“We tolerated all the rules of repression and censorship as far as our conscience allowed. We stayed alone and wrote. But they did not tolerate the same and harassed us for thinking and writing… even if we don’t write, they will bother us. Because we still think. Because we know the truth and adhere to… Read More Iranian liberal Majid Tavakoli set to be sent back to prison
First posted November 21, 2020 By Gary Kramer Alexander Nanau’s extraordinary documentary “Collective” unfolds in the aftermath of a 2015 tragedy in the Bucharest nightclub Colectiv that gives this film its title. While 27 people died in the fire, more than 100 were injured and sent to area hospitals. However, an additional 37 of the 100-plus victims died as a… Read More ‘Collective’ is an exposé of killer corruption & how journalism and the people fought back
To confront the growing threat of vexatious lawsuits intended to harass and silence independent media worldwide, Reporters Shield launches today as a new membership program defending investigative journalism against such lawsuits, known as “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” or SLAPPs. Corrupt and criminal figures file SLAPPs to threaten, intimidate, and financially burden journalists. Fighting them entails paying… Read More ‘Reporters Shield’ Launched on World Press Freedom Day
Widespread precarity has facilitated a culture of illegal underpayment, with more than $80m in underpayments since 2020 across public universities, according to the National Tertiary Education Union’s wage theft report Jeff Sparrow On Monday, unionised workers at the University of Melbourne (where I teach) will go on strike. In the faculty of arts, the Melbourne law school, student… Read More How did Australia’s university system get so broken?
NB: A recurring bad dream.. Here’s relevant correspondence from the time a senior scholar was forced out of Ashoka University in 2021. University authorities should protect their faculty from ideologically motivated attacks, not undermine them. If you dont stand up to such bullying there will never be an end to it. You may as well… Read More Significance of Ashoka University’s Teachers Calling for a Strike Over Academic Freedom / Solidarity with faculty of Ashoka University by the international academic community
Tim Adams A few days after he announced he would sell his Nobel peace prize medal at auction – and give the millions of dollars raised to Ukrainian refugees – the Russian newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov was sitting on a train bound for the city of Samara. Just before the train pulled away from Kazansky station in… Read More Nobel peace laureate Dmitry Muratov won’t be silenced by Putin
Any attempt to reimagine or recreate a constitution may fall woefully short in its objective if ‘freedoms’ are threatened and ‘unfreedoms’ are instilled by a usurper of power Deepanshu Mohan Source: The Wire In an attempt to initiate a discussion on the ‘new’ foundations of the Indian Constitution, chief economic advisor to the prime minister Bibek… Read More Safeguarding Academic Freedom Is the Bedrock of India’s Constitutional Morality
Modi Administration attempts shutting down We20 Public Statement People refuse to bow down, We20 continues as scheduled. New Delhi, 19.08.23: Jairam Ramesh, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) termed “extraordinary” that “Delhi Police is stopping people from attending the We20 meeting”. Nikhil Dey of MKSS wondered if this is the message Narendra Modi wants to send… Read More Modi Administration attempts shutting down Peoples’ Summit on G20
Police targeting pro-democracy activists abroad have questioned their family and put out bounties, but there is a broader, more chilling, objective behind the operation Helen Davidson in Taipei In recent weeks, Hong Kong national security police have embarked on a tactic more commonly associated with their counterparts in mainland China. In early July, Hong Kong police announced arrest… Read More ‘Gangster tactic’: the true aim behind Hong Kong’s pursuit of overseas dissidents
Russia’s anti-war movement should learn from the ‘patriotic dissent’ used by women involved in the war Natasha Danilova / Jennifer Mathers The women in Russia’s military families are posing a subtle but significant challenge to Vladimir Putin’s handling of the war in Ukraine by engaging in a form of political activism best described as ‘patriotic… Read More Russia’s military wives and mothers are challenging Putin’s war on Ukraine
