A story that’s been percolating on the blogosphere for a while – initially revealed by US, Jewish blogger Richard Silverstein (look here and here) – now finally reaches The Daily Beast, courtesy of one Judith Miller. What a teaser: A 23-year-old journalist is under arrest for exposing a secret Israeli assassination plot, and another has…
Showing all posts tagged blogging
Does the British government know the difference between Islam and Islamist?
Another example of a Western government (this time the British) seemingly incapable of understanding the nuance and shade in the non-Anglo world. How comforting to know that writing about Islam and being critical of the “war on terror” makes one a potential target for government intrusion: The UK Home Office last week released a study…
Signs of life inside North Korea
After my book The Blogging Revolution was released, I was constantly asked why I hadn’t examined North Korea. I always said it was simply because the internet barely existed in the Communist nation. Now, via the New York Times, a glimpse: North Korea, one of the world’s most impenetrable nations, is facing a new threat:…
The Age on Google’s move highlights the role of China’s censors
My following article is published today in the Melbourne Age: About 100 Chinese citizens gathered outside Google’s Beijing office this week to sing the popular tune Grass Mud Horse. They paid their respects to the web giant after it announced the closure of its censored Chinese search engine and redirected users to a Hong Kong-based…
Iran did not have a Twitter revolution
The BBC World Service has published my following article about the internet in Iran (originally published on BBC Persian last week): The face of murdered Iranian woman Neda Agha Soltan, killed by a bullet in the Iranian capital Tehran, echoed around the world. Like this, the vast majority of iconic images that documented Iran’s disputed…
Why isn’t the corporate media using blogging far more?
Here’s the Mumbrella report from this week’s Sydney Battle of Big Thinking (where the audience voted me last in my section but I was against a very compelling blind man!): Yesterday saw the APG’s Battle of Big Thinking. The second session covered big storytelling ideas. Speaker: Antony Loewenstein, Writer Topic: Why the western press is…
A speaker at the upcoming Auckland Writer’s Festival
The following article by Linda Herrick appears today in the New Zealand Herald: A Sydney writer who describes himself as “an atheist Jewish-Australian political activist” is coming to Auckland in May as part of the international lineup for the Writers and Readers Festival. Antony Loewenstein is the author of My Israel Question, a highly critical…
The animal kingdom used to question the Great Firewall of China
Who said Chinese bloggers are happy with the country’s insanely tight web censorship? Famous amateur film-maker, Hu Ge, has recently made a new satirical piece on the Internet censorship in China. The 7-minute piece, ”˜Animal World: the Home-living Animal’ is styled as an animal-planet type of documentary and has attracted hundreds of thousands of views…
A rare, ray of light from Gaza
The latest weekly edition of Gaza Gateway: It doesn’t often happen that we get to report success stories, but this week Ayman Quader “made it”. Ayman, a 23-year-old student from the Gaza Strip, overcame numerous obstacles to reach his goal. After working tirelessly and contacting anyone who would listen to his story, he received his…
Israel’s record on rights isn’t something to be admired
A new blog from Jewish Voice for Peace, The Only Democracy in the Middle East?, details the ever-worsening human rights abuses commited by Israel against peace activists, dissident Israelis and Palestinians.