UK Other Press Newswire Archive
14 Propaganda Techniques Fox "News" Uses to Brainwash Americans
03-07-2011 20:42
There is nothing more sacred to the maintenance of democracy than a free press. Access to comprehensive, accurate and quality information is essential to the manifestation of Socratic citizenship - the society characterized by a civically engaged, well-informed and socially invested populace. Thus, to the degree that access to quality information is willfully or unintentionally obstructed, democracy itself is degraded.Palestine Today 06 30 2011
30-06-2011 15:51
Human Rights abuse of the elderly is legal in the UK
29-06-2011 09:48
Palestine Today 06 28 2011
28-06-2011 13:59
'The only democracy in the Middle East' : Report this and get a 10 year ban
27-06-2011 11:32
This Week in Palestine week 25 2011
24-06-2011 17:22
Palestine Today 06 23 2011
23-06-2011 14:13
Palestine Today 06 22 2011
22-06-2011 14:22
Stop BBC Global Warming denial
21-06-2011 15:35
BBC staff are required to refer material on some subjects to higher management before it is broadcast. This system should be extended to stop any further broadcasts of material which either explicitly or implicitly contradicts the science on Global Warming.Palestine Today 06 21 2011
21-06-2011 15:28
A short and incomplete history of squatting in Brighton
21-06-2011 12:58
New zine!Palestine Today 06 20 2011
20-06-2011 15:34
Turkey’s final warning to Syria: Tomorrow may be too late for reforms
19-06-2011 08:35
Alternative perspectives on the Libyan War
18-06-2011 08:21
The War in Libya: Race,"Humanitarianism" and the Media
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/forte200411.html Excerpt:
Social Media Folklore:
Creating the Legend of "African Mercenaries"
One of the most fertile sites for the international production of myths of savage African mercenaries has been Twitter, among other social network sites, in ways that bring back to mind the manner in which Twitter was used to spread misinformation at the time of the June 2009 Iran election protests. The problem is not that the site is an outlet for creative imaginations, but that some of the mainstream media source Twitter for their reports, in the absence of correspondents on the ground. The Independent's Michael Mumisa observed that "foreign media outlets have had to rely mostly on unverified reports posted on social network websites and on phone calls from Libyans terrified of Gaddafi's 'savage African mercenaries who are going door-to-door raping our women and attacking our children'," and he speaks of "a Twitter user based in Saudi Arabia," who "wrote how Gaddafi is 'ordering african (sic) mercenaries to break into homes in Benghazi to RAPE (sic) Libyan women in order to detract (sic) men protesters!'" The New York Times' David Kirkpatrick, in one of the few sober pieces analyzing the Libyan opposition, noted that "like the chiefs of the Libyan state news media, the rebels feel no loyalty to the truth in shaping their propaganda, claiming nonexistent battlefield victories, asserting they were still fighting in a key city days after it fell to Qaddafi forces, and making vastly inflated claims of his barbaric behavior."
Twitter is useful, however, not as a source of incontestable information about Gaddafi's atrocities, but as a guide to how the opposition prepared the narrative cover for attacking Sub-Saharan Africans. The mass of passive repeaters (retweeters), comprising diverse individuals and some journalists, helped from early on to inseminate the fear of African terror: "Afro-mercs" landing at the nearest airport and fanning out to murder Libyans. The myth was useful to the opposition, possessing a structure that made it cohere and appeal on a very basic level: 1) all vs. one -- the Libyan people united against the dictator; 2) male vs. female -- African mercenaries specifically targeting Libyan women; and, 3) local vs. foreign -- proud nationals combating savage intruders. Some of the tweeted statements are classics of colonial racial propaganda, especially when they revolve around protecting local Libyan women, a useful trope also in both classic and contemporary imperial narratives linking the status of native women with progress and liberation.
Palestine Today 06 16 2011
16-06-2011 13:48
USA: Turn Off That Camera! Filming The Police At Work
16-06-2011 10:01
Dashboard cams in police cars are ubiquitous. Yet police are pushing back against Americans capturing them at work on cell phone cameras. Arresting people filming arrests. Is that right?
You see police arresting someone. Maybe it looks right and by the book. Maybe it doesn’t.
You pull out your cell phone and start to record. To make a video. And the next thing you know, you are arrested. The video-making bystander, in handcuffs. Facing charges.
It’s happening all around the country. Cell phones and their cameras are now everywhere. Police often don’t like to be recorded doing their work. It’s not always pretty.
But in the era of the citizen journalist, should making a video mean an arrest? Who’s the watchdog then?
This hour On Point: the battle over citizens videoing police.
- Tom Ashbrook
Full article | 1 addition | 5 comments
Former undercover cop’s media circus is just a big show
16-06-2011 09:02
Yesterday morning BBC Radio Five Live demonstrated, once again, the utter futility of interviewing former undercover police officer Mark Kennedy. Mr Kennedy is a man who has carved out a career as a professional liar. Pouring his heart out to Victoria Derbyshire, he apparently deeply regrets the endless lies he had to tell in his former role. However, he seems to show no sign of giving untruths a rest.
When asked whether he ever acted as an agent provocateur, Kennedy claimed he had “never encouraged anyone to do anything they weren’t already going to do”, and that he only ever came in at a very late stage to planned direct actions.
However, in the case of the 114 people arrested for conspiring to commit aggravated trespass at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in April 2009, we know this to be far from the truth.
Palestine Today 06 15 2011
15-06-2011 14:52
Palestine Today 06 14 2011
14-06-2011 14:52