The very first principle of Radio New Zealand Charter, states unequivocally that the purpose of our national broadcaster is to be “…an independent public service broadcaster…” and “to serve the public interest.” Unfortunately, this principle appears to have been abandoned in its coverage of Israel’s campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip that has ramped up since 7 October 2023. Time and time again RNZ has demonstrated that the word ‘genocide’ is a bridge-too-far, bringing into question its commitment to the public interest. (more…)
Category: Media
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A tale of two poles
In a recent interview with Victorian Health Minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, Melbourne ABC presenter, Raf Epstein, led off with a classic “gotcha” question: (more…)
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Jewish Council of Australia urges the Australian government to reject racism against Palestinian people fleeing persecution in Gaza
This week Sky News reported it had a list with the personal details of 500 Palestinian people who had obtained visas to flee overwhelming violence in Gaza, 81 of whom are in Australia. (more…)
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Antoinette v ABC: why did Lattouf lawyers move for ‘change of venue’?
Faced with what some saw as long odds at the Fair Work Commission (FWC) Antoinette Lattouf’s team moved her unfair dismissal case to the Federal Court on Friday. Andrew Gardiner asks why they felt the need to do so, and what that says about this country and its future: (more…)
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West Australia and the art of state capture
The idea of state capture is usually associated with the global south, but Australia, and Western Australia in particular, demonstrates that established democracies are far from immune. As the Australian Democracy Network explains, ‘a key element of state capture is the management of political parties both in government and opposition…a range of techniques are brought to bear to reward compliance and punish dissent, ensuring that even in a change of government, the whole infrastructure of state capture remains intact.’ (more…)
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Denmark finds ‘Deliberate Sabotage’ of Nord Stream – but ends probe with no charges
The country is the second U.S. ally in the past month to end an investigation into the pipeline explosions. (more…)
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Misrepresenting the ICJ and muzzling our press – the Empire strikes back
On 26 January, the World spoke to Israel and its supporters – on the issue of Gaza. The World spoke through the International Court of Justice (ICJ). There can be no doubt about that. A number of provisional orders were made. Israel, and its primary accomplice, the United States – hereinafter “the Empire” – did not like what the World said. The Empire has struck back. Let us consider what it has done. (more…)
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Usual cruelties: Imbeciles who fear the borders
The imaginative faculties of standard Australian politicians retreat to some strange, deathly place on certain issues. In that wasteland, they are often unrecoverable. Like juveniles demanding instant reward, they find complexity hideous. Focus on the now, the punch, the bruising, the hurt. That, in sum, is Canberra’s policy towards refugees. (more…)
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A remarkable Hong Kong media story
In Hong Kong, a vibrant Chinese media-oasis is forming within the vast territory long staked-out by the exceptionally dominant Mainstream Western Media. (more…)
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Assange’s draconian prosecution criminalises journalism and grants the US extraterritorial reach
In an extraordinary barely reported turn of events close to the conclusion of Julian Assange’s two day UK High Court Appeal against his extradition, a gaping hole appeared in plans to shunt him onto a plane to the US. (more…)
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Two boats and hysteria is unleashed
According to the evening news, Australia stands on the precipice of one of the greatest security threats to Australia since World War II, with the Imperial Japanese Army in the Owen Stanley’s overlooking the lights of Port Moresby. A few dozen impoverished, bedraggled refugees right up there with the Imperial Japanese Army as threat! It is a joke isn’t it, except that this stuff is taken seriously. (more…)
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It’s the OCCUPATION, stupid: What have Australian journalists got against Palestinians?
In 2007 I visited Palestine with my late husband Hal Wootten AC, QC, the founding Dean of the Law School at the University of New South Wales and well-known for his pursuit of justice. Hal was determined to understand the conflict from both Palestinian and Israeli perspectives, and he collected a substantial library on middle-east history. Then, undaunted at the age of 85, he lived in Ramallah for three months, travelling widely and speaking to many Palestinians and Israelis. His conclusion could be summarised (to adapt Bill Clinton’s words); “It’s the OCCUPATION, stupid”. (more…)
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Julian Assange and the ugly reality of war crimes
Free Palestine. Free Assange. Free the world. (more…)
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Israel’s propaganda has ceased to convince or persuade even its friends
Israel’s citizens seem either blithely unaware of the world’s horror at the terror raining down on Gaza, or do not care. Whichever, the barbarity has stripped it of the significant moral advantage given by the Hamas atrocities of October 7, and have caused fundamental reappraisal of Israel’s standing among people once disposed to be sympathetic or admiring.
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The craft of journalism is dying: Can independent consortiums save it?
Back in the 1960s and 70s, the media was referred to as ‘The Fourth Estate’. The media played a role as a check and balance against government abuse of power, corruption, and overreach. The media was an integral part of any healthy democracy. (more…)
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Lies, damned lies and Israeli propaganda
The smoke and dust had only just settled from the armed incursion by Hamas in the Gaza envelope of neighbouring Israel on October 7 when the IDF began releasing “eyewitness” stories of Hamas’ beheading of babies and the rape and mutilation of women. These alleged horrific acts were immediately picked up by Israel’s enablers in the western media and so the world went into cataclysmic shock. Israel was a victim once more. (more…)
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The world is fighting back against a real genocide
Now we know how racial mass murders are committed by watching one live on our computer and TV screens. (more…)
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Why human beings prostitute themselves to corporations, billionaires and foundations
The power of money to distort humanity’s view of our situation only works because human beings prostitute themselves to corporations, billionaires and foundations. If you know anyone who works for the biggest companies of the world in media, finance, and technology, then ask them why aren’t they rebelling inside those companies, to make it less easy for rich white men to fuck up people or planet?
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‘Hand of God’ makes votes disappear – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Imran Khan the ‘winner’ in Pakistan elections. Plus: Prabowo to adopt ‘Indonesia First’ foreign policy; China’s BYD overtaking Tesla; West really thinks it’s a jungle out there; Thai activists arrested for disrupting royal convoy; PLA not able to invade Taiwan; the land where pet strollers outnumber baby buggies. (more…)
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Weathering the storm: support for multiculturalism resists politicians’ frenzied divisiveness
Reading the latest Scanlon Foundation social cohesion report makes you aware that there are two quite distinct images of Australia. One – totally dark and doom laden – is depicted in the mass and social media and the other – clear-eyed about both serious problems and opportunities – is depicted in the 2023 Scanlon Foundation annual Mapping Social Cohesion report. (more…)
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Germany and critique of Israel: My sacking from the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
It is apparently antisemitic to engage in a comparison between Israel and Nazis. This is, in a nutshell, what has put me at odds with Max Planck Society’s lawyers. What to me is a fair, intellectual critique of Israel, for them is ‘antisemitism according to the law in Germany’.
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The Australian Parliament fails to uphold international law preventing genocide in Gaza
The Australian Parliament failed to recognise its responsibilities last week when Greens Leader Adam Bandt, responding to the International Court of Justice interim ruling to prevent genocide, initiated a vote for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. (more…)
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Deflect, distort, deny
In what world does a dominant state claim they have a right to defend themselves against those they have unethically, immorally and illegally imprisoned for decades, killed and persecuted without trial? (more…)
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Judgment Day: Final retribution for the ecocidal psychopaths
100 Fossil Fuel CEOs directly and knowingly threaten all life on Earth.
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The Western press are just printing straight up Nazi propaganda about Middle Easterners now
Mass media outlets like The Guardian, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have been allowing the publication of some amazingly racist pieces these last few days. All are directed at middle easterners and those of middle eastern descent, just as the western empire drops more and more bombs on more and more countries in the middle east. (more…)
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Western coverage of Gaza: A textbook case of coloniser’s journalism
Israel’s war on Gaza has exposed the true nature and purpose of Western media. (more…)
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The edge of war, our battle for truth
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” George Orwell, 1984. (more…)
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A pro-Israel policy will become electoral poison for Labor
The Labor and Liberal parties’ blind pro-Israel policy will haunt them in the next federal election. (more…)
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When escalation means escalation
In one of the world’s poorest countries, Yemen, there is a tribe called the Houthis. Emanating from that tribe to lead a larger coalition of other tribes is a group which does not want to be ruled by a Western or Saudi backed puppet government, they are called Ansar Allah, which means Supporters of god. Western media, in an effort to either simplify, or perhaps to denigrate them, have given Ansar Allah different names, they are now referred to as either Houthis or Iranian Backed Houthis, or sometimes Iranian Backed Militia, they are rarely, if ever, referred to by their correct name. There is a good reason for this; we are being spoon fed a line that this is all Iran’s doing and led along a path of escalation to include a war with Iran. (more…)
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‘Fire arrow’ missile: Is Kim ready for war? – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Debate gets serious about North Korea’s intentions. Plus: Another Thai progressive party beaten by the court system; Pakistan’s shameful history of removing PMs; India’s Hindu temple celebration will help government; HK’s security law at sprint stage; Interest surges in Oppenheimer’s devastation (more…)