The death of freelance journalist Arnaud Dubus symbolizes the demise of his beloved profession. Le Club de Mediapart Our colleague and brother Arnaud Dubus is dead. On Monday, 29th of April, the former journalist, recently turned spokesperson for…Read more →
America… just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.
— Hunter S. Thompson
Now I think poetry will save nothing from oblivion, but I keep writing about the ordinary because for me it’s the home of the extraordinary, the only home.
The attorney of WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange’s has revealed that he was too ill to appear in a video chat for his extradition hearing. Assange has spent the past seven weeks at Belmarsh prison, where his health has continued to deteriorate. The WikiLeaks founder faces extradition to the US over “espionage” charges dating back to 2010. Former UK MP George Galloway joins In Question to break this all down.
This week I addressed some editorial issues regarding the radio show and the types of guests I will not support or promote. I talked about the backlash I received for calling Ryan Dawson a “racist grifter” and why I continue to stand by that statement. I discussed my own journalistic integrity and why I will not allow myself to be tainted by right-wingers simply because they do “good research.”
It is astonishing how often one still hears well-informed, otherwise reasonable people say about Julian Assange: “But he ran away from Swedish rape charges by hiding in Ecuador’s embassy in London.”
That short sentence includes at least three factual errors. In fact, to repeat it, as so many people do, you would need to have been hiding under a rock for the past decade – or, amounting to much the same thing, been relying on the corporate media for your information about Assange, including from supposedly liberal outlets such as the Guardian and the BBC.
By any reckoning, the claim made this week by al-Qaeda-linked fighters that they were targeted with chemical weapons by the Syrian government in Idlib province – their final holdout in Syria – should have been treated by the western media with a high degree of scepticism.
That the US and other western governments enthusiastically picked up those claims should not have made them any more credible.
NEW YORK — Journalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been hit with 17 Espionage Act charges by the United States. If convicted, Assange could be sentenced to up to 170 years in prison or even face the death penalty.
A conviction would also set a dangerous precedent for journalists in the U.S. who publish classified material. National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden wrote that “This case will decide the future of media.”
In the first hour, I went solo and talked about some recent developments in the West African nation of Burkina Faso. I started off with the recent hostage rescue operation by French special forces which freed 4 tourists. I talked about the political instability that Burkina Faso has been facing over the past several years. I also talked about the rumors that the hostages were going to be handed over to the Macina Liberation Front in Mali. I spoke about the rise of jihadi groups across West Africa and how much of it unfolded in 2012 with the ouster of Mali’s president Amadou Toumani Toure.
British and Canadian diplomats hijacking World Press Freedom Day is a really bad joke. But that’s what happened recently in Beirut when this not so auspicious day passed, leaving some in the Middle East wondering if journalism can play any role whatsoever in improving governance, holding states to account and emboldening democracy.
