My following column appears in the Guardian today: Treating voters with contempt is the perfect way for the left to guarantee itself permanent exile from the political scene. On election night, Melbourne writer Catherine Deveny… tweeted: “This is win for racists, morons, homophobes, fuckheads, jumped up bogans, misogynists, billionaires, haters, comedians.” Such sentiments might momentarily make…
Wikileaks
Wikileaks is one of the biggest and most important stories in the world, challenging governments and journalists alike. I’ve been writing extensively about the group since 2006, featured an exclusive interview in 2008 with founder Julian Assange and examined the myriad of issues around the website. Assange himself asked me in the early days whether I wanted to be on the group’s board to vet incoming leaks and determine their veracity before publishing. I agreed but unfortunately this never eventuated.
Voice of Russia interview about Australian election of Tony Abbott
I was interviewed last night by The Voice of Russia about the ascension of Tony Abbott to the Prime Ministership (my previous interview with them was in July on asylum seekers): As Australia conservative leader Tony Abbott has won the national elections by a landslide, bringing an end to a six-year Labor rule, Antony Loewenstein,…
Australian Jewish heads love Zionist colonies, conservatism and remain lost cause
Australia has a federal election on 7 September. We’re looking at a change of government to Liberal leader Tony Abbott; a period of neo-conservatism awaits us. I agree with Wikileaks head Julian Assange who argues that one of the key issues is liberating ourselves from genuflecting towards Washington on every issue. Israel/Palestine has barely featured…
Chelsea Manning lawyer speaks out and damns brutal US sentence
Independent journalist Alexa O’Brien, one of the only real reporters who documented the Chelsea Manning trial from the beginning, interviews Manning’s lawyer, David Coombs, on Democracy Now!
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…
Washington using drones to target journalists with sensitive information?
Is this the future of investigative reporting? How far would a US government (or London?) go to stop information they believed was sensitive? Great piece by Amy Davidson in the New Yorker: On Saturday night, Michael Grunwald, aTime… correspondent, deleted a tweet that he said was “dumb”; a spokesperson for the magazine noted in an e-mailed…
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…
Why Bradley Manning trial should inspire journalists and citizens to rebel
My following article appears in New Matilda today: Whistleblowers like Bradley Manning show us the true face of global power. The guilty verdict against him should stir journalists to challenge authoritarianism, writes Antony Loewenstein The verdict was never really in doubt. Former US intelligence analyst Bradley Manning was always going to be found guilty by…
Glenn Greenwald on Bradley Manning verdict reflecting Washington delusions
Great comments by The Guardian journalist on CNN:
Julian Assange: “We live in a media-ocracy”
Strong speech by the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, on his party’s media platform and need to challenge insider journalist’s culture, at today’s Splendour in the Grass music festival: Julian Assange speaks at Splendour In The Grass from WikiLeaksParty on Vimeo.