An insightful feature in the New York Times magazine by Peter Maass on the role played by film-maker Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald when discovering Edward Snowden and reporting his invaluable NSA revelations: Poitras and Greenwald… are an especially dramatic example of what outsider reporting looks like in 2013. They do not work in a…
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Al Jazeera English gets “access” to Serco-run Christmas Island camp
When I visited Christmas Island in late 2011 (researching my book Profits of Doom), the Australian Immigration Department and Serco heavily restricted access (though I finally obtained entry on my last day). This was supposedly for asylum seeker “privacy” but in reality is a policy aimed to not humanise the faces and lives of refugees.…
Small but positive signs that US war on drugs at home viewed as failure
One of the most devastating effects of the war on drugs has been on people of colour in the US, especially African-Americans. I’ve long believed that a serious society would consider decriminalising if not legalising drugs, a point I argued in a recent Guardian column. Now, some positive news from the US (via the New…
What is vulture capitalism doing to our world?
My follow article appears today in The Conversation: The story in last weekend’s Sydney’s… Daily Telegraph… was stark: “[Prime Minister] Kevin Rudd will warn people smugglers he stands ready to create an island from hell in Papua New Guinea housing 10,000 asylum seekers.” The message, an “exclusive” by News Corp Australia journalist Samantha Maiden, was to inform…
Centre for Public Christianity discusses For God’s Sake
The new book… For God’s Sake… is a discussion between an Atheist, a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim about the big questions of life. CPX invited Jane Caro, Antony Loewenstein and Simon Smart to discuss their reasons for writing the book and to debate some of the questions that are raised in it.
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…
Profits of Doom extract: politicised, privatised and silenced by bureaucracy
The following… appears in the wonderful publication Right Now, an online site dedicated to human rights: In his new book,… Profits of Doom,… independent Australian journalist Antony Loewenstein travels to Curtin Immigration Detention Centre and Christmas Island to investigate the reality of Australia’s, notoriously… secretive, privatised detention facilities for asylum seekers.… In this excerpt, Loewenstein is on Christmas Island (CI)…
The daily inhumanity of Guantanamo Bay
Devastating article by writer John Grisham in the New York Times: About two months ago I learned that some of my books had been banned at Guantánamo Bay. Apparently detainees were requesting them, and their lawyers were delivering them to the prison, but they were not being allowed in because of “impermissible content.” I became…
The Australian reviews Profits of Doom
The following review by Miriam Cosic appears in Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newspaper today: In his recent book What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, American philosopher Michael Sandel explores ethical realms subverted by economic models. It is a bravura critique but there are surprising gaps when it comes to the modern nation-state’s supposed…
Radio Adelaide interview on Murdoch media and supposed objectivity
Following my recent Guardian column pushing for greater media accountability over voting intentions and bias, I was interviewed yesterday by Radio Adelaide about issues of media transparency: