The role of an accountable press has never been more important. The role of Wikileaks, whistle-blowers, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden should inspire us all and bring a realisation that transparency in a democracy requires brave souls. Here’s a great piece by Jay Rosen at his PressThink site: In exchanges with Washington Post reporter Barton…
Showing all posts tagged internet
China’s gargantuan web filtering system
There has never been anything like it in human history. Then again, the internet is the perfect tool for officials to monitor and censor material. Disturbing piece in the New York Review of Books by Perry Link: Every day in China, hundreds of messages are sent from government offices to website editors around the country…
Julian Assange on fighting reach of the superpower
Typically tough piece by Julian Assange, published in the Guardian, that outlines the risks faced by every citizen around the world and why trusting state power is a fool’s game: The original cypherpunks were mostly Californian libertarians. I was from a different tradition but we all sought to protect individual freedom from state tyranny. Cryptography…
Repeat after me, you have no privacy online ever
If we have discovered only one thing recently with the revelations of Edward Snowden, it’s that the US has established an all-seeing and all-hearing surveillance apparatus that knows no bounds. This investigation in the Washington Post adds to this picture: The U.S. government had a problem: Spying in the digital age required access to the…
Background and context to revealing Edward Snowden NSA stories
It’s been quite a month since the details emerged of massive spying by the NSA. Here are two interesting interviews and a speech by key players. First, Guardian editors Alan Rusbridger and Janine Gibson discuss how the paper managed the ways in which a mainstream media news organisation publishes sensitive information. They’re speaking to Charlie…
How the disabled can make and inspire music
A truly remarkable and moving experience in Britain. Watch and be amazed with what technology can bring:
What Ed Snowden’s revelations say about our so-called democracy
It’s the kind of story that necessarily interests the general public. Surveillance, leaking, US power and Wikileaks (note, for the record, in today’s New York Times yet another clear indication that the US wants to destroy/punish the vitally important website). Last week I wrote for the Guardian about the PRISM revelations by Edward Snowden and…
Rare Australian voice backing whistle-blowers/Wikileaks/transparency
There’s really nobody in the Australian Parliament quite like Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, a constant voice against excessive government surveillance and the national-security state. His speech this week is a cracker, covering Michael Hastings, Bradley Manning, Wikileaks and Edward Snowden. If only more politicians saw their role like Ludlam, questioning the ever-increasing role of the…
Silicon Valley and US intelligence doing more than heavy petting
Following the recent revelations about global surveillance and Prism by leaker Edward Snowden, the mainstream media is finally seriously investigating the intimate and unhealthy links between tech firms and the US government. This New York Times story… reveals some of those connections and why none of us should trust the privacy pledges given by Facebook, Google…