This is how power works, a rare window into modern politics. If you thought the war in Libya was truly about liberating the Libyan people, 99% of players behind it had other ideas. Here’s the UK Telegraph: A major Tory donor whose oil firm was given government help to set up a supply deal in…
Showing all posts tagged Libya
What our media don’t tell us about the Middle East
Yet more fascinating insights from the recently released Wikileaks documents of Stratfor, published by Lebanon’s… Al Akhbar. One: US government officials requested that an American private security firm contact Syrian opposition figures in Turkey to see “how they can help in regime change,” the CEO of one of these firms told Stratfor in a company email…
Saluting the power of Anthony Shadid-style journalism in a cynical age
Famed New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid died tragically in February in… Syria… while reporting the war there. He was one of the finest reporters of his generation, spending years in the Arab world explaining its twists and turns. He proved that insightful, punchy and beautifully written journalism still matters in the modern age. Now his widow,…
The Guardian puts its best foot forward for journalism 21st century style
The British Guardian is a paper with a fine reporting record albeit with blind spots incorporated (including Wikileaks and war). They’ve just released a startling new ad that aims to showcase its “open journalism” style: Back in 1996, this is how the newspaper last promoted itself:
American “freedom fighter” in Libya
Matthew VanDyke fought alongside Libyan forces opposed to Gaddafi. His message when he returned to America? It [Libya] will be a democratic, capitalist country. Apparently that’s what freedom means:
Post Gaddafi Libya for North Koreans
My friend Yaara Bou-Melhem on Al-Jazeera tells the story of Asian migrant workers:
Anyone can make a revolution (but the web won’t be enough)
Last last year I was invited to chair a panel at the Sydney Opera House’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas called, “Anyone Can Make A Revolution”. It was an attempt to understand the reality of the Arab revolutions and the influence (or not) of the internet: In Egypt and Tunisia we have seen ordinary people come…
The deadly risk of being a journalist in 2011
Committee to Protect Journalists offers a grim end of year report: Pakistan remained the deadliest country for the press for a second year, while across the world coverage of political unrest proved unusually dangerous in 2011, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its year-end survey of journalist fatalities. CPJ’s analysis found notable shifts from…
New Libyan government shows true colours; mercenaries welcome
Sigh: As rival militias in postwar Libya wage turf wars in Tripoli and the interim government struggles to form a national army, Western mercenaries are moving in to fill the security vacuum in the oil-rich North African state. Under the circumstances, it’s not surprising that the executive bureau of the National Transitional Council, striving to…