My weekly Guardian column is here: Australia has an identity crisis that has never been resolved. Are we a US client state, happy to host any number of… American troops… and… spying assets, or a fully integrated part of Asia? Do we crave true independence, or are we happy to remain America’s ‘deputy sheriff‘ in the Pacific region?…
Showing all posts tagged censorship
Why the US truly fears Ed Snowden and Wikileaks
It has nothing to do with endangering national security (ignore the bleating of far too many corporate journalists who simply repeat talking points from their intelligence sources) but the profound shame of US hegemony being challenged and revealed. Here’s Henry Farrell and Martha Finnemore in Foreign Affairs: The U.S. government seems outraged that people are…
Mossad-backed Israeli law group attempts to silence free speech over Palestine
As the Israeli occupation of Palestine worsens and Zionist racism against Arabs in general becomes far more known globally (examples here and here), Israeli groups are trying to stamp out dissent through dodgy legal means. One Israeli group, Shurat HaDin, is going around the world attempting to silence critics of Israel. In Australia, two academics…
Glenn Greenwald challenges puerile pro-government BBC questioning
The Guardian reporter shows how it’s done. Note how virtually every BBC “question” could have been written by the British government in relation to intelligence and Edward Snowden. Welcome to mainstream journalism (just as bad as this infamous interview with Julian Assange in 2012):
Guardian editor on how Orwell would be turning in his grave over NSA spying
A sad state of affairs that a serious media (which most of the corporate press is not, too keen to wine and dine with the powerful) would vehemently oppose (via the Guardian): The potential of the… surveillance… state goes way beyond anything in George Orwell‘s 1984,… Alan Rusbridger,… the Guardian‘s editor-in-chief, told an audience in New York on Monday.…
Assange, Greenwald, Coombs, O'Brien, Manne and Keane on mass surveillance
Last night at the Sydney Opera House I witnessed a truly unique event. 1.5 hour discussion with Wikileaks’ Julian Assange, The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, indy reporter and key documenter of the Chelsea Manning trial Alexa O’Brien (with whom I did an event tonight… on Manning and dissent), Manning lawyer David Coombs, academic Robert Manne and moderator…
Inside the mind of a Chinese internet censor
A key theme of my book The Blogging Revolution is China’s extensive web censorship regime. Fast forward to 2013 and this story, via Reuters, offers unique details about the pathological desire to exercise control over citizens: In a modern office building on the outskirts of the Chinese city of Tianjin, rows of censors stare at…
We have been warned; Western states remove our privacy by stealth
The vital whistle-blowing of Edward Snowden continues to bear fruit. We have a right in a democratic society to know that our privacy is violated on a daily basis. And what we can do to protect ourselves. The Guardian… (by Glenn Greenwald, James Ball and Julia Borger): US and British intelligence agencies have successfully cracked much…
Direct call for whistle-blowers to reveal what state shamefully denies
My following article appears in today’s Guardian: Revelations of British government intrusion of legitimate media reporting of… American-led, global surveillance… is a call to arms for journalists everywhere. Australian attorney general Mark Dreyfus recently claimed that Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden… weren’t whistle-blowers… because they were “politically motivated”, and neither man exposed government wrong-doing (in fact, both did in…
Post Wikileaks snub, hard having faith in Amazon with Washington Post
The role of an accountable press has never been more important. The role of Wikileaks, whistle-blowers, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden should inspire us all and bring a realisation that transparency in a democracy requires brave souls. Here’s a great piece by Jay Rosen at his PressThink site: In exchanges with Washington Post reporter Barton…