My weekly Guardian column: William Binney is one of the highest-level whistleblowers to ever emerge from the NSA. He was a leading code-breaker against the Soviet Union during the Cold War but resigned soon after September 11, disgusted by Washington’s move towards mass surveillance. On 5 July he spoke at a… conference… in London organised by the…
Showing all posts tagged mainstream media
ABCTV Big Ideas on freedom of the press
The following was broadcast last week by ABC TV’s Big Ideas: Big Ideas went to the deep north for the Wordstorm festival in Darwin. This is a festival that covers local and national politics and culture with a hefty dose of late night rapping. Some of the rap probably needs a late night time slot;…
WikiLeaks Editor Sarah Harrison on Ed Snowden and indy journalism
Fascinating interview in Germany on Democracy Now! with one of the key figures in the still living and breathing Wikileaks and newly formed The Courage Foundation to support whistle-blowers:
The toxic Greek brew of racism, fascism and hatred of refugees
My weekly Guardian column: On a searing hot day last weekend I took the train an hour out of Athens to the Greek city of Corinth. There, one of the country’s largest detention centres sits behind high walls. It was the recent site of a mass hunger strike by asylum seekers, whose protest has now…
Three problems with the Fourth Estate
The blandness of the mainstream media, including public broadcasters, is all about the narrow level of “debate” allowed on issues of the day. Australian intellectual and academic Scott Burchill has written the following short essay on the problem and possible solutions: In what is misleadingly called the ”˜age of culture wars’ there are three aspects…
Jeremy Scahill in Australia
Last week I had the honour to meet and spend time with US investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill. He was here for the Sydney Writer’s Festival (photos from the event here) – our panel together discussed the importance of indy journalism in the face of corporate reporting – and it was unique hearing somebody speak clearly…
Why there are growing corporate attacks on public broadcasting
My weekly Guardian column: The war on public broadcasters by corporate media is currently enjoying a resurgence. Britain’s Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre has long loathed the BBC, accusing it of supporting “cultural marxism”. In a… 2007 lecture, he said the organisation attempted to undermine “the values of conservatism, with a small ”˜c’, which, I would…
Why journalism is broken part 432554
Fascinating and disturbing results (via The Wire) that reveals how so few US reporters want to seriously challenge the power, reach and illegality of the state: Compared to ten years ago, today’s journalists believe exposing government hypocrisy is more important than ever. Yet, they are less approving of the use confidential documents to expose that…
We know too little about US drone attacks
My weekly Guardian column: The news that the US had killed two Australian “militants” in a drone strike was… announced… in mid-April.… Christopher Havard… and “Muslim bin John”, who… also held… New Zealand citizenship, were allegedly killed by a CIA-led airstrike in eastern Yemen in November last year. Readers were given little concrete information, apart from a “counter-terrorism source” who claimed…
Why the Pulitzer for the Snowden stories is a no-brainer
Yes, to all of this, by Amy Davidson in The New Yorker: Awarding the Pulitzer for public service to the… Guardian… and the Washington… Post… should go down as about the easiest call the prize committee has ever had to make. It would have been a scandal, this year, if there had been… no… Pulitzer related to the documents that Edward…