If any more evidence was needed, this is why sites like Wikileaks are so important: Between 2006 and 2009, news room budgets were cut by $1.6 billion. Meanwhile, on the government side, between 1996 and 2009, the number of documents and other communications containing information labeled secret has risen 1,000 percent. We are at the…
Nothing to criticise because hating Arabs isn’t such a big deal
What’s a little racism against Arabs? The heads of Israel’s legal establishment have yet to express a public position on a religious ruling signed by dozens of prominent rabbis calling for people not to rent homes to non-Jews. Neither Justice Minister Ya’akov Ne’eman nor Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has responded to a petition calling for…
Top Aussie journalist calls for colleagues to defend Wikileaks
After winning the country’s top journalism prize last night, the Walkleys, reporter Laurie Oakes had a message for his fellow scribes. How many will speak up? Oakes also attacked Ms Gillard and Attorney-General Robert McClelland for their response to the release of secret US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks. “What they said was ridiculous,” he said.…
Assange and Serco, quite a relationship
Great letter in today’s Crikey about the ubiquitous Serco and its merry jobs. How many ways can this company make a buck from misfortune? Michael R. James writes: To top off a frenetic 24 hour news cycle of the harassment of Julian Assange, nothing was quite as chilling as seeing him being ferried to a…
Karzai is about as statesmanlike as Mugabe
So this is what mature diplomacy means. Working with a corrupt government to further another bromance? So sweet and so revealing: Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates called it “extraordinarily embarrassing,” which might also describe the sentiments beneath the decorous tableau on Wednesday night in the palace of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. A little more…
Google, Twitter et al on path to helping US imperialism
The introductory section of this recent essay in the London Review of Books paints a disturbing nexus between the US government and major web companies. They seem worryingly comfortable assisting US foreign policy goals. Putting a nice, sexy face to occupation. Beware: On a balmy evening in April 2009 Barham Salih, then deputy prime minister…
Challenging authority is only beginning
Wikileaks as an inspiration: John Young, whose website cryptome.org has published about 60,000 classified and non-classified documents over the past 14 years, believes the storm will pass. “This is just typical arm-waving and yelling. If anything, this will just further wind people up to oppose authority and send in more documents.”
Why is the national broadcaster giving so much air-time to a propagandist?
What an embarrassment. The US government is upset about Wikileaks and also pissed off that one of its best assets, Kevin Rudd, is being smeared in some leaked cables. Damage control time. But why did ABC TV’s 7.30 Report allow a senior US official 10 minutes last night to slobber over the client state known…
The rape of Africa, courtesy of shiny Shell
Who says Wikileaks isn’t providing essential new information into the public domain? The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians’ every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable. The company’s top executive in Nigeria…
Sydney Morning Herald on Wikileaks and Gillard government
I was interviewed yesterday by the Sydney Morning Herald online (audio here and here) to discuss the vital importance of Wikileaks for democracy and the Gillard government’s shameful damning of Julian Assange in the name of placating its Washington masters.