Hypocrisy Taints UK’s Media Freedom Conference
Russian Media Ban and Assange’s Arrest Demonstrate Doublethink
Kit Knightly
The UK is currently hosting the inaugural Global Media Freedom Conference, a joint project between the British and Canadian governments. You can read the aims and itinerary on the government’s website, here.
Here’s the introduction:
Chrystia Freeland, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Jeremy Hunt, the UK Foreign Secretary, will co-host the conference. It is part of an international campaign to shine a global spotlight on media freedom and increase the cost to those that are attempting to restrict it.
The conference will be structured around 4 themes:
- protection and prosecution, including impunity
- national frameworks and legislation
- building trust in media and countering disinformation
- media sustainability
Global leaders, representatives from the media industry, journalists, civil society and academia will gather to attend interactive panel discussions. The first day will focus on defining the challenges, the second on framing solutions. Commonwealth Foreign Ministers will also meet to discuss media freedom.
…which all sounds great, doesn’t it?
I mean, “countering disinformation” sounds like state-backed attempts to control what the media can (or can’t) say. Not really in the spirit “media freedom”. And I have no idea what “media sustainability” even means.
But pushing all that aside, the entire event is simply riddled with hypocrisy.
Julian Assange
Freeland and Hunt stand at the podium and pontificates about media freedom. How important it is to democracy, and how journalists need to be protected. The pliable audience of mainstream journalists nods along in mute agreement. Happy to be told how important they are, their compromised souls ignored and their over-size egos well fed.
Nobody is talking about the elephant in the room.
In this case a rather poorly looking elephant, in a room with bars on the window.
Journalist Bryan MacDonald perfectly summed up the situation:
The British government holding a “Media Freedom” conference around 12km from the prison where it holds Julian Assange is peak brazenness. https://t.co/DBMIiUW7hW
— Bryan MacDonald (@27khv) July 10, 2019
Julian Assange is in prison for holding power to account.
He faces extradition for revealing the crimes
He may be executed for telling the truth.
The UN Special Rapporteur called what the UK government has done to Assange, “tantamount to torture”. To have a “media freedom” event in this country, without mentioning that, is beyond absurd.
Russian Media Ban
The second controversy surrounding this public-relations fuelled farce is the fact that Russian media agencies RT and Sputnik were denied accreditation by the foreign office.
We have not accredited RT or Sputnik because of their active role in spreading disinformation,”
…the UKFO said in a statement.
Two media organizations, banned from a “Defend Media Freedom” conference, because of what they have published.
RT’s statement was short, to the point and pretty much irrefutable:
It takes a particular brand of hypocrisy to advocate for freedom of press while banning inconvenient voices and slandering alternative media.”
In fact, this is just the latest attempt by the British government to undermine alternate media in general, and specifically RT.
Ofcom, the UK government’s media regulator, has called RT to task over it’s coverage of several times, and the channel had their UK-based bank accounts frozen in 2016.
It’s no better across the pond, where RT was forced to register as a “foreign agent” in 2017, under an arcane law dating back to WWII. (Why Trump allowed this to happen remains a mystery. Worst. Puppet. Ever.).
The BBC (formerly known as the British Broadcasting Corporation), in the spirit of defending media freedom, had a nice long write up about how terrible RT is, and why they don’t deserve to cover Western events.
The little video explainer they did, “What’s so different about Russia Today” was delightful enough to warrant its own write-up.
A piece of state propaganda, warning us about other state propaganda, whilst congratulating itself for not being propaganda. A creation of meta-satire of pure genius. It’s genuinely hilarious.
- It’s a state-funded broadcaster, the BBC, attacking another for being state funded.
- The presenter works for BBC Russia, which operates unblocked in “authoritarian” Russia while Russian channels are facing constant attacks here in the “free world”
- The presenter congratulates the BBC for “telling both sides of the story”, whilst having not a word in RT’s defence. Not. One. Word.
- It’s supporting bias and censorship in the media, and was published on the opening day of the Press Freedom Conference.
You could not fit more hypocrisy into less than two minutes of video if you tried.
Turns out all newsmedia should be free, but some should be freer than others.
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Certain Anglo American snowflakes here are getting oh-so triggered because of one of their most beloved sacred cows (aka “Media Freedom”) is being politically slaughtered like the BREXIT debacle.
The only recourse that these Anglo snowflakes have is to point fingers at other countries like Russia or China (who just so happen to be Official Enemy Nations of the Anglo Americans) as a way to distract attention away from their increasingly discredited pretensions as the self-appointed Crusaders of Media Freedom for the entire planet.
Perhaps they are too scared to face the reality that Anglo Liberal Democracy itself just might be a kind of fundamentalist secular religion–and indeed a “God” that has failed them.
Britain Ramps up Media War on Russia
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/07/14/britain-ramps-up-media-war-russia/
Now this may be considered off topic. It is about something that has been written in the Groaniad as usual. I wish there was a pinned article, where such observations can be posted. I don’t necessarily hate all Groan journalists. There are a handfull who i not only agree with, but are actually great reporters and writers. They exist there perhaps as ‘fig leafs’ in an effort to keep old guards, like myself, happy. Barnay Ronay in my opinion is one of the greatest writers they have. As a sports reporter he is as good as has ever been. His sensibilities of reportage of sport in a the wider context of the ‘world’ are high philosophy and analysis. (Check out his football world cup reports from Russia for example) So, i spent most of the afternoon glued to a terrestial tv screen (granted to the populace, out of the blue!… Read more »
D notices. Did any (UK) journalist complain bout them?
Indeed.
Because MSM hope to keep monopoly on UK government newsflow.
Sundays daily Hypocrisy.
The Obsessive Groan in full lock down mode so far this morning as they go full on with the anti-semitic trope. Lol.
They can’t take any pushback. Double lol.
Why does Stuart Lee persist with them – is he that poor? Is he a secret reactionary? Is it worse than that? Seeing how the Godfather, Iannucci has ‘come out’ for the establishment and revealed his true colours as a high servant of the msm/BBC corporatist apparatchik and supporter of the AS propaganda.
Well – the gatekepers are having to show their allegiances, did they all go to the Virgin Islands for their hols?
Triple LOL.
The present UK is in “good” company: in the communist led Indian “Hindu” newspaper today: “China’s independent journalists struggle to be heard ” https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/chinas-independent-journalists-struggle-to-be-heard/article28425031.ece
Totalitarianism is popping up left, right and center.
Why is the Guardian forgetting Tommy Robinson? you are as hypocritical as those you accuse
There is no such person as TR
Tommy Robinson is an actor, which is why he has a stage name. The real Tommy Robinson is a celebrated Luton football hooligan, whose name was pinched by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the man you call Tommy Robinson. Why does a supposed grassroots activist like “Tommy Robinson” need a stage name? The man you call Tommy Robinson works on behalf of the Israeli State. He is Zionist property. There are no depths the Zionists will not sink to in their quest to brainwash people. He sells himself as the UK’s number one patriot, standing up for his country, but the reality is that every word that comes out of his mouth is carefully orchestrated by the Israeli state. They pay him to do a job of divide and rule in the UK, by stirring up hatred toward Muslims, fostering good sentiment towards Israel. He has now become his own, unique phenom. He’s… Read more »
So only Israel is against industrial rape of UK girls by Muslims there? Lock this Israel T-shirt wearer up for daring to speak outside a holy UK court with Lords inside.
I would rather lock up Hunt & co for staying num/mum on this and Freeland for messing up Ukraine.
Yes, this media freedom conference is a total farce; the fact that they have to hold one is an ominous sign.
If we’re going to talk about Britain’s rape and sexual abuse problem, especially with underage boys and girls, let’s start at the top. We have institutional paedophilia in this country. It is a national disgrace, we have child raping leaders who are protected by the media and the genocidal establishment they serve. If Muslims are getting away with this, it is by design. They do not have the power to orchestrate this.
Why does Tommy never talk about institutional paedophilia, which we know is rife in establishment circles?
Nice try
Jon Wedger (ITNJ Seating)
Tommy ten names Paedophiles Michael McQueenie, EDL Blackburn, has just been charged with two counts of rape against a 14-year-old girl and sexual assault. Richard Price, former EDL leader: on the sex offenders register. Price admitted four counts of making indecent images of children and two charges of possessing cocaine Michael Coates AKA Micky Blue Eyes NW Infidels: charged with 2 attempted rapes and other sex offences. Brett Moses EDL Hull: 12-month prison sentence for sexual grooming. Matthew Woodward, Deeside EDL: charged with child pornography and soliciting a 13 year old for photographs. Alan Thomas Ellis, Deeside EDL: convicted of sending texts of a sexual nature to a 14 year old girl. Archie Sliman, EDL : kidnapping and sexually abusing 10-year-old girl. Stephen Payne SDL supporter: convicted of grooming a 13 year old. Nigel Hesmondalgh, BNP: jailed for possessing a series of degrading photos and videos of children. Liam Pinkham… Read more »
“Tommy” gets £10,000 a month in Zionist money.
When he was jailed recently, his support campaign was run from Israel.
He is just a Hasbara asset.
For the past week, Ch4 News has been headlining a daily report from Idlib. I can’t tell you what it’s about because I turn the TV off as soon as it starts (my only way to register my futile disgust). Even the BBC is wary of giving too much air-time to the discredited White Helmets and the terrorist propaganda machine, preferring to report on areas “liberated” from ISIS while glossing over civilian casualties, as if the Kurds liberated towns without the prior destruction by airpower. I despise Ch4 with their self proclaimed “edgy output”. Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor, is a through and through neoCon who’s been reporting on Syria from Turkey and Jordan, she might as well have been on the moon. Channel 4 hasn’t, as far as I’m aware, even informed its audience that the White Helmets were the brainchild of a military intelligence officer and mercenary to handle… Read more »
One longs for the old days of Ch4 – Jon Snow’s take-down of the current Israeli Ambassador to the UK:
Channel 4 is worse even than Murdoch’s Sky News and the loathsome BBC. It is pure unadulterated horseshit.
It sells itself on its ability to grill UK politicians, and expose their lack of principle, which it does reasonably well. But to be honest, anybody can do that nowadays.
The latest “Inside Idlib” stuff is laughable. (or it would be until you realise that people believe this stuff).
am unsure….is Amanpour a Pimp – a Whore, or both ?
Maybe she’s a female gigolo. 🙂
“MEDIA FREEDOM” according to these psychopathic and narcissistic goons, is nothing other than liberty for those who collude with Deep State actors in the pursuit of twisting and perverting the code of law until the innocent are harassed, persecuted, and executed in the name of “freedom and democracy” whilst those who have the blood of millions on their hands, along with the ruination of ancient cultures, the rape of this planet, and the appropriation of all for themselves and nothing for others, continue their gross mischief with impunity. “MEDIA FREEDOM” also finds expression in the recent Panorama programme broadcast by the British Bullshit Commission, whereby these same Neo-Con, Deep State engineers, employing a dramatis personae composed of disgruntled Blairite PLP malcontents, attempted a total character assassination of Jeremy Corbyn. They are all working within the same cabal which exists only to promote a state of permanent warfare, for the continued… Read more »
Frau Freeland is making quite the effort to elevate her international profile, isn’t she?
Somebody wants to run for Party Anführer.
Just one thing missing Kit – that there was another reason Sputnik was banned from this conference – the revelations published there by Kit Klarenberg all about the reborn II – the Open Information Partnership. It’s impossible to see this FCO organised stunt as not being connected closely with that disinformation initiative, whose scope and coverage was almost universal, and of course included those key mouthpieces for the Atlantic Council underworld.
https://sputniknews.com/military/201907041076147867-open-information-partnership-integrity-initiative/
I’m a little surprised the OIP hasn’t received more attention..in discussions and posts..
Someone here appears to get a fix out of being downvoted -17 , -23 , etc. etc.
I wonder if it has occurred to him that he is a fish out of water.
A bit like Christopher Hitchins if he were to write comments for the Vatican Communion Weekly, or like the Pope writing comments for Atheists Anonymous . . .
Today’s journalism stinks enough already without adding to the stench with utterly twisted comments about it.
Some propagandists are active everywhere and the other side just wants to show they are still here. They have the same ‘arguments’ all the time, too, so it shows who’s hired help and who not.
From the US I had read re Obama’s first or more probably second campaign that Murdoch media workers/journalists/interns were given several devices to insert comments from a menu, looking like many different individuals.
I know, Wilmers.
I just have to let off steam now and then . . .
I fully expect what you describe to happen very regularly, and it does.
And whilst this conference on media freedom was in progress, the British state sent Tommy Robinson to prison for having stood outside a court, talking about a trial. Corporate media pretend journalists stood outside the court and talked about Tommy’s trial, without any apparent sense of hypocrisy. As far as the elite are concerned, freedom of expression applies only to them and those who agree with them. The “Online Harms” White Paper makes it perfectly clear that the state intends to control the Internet.
There is no such person as T R
I’m waiting for the clamour against the universal banning of the docu ” The Magnitsky Act — Behind the Scenes”
Any association with Bill Browder and the Magnitsky ‘globalist imperialist’ Act has already been memory-holed in the ranks of pseudosocialism. The mere mention of it is now ”beneath” anyone to recall.
But who could forget how eloquently Austin, Cooper, Thornberry, (“it was a Russian hit”) Griffith, Abbott, and Corbyn combined to push the arch-imperialistic agenda? “From Russia with Blood” to the “killing fields of London” …not me.
I have read Bill Browder’s book and would be interested. If they think that they can defeat Russia (and China) they are somewhat mistaken. The defeat aims to take over Russia so they can sell them things….. That’s not realistic after having destroyed them first. This is not 1945.
You have to marvel at the stupidity of the Obama administration. Washington has, for decades, tried to drive Russia and China apart. The last thing they wanted was a Chinese Russian Axis but by keeping up NATO in a big way and creating that Magnitsky Act they did exactly that. Why are they not capable of seeing what they are doing???? They repeated it with Libya and Syria – hoops!
Here is some hypocrisy ‘Earlier this week, Labour’s ruling national executive committee said pregnant MPs would only be subject to a trigger ballot process one year after their return from maternity leave and would be automatically reselected if a snap election occurred within a year.’ Now why does being pregnant mean that someone is judged to be incapable of handling their responsibility? I mean didn’t the newly elected leader of NZ campaign, win and provide leadership in a time of national crisis without claiming any special treatment? Isn’t that what the equal rights campaigns of decades was about? It is akin to a sick-note to avoid pt! I see plenty of capable women, heavily pregnant or with newborns and with multiple other children, managing superbly through their careers and lives without needing an excuse. I mean what is the specific excuse or frailty that is to be afforded to such… Read more »
You are of course right but it strikes me that very few of us would wish to practice what we preach, for every one of us takes exception to certain views aired online or wherever and many would use similar arguments as the powers that be to ban viewpoints that might endanger our own group or personal sacred cows.
Amal Clooney was interviewed on Radio4 today. She did get to mention Julian, but wasn’t questioned further…..no puzzle as to why.
Re the delegates at the conference, anybody got a list, can’t find one for love nor money. Be interesting to see if anyone came from Saudi Arabia……did Al Jazeera get a ticket?…_
Id be interested if any Australian journalists were attending, namely one Philip Williams of ABC, or anyone from News Ltd. I couldn’t find a list of attendees either Digger.
Gezzah. Thanks. At least you tried to answer my question.
Does seem strange that a list of delegates can’t be found…_
Indeed Digger, very odd. The whole thing is like some warped parody… Global Media Freedom.
You mean Mrs George ‘White Helmets Cheerleader’ Clooney???
Yeah … damaged goods in my book.
So it is OK to call out Amal for her support of the White Helmets: but it’s taboo to mention Jeremy ‘Jo Cox (regime change) Foundation’ Corbyn as fundraising for the White Helmets?
What’s that word beginning with H …?
https://www.mintpressnews.com/jo-cox-assassination-white-helmets-humanitarianism-regime-change/246646/
You’re in the wrong place if you think we don’t know about her links to jihadists big B. The wrong place. Plus many Herr criticise the hell out of for deserved reasons not hysterical screechings about communism and terrorism etc
BB, it is ok. Let me walk you through it. As you seem to be lost in the woods because of concentrating on the trees and seem to spend your comments attempting to lead people here into your ever so clever duplicity. The Clooneys are the pretty faced multi millionaire global servants for the warmongering billionair robber barons of the world. They are an extension of the Laurel Canyon setup. Propangada presstitutes in short. Corbyn is a mere figure head of the resurgent great British social democratic class war that was won by the people in the second world war. That great advance has been relentlessly reversed over the last 40 years by the aristo global robbers gaining back their ‘birthrights’. The likes of the msm and their ‘Downton Abbey’ romanticising of the good old days of toffs and serfs as some idyll that we are supposed to worship. Within… Read more »
DG; John: That’s unfair about my sole focus on Corbyn: especially when I had previously said I’ll be glad when Tom Watson (or Jess Phillips) is leader …then we can correctly characterise the Labour party as it is – a state capitalist imperialist party of oppression. I have even coined the phrase ‘Corbyn singularity effect’ to describe the delusional misrepresentation of the Labour party as ‘progressive’. My main criticism is that any positive, progressive polity Labour stands for – such as social welfare, the NHS and healthcare in general, the end of austerity, education, tackling income polarisation and enforced poverty; etc – is not in question, but can be had without support for charity regime change; without support for NATO war criminals; without support for their occupation of Eastern Europe and the neo-Nazi rape culture they have installed there; without support for the global poverty that the City of London… Read more »
BB. Have a down tick for living up to your self claimed other wordly persona. A piece of AI couldn’t do better, nor a cut and paste William Burroughs or the Space Oddity creator. So – you ignore all my critical points about the triangulation of attack on Corbyn, the man instead of Corbynism, the current Labour Party. Feel free to address them one by one, if you are capable. You proceed at pace instead with your MO of obscurantism. You throw in everything from ‘charities’ to the ‘Bankers’ to ‘Entropy’as part of avoiding the issues and still play the man – ‘Corbyn Singularity’! One doesn’t need to have studied Physics at degree level (urm… as I did) to see that your mention of a Law of Thermodynamics (and ‘sungularity’) as a simile to the Planetery ecosystem is just a piece of newage, neurolinguistic, psycho babble designed to impress and… Read more »
EROI is rock solid scientific research: as any physics graduate should know. It is a derived second law statement: as sound as the second law. Understanding of it simply negates anything McDonnell has to say about a fantasy ‘green industrial revolution’. The physics of which should be an obvious impossibility: particularly if you covered biophysics. The fact that you dismiss science for science-fiction: and refer to the reality of the former as “psychobabble” just shows that you do not even want to know. You do not even want to talk about it. Reversing the UK’s declining EROI and raising it to a level of 11:1 – necessary for continuous growth would be …let’s say challenging. Increasing it with renewables to sustain a modest 3% sustainable growth rate – doubling input/output ratios every 23 years is Grade A unicorn poop. That’s science fact: not fantasy. I’m afraid you are living in… Read more »
Sliding out of answering is not surprising and as expected.
Yes we know that the next industrial revolution is a grab for the remaining resources of the world and monetization of ‘green’. We know the XR is a weaponisaation of children in that cause and for their own future enslavement.
We know that identity politics are made to divide and confuse.
We know these instruments are used to attack the only real poltical cause the 99% should have.
That is the cause of raising the poorest – always at the expense of the richest.
Its the same old revolutionary cry for freedom from slavery and equality through the ages.
You choose to fight that prime purpose. That puts you in the camp of followers of the richest against the rest of humanity.
No amount of obfuscation with pseudoscience – you introduced it- can hide your allegiance.
Why shouldn’t Saudi Arabia be there?
They are chairing the UN Human Rights and Women’s Rights Commissions, or certainly were until very recently. With the support of the UK government, of course.
We have choice as to whether to persist in a ‘thinking’ identification, or instead to watch or notice such ‘thoughts’. In the first, the thinking generates a corresponding ‘reality’ experience of filters and rules of a narrative identity, that operate a persistence of a sense of possession and control. As if inside our own thinking or model. In the second, the attention shifts from ‘within the definitions’ of currently running thought to the coherence and congruency of its experience relative to who we now accept ourselves to be in relation to others and world. The second is of course simply a moment of introspection or self honesty that may be delayed, evaded or defended against by frameworks and processes of thinking that operate ways to re-assert, persist in or sustain such thinking OVER the dissonance that rises AS the symptom of conflicted premise and misalignments in ways that persist the… Read more »
Talking of hypocrisy: surely there is another elephant in the room? At least we have one morally functional party that has never ceased in its indefatigable campaign in defence of press freedom, universal human rights, and against the persecution of Julian Assange… …As part of their blanket media coverage to raise awareness; they got the NUJ to rename ‘Press Freedom Day’ as ‘Julian Assange Freedom Day’… …Oh no, they washed their hands of him and abandoned him to his fate – to due judicial process and to face spurious rape allegations in Sweden. By Press Freedom Day Julian had been completely depersoned and not worthy of even a single word in his defence [see embedded video]: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/05/07/free-m07.html Still, Julian will at least get a fair trial from our free and independent judiciary. From a judge whose husband is a Tory peer, associated with the arms trade, RUSI, and the MI5/MI6… Read more »
As usual,you ruin your case by going over the top.The Labour party and Corbyn in particular,are indeed to be condemned for the failure to defend Assange more vigorously,but it really really isn’t as black and white as you suggest.The biggest divide in the Labour party is between the PLP and the party in the country.Corbyn’s mistake ,in my opinion ,is in seeking to balance forces within the PLP,when they no longer reflect opinion in the party as a whole.Support for Assange is very thin in the still largely
Blairite PLP,that is not the case in the wider party.
On the contrary John; perhaps I did not make my case strongly enough. They (Corbyn and Abbott …Thornberry kept stum) initially opposed Julian’s extradition to the US – which is laudable – but quickly caved in to peer pressure (from the Creasy Letter) for him to be extradited to Sweden to face *rape* charges. Effectively making the signatory count 73. At the time, the Swedish Authorities were not seeking his extradition …so am I wrong to categorise this as a collective Pontius Pilate hand-wringing and delivering to ‘due process’? Between his arrest in April and Press Freedom Day in May …nothing. JC sent a video to the NUJ that contained not a single reference …gone from the conscience. On World Press Freedom Day, we stand in solidarity with journalists around the world and celebrate the precious, hard won right of freedom of the press. Mention of murdered Lyra McKee: but… Read more »
Like right now I’m going to have to stick up for corbyn and I don’t support him but if he didn’t tow the labour line on assange the media would have labelled him an anti Semite, pro rape, anti crime, lactose intolerant you name it
There are no rape allegations. There never were any.
That’s what the word ‘spurious’ means. “If there are allegations which Julian Assange needs to answer of sexual issues, sexual attacks that may or may not have taken place in Sweden, then it’s a matter for the courts to decide” “But, I do think he should answer those questions.” Is how Corbyn framed the matter to Sky News. The rhetoric of rape came from Abbott and the Creasy letter of betrayal – that Abbot, Corbyn, and Thornberry effectively signed after the fact. “This would be so the formal investigation into an allegation of rape can be concluded and, if appropriate, a charge can be made and any trial can take place. Is how Creasy framed it. So you are right: there are no rape allegations …but that did not stop the Labour party fabricating them (whilst not presuming guilt of course). They him and labelled him a ‘rapist’ whilst doing… Read more »
You seem a bit delusional and under the impression we are labour supporters! We can see the fake anti Semitic smears for what they are and defend him against it but that’s not defending labour or even him necessarily it’s stopping a pointless smear that waters down the term anti Semitism in the same way the word racism has lost its punch
Britains media will never tolerate pluralism, let alone truth, so long as it continues to be controlled by a few tax avoiding oligarchs and staffed by greasy pole climbers from Oxbridge or the public school system. Off-G has already spanked the arse of the media for being little more than propaganda multipliers (thanks to Terje Maloy) – in other words recycling stories from 3 news agencies, supplied to them by government sources. https://off-guardian.org/2019/03/08/the-propaganda-multiplier/ Its an unholy mess – any journalist worth their salt should have turned round and walked out the door rather than listen to Jeremy Cunt babble on about how important it is to have a free press, while, as Kit rightly points out, banning unfavoured outlets like RT, or ignoring the fact whistleblowers are being tortured on his watch simply for revealing war crimes committed by the US. Cunt is the man that lied, lied and lied… Read more »
As an advocate of free speech myself, I’d question how much of it is actually practised by RT, and CCTV? Both are remarkably uncritical of their own national governments.
a comment that proves you don’t watch RT. RT actually critices everything their editorial teams sees as needi9ng criticism. Somethihng whcih absolutely cannnt be said aboiut the BBC/CH4/MSNBC/CNN/WaPo/NYT etc etc the list is endless. All you can do is try to conflate RT with CCTV with not a shred of supporting evidence to support your boring NeoCon assertions..
No idea about CCTV, but then Russia isn’t a communist country anymore, is it, Bill? You know that, yet you persist with your CIA/Atlantic Council/Integrity Initiative (or whoever you’re prostituted to – I don’t know; perhaps you’re just easy to fool..who knows?)
Off you pop to the Intercept. You can get into a cicle-jerk with Antonym et al.
Name the last time they were at all critical of the Kremlin… Never is the answer you are grasping for.
Hostility toward Russia has been a media ever-present since 1945, including the infamous McCarthy era and taking the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Maybe RT is not sufficiently critical of Putin’s Russia, I don’t know, but surely there is already more tenough material available for those who require a daily dose of Russophobia – its more or less a constant feature of the 24 hour news cycle on virtually every US ‘news’ platforms?
Not within a Russia, there isn’t. That’s the difference. A Russian would be very ill advised to advocate for another country, within Russia’s borders, as you do in reverse.
There is ample criticism of Putin within Russia. A significant opposition comes from so-called “liberal” pro-Western journalists and politicians. This article is not exactly unbiased about Russian media but it points to a very different situation than the one you suggest:
http://russiaprofile.org/culture_living/50997.html
“while the outlets have editorial freedom, they simply don’t make a difference politically, said Lipman. “They can run a vituperative critical commentary; they can even run reports exposing wrongdoings and abuses by government authorities, not to mention bitter political satire.”
I suspect that after the Yeltsin years a pro-Western stance is not that popular in Russia and with good reason.
The Russian “Opposition” of the Gessen/ Kasparov variety are seen regularly trooping in and out of the US Embassy to collect their money and get their instructions. They are recognised for what they are and have zero popular support.
“Not within a Russia, there isn’t.”
Perhaps not always so well informed about that of which you like to bloviate all day, are you?
Novaya Gazeta
Trud
Komsomolskaya Pravda
The New Times
Komsomolskaya Pravda
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Kommersant
..to name a few
You seem a little short of knowledge of the inside workings of Russian society and politics. Smart Alec, one liner cliches don’t impress anyone with any grasp of contemporary politics. So let’s start with a few facts. Firstly the party in power and duly elected is United Russia. United Russia contains such Russian luminaries as Putin (elected as President) and Medvedev (Prime Minister). There are several opposition parties, both left and right who are critical of the policies of the Russian government. Nationalists like Zhirinovsky as well as the Communists, and an assorted group of other minor parties. There are also the oligarchs and their spokespersons such as CIA asset Navalny who have plenty of money to throw around patronizing media outlets such as the Moscow Times and St.Petersburg Times which are both foreign owned anti Putin publications and freely distributed at oligarch and foreigner watering holes. but the problem… Read more »
RT has regularly criticised corruption, lack of democracy, and failure to diversify the economy adequately. It also criticised the arrest of a journalist who was said to have been framed.
Just vote his comments down and otherwise ignore him Yarkob,it’s what most people do.
As a professed “advocate of free speech”, perhaps you are already aware that the US ranks 48th in the world in press freedoms, slightly behind Botswana though, to it’s credit more free than Senegal by a single point, while the UK ranks a lofty 33rd slightly behind Lithuania and Ghana.
h/t Reporters Without Borders 2019 Press Freedom Index
Strange that you didn’t give that statistic any context by including Russia and China’s positions (149 and 177, respectively).
John McMurtry on the Western boast of “free speech”:
“If I say to you,‘We are both free to disagree, and that is our shared principle of freedom’,you may understandably concur. As long as both of our lives are such as to enable us both to speak, this rhetorical principle may suffice. But ifI own all that can broadcast and reproduce speech, and you work a 12-hour day with a family you can barely feed, then this principle of our mutual freedom which has no qualification of definition or circumstantial substance to keep its bearings can mislead us into thinking we are in fact both free when, in truth, you are silenced and I am mega-volumed by our actual conditions of life.”
Thank you. McMurtry has one of the brightest minds of his generation and should be more widely read and disseminated. Particularly his principle of ‘onto-axiology’ …big words for a return to common sense.
Put simply: we should only value – collectively and individually – that which extends and sustains our continuing comfort and nurtures our sustainable existence – the principle of life coherence.
Consequently: we should cease to value that which is in excess of the life coherence principle – which could be termed the life blindness principle …ie the actual principles we follow.
A brilliant mind: he formulated that for the UN …too bad no one was listening.
There was a time when the BBC produced, first-class pieces of political reporting in an objective and well-researched manner. I remember one which was shown on the television current affairs programme Panorama. It was an expose on the US neo-con clique, and included probing interviews with Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen and Mayrev Wurmser. The programme was called ‘The War Party’ . The interviewees were so far out that they came across as being certifiably insane. Mrs Wurmser in particular had a distinct likeness to Letitia of ‘The Adams Family.’
Unfortunately journalism of this sort is no longer available in the UK, courtesy of the PTB.
This programme was first broadcast in 2013 and is I think available on you tube.
actually, it seems to have been broadcast in 2003.
note to admins: due to an apparent bug in your system, the wrong video is being embedded. please look into it.
https :// http://www.youtube.com / watch?v=G_ISayqQ5mw
Yes. Do you remember the doc about Operation Gladio? Imagine that being made now…
That was timewatch.
BBC2, right? I think it’s still up on YT
I take it that ‘media sustainability’ is concerned with their ability to fully control the narrative. Another hypocritical theme that catches the ear recently is how the globalist elite have taken to deploying a rhetoric of their ‘speaking truth to power’ through their own carefully selected outlets. Power speaking ‘truth’ to itself in order to re-enforce its own narratives.
My single to determine media prejudice is to put the journalist under oath, ask them to testify that their story was unbiased, then ask: ‘if you knew that eating/mutilating your own genitals and putting your children head first through an industrial food mincer were the punishment for telling anything other than the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, would you wish to change your answer?’ A bit more brutal than ‘Milud, please advise the witness as to the consequences of perjury’. But in a world where daily lying is how you earn a living, probably the necessary level of humiliation, threats and contempt. Try the BBC editorial team on Brexit, Climate Change, Jeremy Corbyn (I am neither Momentum nor any other form of Labour), Syria, Russia, Israel, even pro-Liverpool bias in football and they would beg for US justice so they could plead the Fifth. Try getting… Read more »
Have to agree with this article and comment here. I recall Hunt announced in the Evening Standard a war against ‘fake news’ some months back so these events will no doubt be a regular occurrence. I actually think many of the journalists attending this event believe the UK press is free and independent. People like Vanessa Beeley go into journalism with the intent of reporting the truth. They are not exposed to the corrupting influences and agendas of big media corporations. Mainstream journalists probably start off with good intentions. But because the whole system is based on a premise the UK is a big international player and other states and people don’t matter, most journalists will simply get sucked into this mindset so their entire reporting is based around this. A good example is the BBC debate at the weekend ( I think called Dateline) Four ‘experts’ discussing the issues… Read more »
You’ve just pulled that out of your arse. There is no such premise, but the UK is one of the five members of the UN security Council.
Yes – you are right – the UK is one of the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council and, as such, has veto powers, But its position there is mainly for historical reasons in the aftermath of WWII. If the UN were being set up today, a strong case for it could not be made. In recent years there has been much questioning of that role – both in the UK and in other countries. See here, for instance:
https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/diplomats-concerns-over-uks-waning-influence-un-security-council/
and the links provided. In particular, note its conclusion:
“The danger is that the quest to become “Global Britain” is largely centred around economic interests and comes at the expense of the UK’s wider responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council. If that is the case, then the legitimacy of its claim to a permanent seat will come under increased pressure.”
The real Elephant in the Room is Tommy Robinson !
There is no such person.
There is the performance (piss) artist
Yuckey-Lenin, or something like that, or Yack Yack Yacky Lemon but I don’t really know anything about modern grimey music. It all seems like a lot of words spoke very quick using slang and drang.
Maybe if he sang something proper, like White Christmas or These boots were made for walking … or changed his name to Smokey and put on some Al ‘Boris’ Johnson make up and sang ‘Mummy, mummy…betty boo hoohoo boop’ ?
I’m no fan of moslem paedo gangs, but “Robinson” is a fraud.
The EDL is a Zionist front created by Zionist activists in London and named after the JDL Jewish Defence League.
Until recently, he was receiving £10,000 a month in Zionist money. I don’t know if he still is.
He is Talmudistan’s biggest fan and a fully paid up member of the Friends of Mossad.
He’s a useful stooge stirring up trouble with moslems for Israel’s benefit.
Well, you do a good job of diverting attention from any Muslim misdeeds by your endless monotonous vilifying of Israel . Seventy two virgins are surely awaiting you in Jannah.
A few thousand British girls industrially raped? Just practicing; focus on the one guy talking in front of a “court”….
Rubbish
Perhaps you could get a bumper sticker made. You absolute cretin.
Lol.
Katie fucking Hopkins, Ruscino!!
Are you seriously expecting to change mine or anybody elses mind by posting the Apprentice wannabee and media personality failure and has been z-list celeb renta gob’s inane vlogging????
Lol – Yaxley-Lenin a journalist? Hopkins a journalist?
Steven is a tool, Hopkins is a stool. You are being a fool.
Are you even a Catalonian? Or what? Are you claiming some other heritage? Just what??
Go on give us another laugh – i got a hangover that needs clearing!
You are so full of biased incoherent shite it’s not true !
Prove it.
The excon thug and penny Mossleyite broke the law again and again – he ain’t Robin Hood he is robbing hoods. He ain’t no Spartacus either. He is exactly where he likes being – hopefully the media will never refer to him by his stupid made up name ever again.
Tommy ten names’s mates.
https://malatesta32.wordpress.com/2019/01/21/2019-far-right-sex-offenders-update/
I try and console myself with a certain truism, that is, every time the forces of darkness pull a stunt like disappearing the Skirpals or banning certain ‘un-cooperative’ news providers from attending a conference about media freedom, a few more former noddies wise up. Which is what happens, it is weird the way it does, but it does. Every-time the supercilious glove puppets of the greedies push their luck that bit too far, the penny drops for a few more of us, the scales fall from eyes and another human is born again as a disbelieving cynic, a contrarian who no longer takes anyone’s word unsupported. Unfortunately it can work the other way, especially for types who get employed by major media outlets. I’ve seen this happen with all sorts of people, something to do with the continuous reinforcement they give each other in their little bubble. When there is… Read more »
The only force of darkness here is the Russian state. It does not forgive betrayal, and seeks to prevent it by never letting those who cross it rest.
Lol, William, you sound like a children’s story book. Ask your supervisor if they can swap you over to BBC HYS or something, this is where the adult’s talk.
Yes, it was the Russian state that butchered 4 million Vietnamese. And 2 million Iraqis. And 200,000 Guatemalans. Complete bounders, those Russians.
return to your Mossad/CIA masters. tell them that you have failed.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/inside-israels-million-dollar-troll-army/27566
The British-Canadian “Global Media Freedom Conference” is not about promoting media freedom. It is about manipulating and weaponizing the idea of media freedom in the service of the Anglo American imperial powers–particularly the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as their silent master, the United States of America. Of course, manipulation and weaponization are what the USA, UK, and allies do in general with respect to all of their vaunted “values” like stopping the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, fighting terrorism, or defending Human Rights, Democracy, Freedom, blah, blah, blah. In particular, the Anglo American media is responsible for peddling outright propaganda and disinformation to justify wars of aggression against multiple nations–the most notable being non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq and the Anglo-American aggression against that nation, which has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and destroyed the lives of untold many more. This is to mention… Read more »
Amanpour is deeply compromised y her long marriage to James Rubin, assistant sec of state and CIA asset- its possible,likely even that she too is CIA.
at her level it doesn’t matter; it’s a revolving door. She’s certainly part of the mockingbird team, which is the same thing at the end of the day
While this is obvious to most here, 80-90% of the population doesn’t seem to notice in the UK. No Gilets Jaunes, only state condoned XRs. Same in the Netherlands or Germany.
This is also a tango which takes two: how come these totalitarians keep being voted in?
Because propaganda works, and they’re really good at it these days.
Hypocrisy is a British art form.
If there were gold medals for hypocrisy, Britain would have a chestful of them.
The only thing I don’t understand is why all US media is not required to register as foreign agents in Russia.
Or why France 24, Deutsche Welle, BBC and all other state controlled media outlets are not treated in a similar fashion.
Their bank accounts closed without explanation.
Refused accreditation to official functions and briefings.
Any local Russian staff treated as spies, traitors and enemy assets.
Anyone from BBC Media Action who turns up there should be treated as the subversives they are, like the MI6 asset Zardari Ratcliffe in Iran.
The Saker explains that, on the contrary, Russian authorities are determined to expose the population to as much Western russophobic propaganda as possible, so as to disabuse them of any lingering illusions in Western “democracy”, “free speech”, and “liberalism”.
Of course, this doesn’t work on Western audiences, because they’re mostly too stupid to perceive how farcically absurd it all is.
https://thesaker.is/counter-propaganda-russian-style/
https://thesaker.is/re-visiting-russian-counter-propaganda-methods/
They give virtually unlimited air time to Washington Neocohens calling for nuclear war against Russia, Ukie Nazis threatening war against Russia, and rabid clowns from the UK threatening to destroy Russia. There is a shortage of good domestically produced comedy programmes there.
Something you cannot possibly have any evidence for.
You have little to complain about the UK. It gives you the freedom to libel someone online.
Brave of you, given that Mrs Ratcliffe is in no position to defend herself.
Anyone who works on the Iran Regime Change Project promoting subversion and terror deserves all they get. I hope she serves every day of her richly deserved sentence. This country forfeited the right to criticise any other country when it sent in its secret police goon squad to drag Assange out of the Ecuador embassy. After that, whenever some clown like May or Johnson utters the words “human rights” the rest of the planet will just roll around on the floor, helpless with laughter.
There you go again, fetishising repression… Is it the uniforms? Do you dream of being whipped by the religious police?
After seeing the name of Chrystia Freeland in the introduction, I could tell straight away this so-called conference on global media freedom was going to be steeped in something far worse than whatever emanates from the lowest levels of Hell where psychopathic killers are held. Freeland had to have lied about her grandfather’s past, of collaborating with the Nazis and printing a newspaper (using the printing equipment and assets seized from a Jewish family that ended up in a concentration camp) supporting Nazi and Nazi-related policies,in order to have been able to campaign to represent her Toronto constituency in Ottawa in the first place and then later to join Justin Bieber Trudeau’s cabinet as Foreign Minister. She is in no position at all to be even 100 kilometres within range of the conference, much less co-host it. The sound of faint laughter we might be hearing must be coming from… Read more »
Yes, fascism is coming home, it’s coming home! [Sung to the tune of football’s coming home]
Would anyone wish to share a platform with a Neo-Nazi collaborator in the name of [ahem] press freedom. Only sock-puppet liberals and their Tory handlers.
On the contrary, Jen. ‘Free’-land is eminently qualified to co-host the event. She was an outstanding journalist in her own right – in grand-daddy Chomiak’s family tradition – writing for Radio ‘Free’ Europe/Radio Liberty. Surely she knows everything their is to know about ‘free’ media …from an inverted totalitarian Orwellian perspective? 😀
Yes, Freedland is the absolute worst, a despicable woman. She did her best to cheer on the U.S. instigated Guaido coup in Venezuela, not to mention her very vocal backing of the Bandera Svoboda Ukrainian fascists in the Ukraine coup. Did you read about those leaked U.S. State Dept cables about her becoming CA foreign minister was a ‘coup’ takeover of Canadian foreign policy? Sure looks like it.
I thoroughly resent the distortions in this article. We in the West are blessed with the finest propupgander in the West. We take a gander at what’s happening somewhere and if it doesn’t meet our criteria (‘All the news that fits we print’) we prop it up a bit here and there until it does. I’m not surprised opinions like this got banned from the Telegraph’s BTL.
I think RT UK is REALLY good for covering the OTHER side of the story of UK / US stories. I have seen Tory Blair called an ‘alleged war criminal’ on it, I have seen on it interviews with people expelled/ suspended from the Labour party against a background of antisemitism allegations ( Mark Wadsworth and Chris Williamson). I watch RT UK quite often …it’s not really my ideal choice ( far too much about Russia and China which do not interest me that much. Too much about the US for me too) However it’s the one of the few places where I have found reports where they try to present information / arguments which you used to find in the UK broadsheets/ on the BBC …and which have just vanished! Sky TV showed a good interview with George Galloway on anti semitism………at least once!
RT provides good professional reports. Their interviewers are superb. The Chanel has more intellect in a night than bbc in a month. I also like Al Jazeera who at the moment seems to oppose (almost) the entire world which gives some sharp insights. Of course we don’t expect RT to turn against the Russian government or Al Jaz to stop representing the Sunni Arab position but who expects the BBC to even report fairly on internal political affairs?
Galloway is an imbecile, to be filed alongside David Icke.
how’s the weather in Tel Aviv?
https://electronicintifada.net/content/inside-israels-million-dollar-troll-army/27566
Excellent article. Spot on!