A strong editorial in today’s Sydney Morning Herald on the Australian government’s proposed internet censorship regime (destined to both fail and embarrass): Stephen Conroy, the Communications Minister, is feeling the heat over his attempt to censor the internet for Australians. The latest critic is the US government. Conroy, of course, is used to criticism. Internet…
Showing all posts tagged censorship
The free speech to offend Muslims, Jews and others
The Daily Show has a few things to say to a Muslim group that threatened the creators of South Park with death if they displayed the prophet Mohammed: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c South Park Death Threats www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party
Democracy in Cuba? Not any time soon
I was interviewed recently by Michael Hershman of Radio Free Europe about the civil situation in Cuba. My main message is that democracy in some form may well come to Cuba one day but at the moment both the insane US embargo and authoritarian Havana regime makes this very unlikely: Civil society in Cuba, long-embattled,…
Google opens the door (slightly) on its filtering process
A welcome sign of transparency by Google – and far better than most other web companies – but there’s a long way to go. For example, what are the cosy deals between Google and governments who simply don’t like certain material and want it removed from YouTube? Google Inc. has set up a new tool…
Israel’s Right wants to kill Haaretz once and for all
The indispensable Israeli blog Promised Land on the campaign against Haaretz (mainly because it’s not some jingoistic rag): Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily paper, has a status that exceeds its limited circulation. Israel’s supporters who whishes to portray it as a thriving democracy give Haaretz as an example; Critics of Israel use Haaretz when claiming that…
Threats to shut down Haaretz and silence any questions
An important by Jonathan Cook in The National that reveals the depressing state of intellectual debate in Israel. If you aren’t for the state, get out of the country, so the thinking goes. Dissent is frowned upon, to put it mildly: An Arab member of the Israeli parliament is demanding that a newspaper be allowed…
Whatever you do, make sure you keep on saying that Israel is a democracy
Throughout the current Anat Kamm case in Israel – where predictably Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick calls the paper behind the story, Haaretz, a friend of Israel’s enemies and “supporting treason” – Zionists in the West still cling onto the same old myths. Take the New York Forward: There is a larger issue here: the…
How many Israelis view journalists doing their job
Gideon Levy on how the Israeli public truly views the latest controversy over press freedom, Anat Kamm, Uri Blau and censorship: If it depended on public opinion, Kamm and Blau would be executed and Haaretz would be shut down on the spot. The general who gave the assassination orders revealed by Kamm and Blau has…
It takes 500 IDF officers to kill one Arab?
Russia Today TV provides a report on the Anat Kamm-Uri Blau affair:
Israel is behaving like Fidel Castro, says Fox News
Fox News interviews reporter Judith Miller recently on the Anat Kamm case. Host Shep Smith seems outraged that supposed democratic Israel would censor information and put an individual under house arrest. “This is very Fidel Castro”, he says. He tells viewers that when anybody says anything even mildly critical of Israel they are accused of…