who has spent most of my professional career taking risks for defending the dispossessed, including the Palestinians and others in the Middle East - and receiving regular hate-mail and death threats in the process - a lack of intellectual curiosity or rigour towards Cuba only leads praise of the Castro regime. Supporting elements of the Revolution does not mean ignoring the negative sides of its history. I look forward to you contributing to another best-seller in The Blogging Revolution. Yours sincerely, Antony Loewenstein thanks for that Anthony
notice that I raised questions (not ‘facts’) about your trip, because
- your project so closely resembles the RSF project - much the same countries
- a large number of journalists have in fact been taking State Dept, USAID and RSF money to write about Cuba
- you (like Paul McGeogh before you) did in fact link up with people who are in fact paid by the US government
thanks for the lecture on Cuba, I think I have seen a bit more of the country than you, over the past decade
you have recycled a few cliches about the country and rarely use evidence, except the occasional anecdote
a bad journalistic habit that, trying to prove points with anecdotes
as for your asserted track record - I don’t think anything in one’s real or imagined reputation insulates them from questions
especially when they join in imperial-driven campaigns
best wishes
Tim

On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 5:05 PM, Antony Loewenstein wrote:

Dr Anderson,

This is an email that I would rather not have to write, but your insistent comments about my visit to Cuba warrant a response. Your constant statements, publicly and privately, that my 2007 visit to Cuba was paid for by the US or some US-affiliated group is both defamatory and an outright lie. My publisher, Melbourne University Publishing, provided an advance and I spent the money, along with my own savings, on my overseas travels. Nobody else contributed a cent to my four-month journey.

My forthcoming book, due in September, takes a critical look at the role of the internet in one-party states, including Cuba (and also Egypt, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and China). Despite the many advances in Castro’s Cuba - social welfare system, its solidarity with other Latin American and Third World countries, and of course, my support of Cuba’s sovereignty against US intervention and its criminal blockade - there are fundamental problems with freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of association. You remain mute on these matters, embarrassingly writing in 2005 that that the country’s media has no, “mind numbing, commercial advertising.” Well, yes, but robust political debate remains an impossibility, and allegiance to the Castro “brand” is essential.

Political prisoners are a reality, yet you deny this, too (and they aren’t all involved in trying to overthrow the regime). Elections are not free and fair. Clearly you have no issue with a regime allowing one man, Fidel Castro, to run the country for nearly 50 years. These are all the tell-tale signs of a police state.

These are points often made by writers such as Noam Chomsky and Eduardo Galeano, hardly figures that could be accused of taking dollars from Washington; people who do not offer unqualified support of Cuba. The recent debate on Cuba in the UK-based Red Pepper magazine is another example of important and necessary debates over Castro’s legacy.

I have never claimed to be an expert on Cuba, but my work focuses on the ability of the web to challenge authoritarianism, something that a blind man can see exists in Cuba. Some critics within Cuba are not on the US payroll, many of whom I did meet.

As somebody who has spent most of my professional career taking risks for defending the dispossessed, including the Palestinians and others in the Middle East - and receiving regular hate-mail and death threats in the process - a lack of intellectual curiosity or rigour towards Cuba only leads praise of the Castro regime. Supporting elements of the Revolution does not mean ignoring the negative sides of its history.

I look forward to you contributing to another best-seller in The Blogging Revolution.

Yours sincerely,

Antony Loewenstein

]]> By: Tim Anderson http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2008/03/19/wwwcensorshipcom/#comment-413043 Tim Anderson Fri, 16 May 2008 22:07:31 +0000 http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2008/03/19/wwwcensorshipcom/#comment-413043 Interesting how Anthony became an instant expert on Cuba, after a two week trip, where he was immediately linked up with the Miami backed network of 'independent journalists', paid by US Government. ‘Reporters Without Borders’ has a ‘freedom of the internet campaign’, also funded by the US government, one part of it aimed at Cuba. Anthony: who funded *your* brief trip to Cuba? Interesting how Anthony became an instant expert on Cuba, after a two week trip, where he was immediately linked up with the Miami backed network of ‘independent journalists’, paid by US Government. ‘Reporters Without Borders’ has a ‘freedom of the internet campaign’, also funded by the US government, one part of it aimed at Cuba. Anthony: who funded *your* brief trip to Cuba?

]]> By: Kevin Rennie http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2008/03/19/wwwcensorshipcom/#comment-394877 Kevin Rennie Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:34:28 +0000 http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2008/03/19/wwwcensorshipcom/#comment-394877 What about Western censorship. Yesterday I watched a video on Youtube from PatriotsMaxim about the 40th anniversary of the My Lai massacre. When I returned there today I discovered that it has been suspended, apparently not for the first time. Strange indeed. It even disappeared from my Firefox history. We seem to live with a global big brother these days. What about Western censorship. Yesterday I watched a video on Youtube from PatriotsMaxim about the 40th anniversary of the My Lai massacre. When I returned there today I discovered that it has been suspended, apparently not for the first time. Strange indeed. It even disappeared from my Firefox history. We seem to live with a global big brother these days.

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