The comments on Peter Oborne’s excellent article on Julian Assange in The Guardian on May 20 are a damning indictment of the media’s ability to instill near universal acceptance of “facts” which are easily proven lies. The Guardian chose a comment full of these entirely untrue assertions as its “Guardian pick” to head the section: If… Read More Craig Murray: The Power of Lies
Article 14 of the Constitution of India reads: “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.” Article 14 is an excellent portal, reflecting the best traditions of Indian journalism. I wholeheartedly commend it to readers. Here are some representative articles… Read More Article 14 – Justice Constitution Democracy
Colourful onion-domed churches capped with sparkling snow, seductive spies in lavish mink coats, dancing bears, strong-willed revolutionaries…we see these tropes everywhere. They feature in Netflix shows such as Shadow and Bone, in Marvel blockbusters, gritty Cold War-inspired thrillers, and children’s animated films like Anastasia. Western pop-culture’s fascination with Russia – or, rather, with a simplified… Read More Olexandra Povoroznyk: Tsars, spies and colonialism
TalkTV is in trouble. Despite the millions Rupert Murdoch has invested in his newly launched television channel, and the supposedly magnetic presence of Piers Morgan, its numbers have sometimes been so low that the official broadcasting rating agency has not registered a single viewer. Last Wednesday, Piers Morgan Uncensored, the nightly showcase of debate and… Read More John Harris: Goodbye to the age of rage: why Piers Morgan’s outrage journalism is flopping
Several shots ring out in quick succession, cutting through a clear, blue spring morning in Jenin, in the West Bank. Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack. The cameraman filming the scene scrambles backwards to take cover behind a low concrete wall. Then a man cries out in Arabic: “Injured! Shireen, Shireen, oh man, Shireen! Ambulance!” When… Read More New evidence suggests Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in targeted attack by Israeli forces
As details of the Buffalo mass shooting emerged over the weekend, much of the media focussed on the shooter’s self-stated motivation: his racist belief that white Americans are being deliberately replaced through immigration in a “great replacement” theory. Over at Fox News, however, there was barely any mention of the white gunman’s alleged reasoning for opening fire… Read More Fox News goes quiet on ‘great replacement’ theory after Buffalo shooting / St. Louis newspaper slams Supreme Court as 'political hacks in black robes'
There was unrest in Jerusalem Friday as thousands attended the burial of veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead two days earlier while reporting on a military raid in the West Bank city of Jenin. Mourners had marched from Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate to Mount Zion cemetery. They were met with violence at the St.… Read More Coffin carrying veteran journalist's body shown falling as Israeli police beat mourners with batons / Shireen Abu Aqleh: press freedom under attack
Two Russian journalists working for a popular pro-Kremlin website filled it with anti-war articles on Monday morning in a rare act of dissent as the country celebrated the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. The articles on Lenta.ru called President Vladimir Putin a “pitiful paranoid dictator” and accused him of waging “the bloodiest war of the 21st… Read More ‘Paranoid dictator’: Russian journalists fill pro-Kremlin site with anti-war articles
Margaret Thatcher hated the ‘British Bastard Corporation’, as her husband liked to call it. Coverage of the Falklands War was an inevitable flashpoint, with Thatcher raging against reporters’ references to ‘British’ forces rather than ‘our’ troops. The tabloid press sensed an opportunity to put the boot in, with the Sun wheeling out the tiredest of tropes by… Read More Books reviewed: Beebology, or the history of the ‘British Bastard Corporation’
The Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) administration and the security forces are doing themselves a great disservice by creating an extremely coercive eco-system for journalists in the Union Territory (UT). Those administering the UT are rapidly losing out on the critical feedback that could make the system more stable. An apocryphal story amongst journalists in Srinagar… Read More Bharat Bhushan: Media persecution in J&K is a misguided venture
