Free speech, Beijing-style

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: One-party rule is here to stay, but cracks are starting to appear, writes Antony Loewenstein. For anybody thinking of attending the Beijing Games, China this week announced, in Chinese, the rules of the game. Religious or political banners are…

Israeli stupidity (part 6742)

Dissenting historian Norman Finkelstein explains why he may have been barred from entering Israel: Well, I guess there are two possibilities. One, I think I’m more effective than I have been in the past. I draw fairly large audiences. And I think Israel is now facing a major public relations challenge. They’re losing the moral…

Let the bile run free

Should a mainstream news organisation be providing a platform for these views? Richard Barnbrook, the British National party’s London Assembly member, has used a blog on the Daily Telegraph’s website to blame immigrants and their sons for knife and gun crime among young people in the capital after a spate of murders. Under the headline…

Trouble in the Communist “paradise”

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: The suffering of earthquake victims should not mask the authoritarian tendencies of the ruling elite, writes Antony Loewenstein. The ongoing humanitarian catastrophe after the Sichuan earthquake has revealed a side of China that is rarely glimpsed. After months of…

The Left should oppose repression

I’ve spent most of my professional life skewering the unhinged tendencies of the Right (not least debunking its support for Israeli violence). Sadly, some on the Left are equally ideological and blind to their own propaganda. Western support for Cuba remains fairly strong on the Left, despite the vast evidence that Fidel Castro ran a…

How not to find the bad guys

The Australian Federal Police today announced that they have spent $8.2 million on the fruitless investigation into “terror” suspect Mohamed Haneef. Yet another debacle in the never-ending “war on terror.” Not unlike this alarming case in the UK: A masters student researching terrorist tactics who was arrested and detained for six days after his university…

The world inside the box

The magic of television, courtesy of the internet. Speaking of which: The Internet is simply a means of communication, like the telephone, but that has not prevented attempts to demonize it — the latest being the ludicrous claim that the Internet promotes terrorism. Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut is trying to pressure YouTube to pull…

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

Site by Common