In a rare breach of official American adherence to Israel’s policy of nuclear ambiguity, the U.S. military is terming Israel “a nuclear power” on a par with Russia, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea, all of which have declared their nuclear weapon status, and ahead of “nuclear threshold powers” Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and…
Showing all posts tagged China
Talking Palestine in Ubud
I’m currently in Ubud, Bali after being invited by the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival to conduct an event tonight. The following article appears in the current edition of the local paper, The Bali Advertiser: 2009 Ubud Writers and Readers Festival presents Antony Loewenstein author of “My Israel Question” and “The Blogging Revolution” Just as…
Stifling the voices
My book, The Blogging Revolution, examines the Western corporates that assist the Chinese regime in its internet censorship program. According to yesterday’s New York Times, the Communists are cracking down ever-harder in the last months: It was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek alternative to the stultifying variety show beamed into hundreds of millions of living…
This is an unpopularity contest
The world’s major powers have a serious image problem: Public views of China and Russia have slipped considerably in the past year, according to a new BBC World Service poll across 21 countries. Views of the US have improved modestly over the past year but remain predominantly negative, even though the poll was taken after…
Change the tone and people will listen
Roger Cohen, New York Times, February 1: It’s time to think again, not merely to recalibrate old formulas, in order to end the three-decade impasse in U.S.-Iranian ties, a breakdown of huge cost and menace. A non-relationship has locked itself in stereotypes as American threats (“the military option must be kept on the table”) and…
Bypass the autocrats
A letter to the new US President: Dear President Obama: in talking to China, remember its people.
Chinese smart power grows
Who said the global media industry is in trouble? The Chinese government has pledged 45 billion yuan (nearly $6.6 billion) for media that target foreign audiences, “in an aggressive global drive to improve the country’s image internationally.” The Xinhua News Agency wants to use the funding to “expand its overseas bureaus from about 100 to…
The net effect
The following essay about the web and my book The Blogging Revolution, by Richard King, appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on January 3: Good, bad or a bit of both? Richard King asks whether the internet serves us, or we serve it. Perhaps new technologies meet with suspicion because of the perception they extend…
Bloggers under fire
I was interviewed by Sarah Arnold in US magazine The Nation for an article published online on December 23: According to a Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) report released December 4, of the 125 media workers in prison – a list that includes Ibrahim Jassam, a photographer held in US custody in Iraq – more…