Powerful Gideon Levy column in yesterday’s Haaretz: What do dogs remind you of? And what do German shepherds remind you of? And what about armed soldiers who sic German shepherds on people trying to sneak through a border in order to earn a living? These lines are being written in a hotel room in the…
Showing all posts in June 2019
Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post on Ed Snowden and intelligence leaking
The importance of leaking to ensure transparency in a democracy is something we should never forget. The great Al Jazeera media program The Listening Post this week tackles Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning and Wikileaks. They asked me to comment on the ways in which the Snowden story unfolded in the press. My clip is at…
Offshore Leaks reveal details of the rich and powerful
Real journalists should be celebrating the leaking of information that provides invaluable background and focus into how our world is really run (Wikileaks and Edward Snowden being two good examples). Equally important is the recent work by The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: The… ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database… cracks open the impenetrable world of offshore tax havens.…
Israeli soldiers talk frankly about their abuses in West Bank
Israeli group Breaking the Silence provides a vital platform for Israeli soldiers to speak out against the vile behaviour of the Jewish state in the occupied territories. The latest release is a number of female soldiers explaining the brutality that is normalised while serving in the West Bank:
Public ignorance over Iraq carnage largely due to media blindness
When countless journalists refuse to take responsibility for accurately reporting on the reality of wars in Iraq, Syria or Libya, it’s unsurprising that the effect on civilians can be so easy ignored. Medialens explains: Last month, a… ComRes poll… supported by Media Lens interviewed 2,021 British adults, asking: ‘How many Iraqis, both combatants and civilians, do you…
Why nobody should take US seriously over Israel/Palestine part 65443
Watch this performance by a hack at the State Department this week and why Washington has no interest in holding Israel to account for its daily violations of human rights in Palestine:
Watch the NSA leak like a sieve
There is a world of intelligence gathering that staggers in terms of size and depth. Here’s James Bamford in Wired on a future over which citizens have no say: Physically, the NSA has always been well protected by miles of high fences and electrified wire, thousands of cameras, and gun-toting guards. But that was to…
The remarkable story behind Edward Snowden leak
The Guardian gives a pretty comprehensive insight into the thinking of Snowden and his skepticism towards the corporate press. Read the whole thing: As he pulled a small black suitcase and carried a selection of laptop bags over his shoulders, no one would have paid much attention to Ed Snowden as he arrived at… Hong Kong… International…
Behind the wire of privatised immigration detention
The reality inside Australia’s countless, Serco run detention centres is far too often ignored by the media. There are notable exceptions, of course, and it’s a key theme in my upcoming book, Profits of Doom. One of the strongest examples of independent journalism tackling the issue is the public release this week of Detention Logs,…
Sri Lanka isn’t a holiday destination for writers. Discuss
How should an artist or writer act in a police state? How should a tourist? What’s the moral response? Here’s a great piece by Jacinda Woodhead in Overland which tackles the thorny questions in a thoughtful way. I was asked to comment: Listening to 3RRR’s… Aural text… on Wednesday, I heard alicia sometimes mention the four-week residency…