I’ve written before about Australia’s plans to censor the internet. The country’s communication minister, Stephen Conroy – whom I met some months ago in Sydney and seemed sweet and reasonable as pie but clearly didn’t truly understand the nature of effective public relations or free speech – has been justly awarded an internet villain award.…
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The revolution will be watched
Evgeny Morozov at his Foreign Policy blog reveals a worrying anecdote: A scary anecdote from Iran. A trusted colleague – who is married to an Iranian-American and would thus prefer to stay anonymous – has told me of a very disturbing episode that happened to her friend, another Iranian-American, as she was flying to Iran…
Hello, thank you, now don’t look at that on the web
Get Up! Australia has produced this smooth piece of work: Good, clean internet censorship? Help get this advert on the air and in the air – on every Qantas flight in the country during the next sitting week of Parliament. The Government’s test trials on internet censorship are about to end, the results are nearly…
Iranians are not alone
The crackdowns in Iran continue. But online activists across the world are playing their part in showing solidarity with dissidents: Non-Iranian geeks and activists worldwide are offering substantial technical support to help thousands of Iranians get around government Internet filters and to get unfettered access to information online. And Iranians within Iran are responding. Many…
‘If You Don’t Agree With Us You’re Antisemitic’
My latest New Matilda column, co-written with Independent Australian Jewish Voices blogger Michael Brull, responds to predictable charges of political bias by the Zionist lobby: Labor MP Michael Danby’s accusation of antisemitism against two Jewish writers is a false and dangerous misuse of that term, write the accused, Michael Brull and Antony Loewenstein Sometimes, people…
My new site
Dear readers, As you’ve no doubt noticed, my website relaunched over the weekend. Cleaner, fresher and with more features, feel free to offer comments. Subscribe to my Twitter feed or the daily email with all the latest posts. Interviews and articles are now easier to find. Other touches on their way later on. Enjoy.
Blogging the lower classes
ActionAid Australia has a new program that sends bloggers to developing countries “to give poverty a voice.” Blogging can’t just be written by the elite for the elite; others have to get a look in.
People make revolutions
I wrote before about the dangers of over-playing the significance of the web in Iran. It’s hard not to moved, though, by this Iranian blogger: I will take part in the rally tomorrow. It might become violent. Perhaps I may be one of the people who is meant to die. I am listening to all…
They blog, I blog, we all blog
The following review of my book The Blogging Revolution appears in the latest edition of Harvard University’s Nieman Reports: An Australian blogger interviews dissident bloggers worldwide, and in his book he explains why what they do matters and who is trying to stop them. By Danny Schechter I am a blogger, a media critic, and…
Don’t wait for the web to bring democracy
As Iran teeters and the Supreme Leader warns protestors, Zionists, foreigners and the media to back off – he would be comical if this wasn’t so serious – many in the West should be cautious about heralding the Twitter Revolution. As I write in my book The Blogging Revolution, new technology doesn’t on its own…