The magic of television, courtesy of the internet. Speaking of which: The Internet is simply a means of communication, like the telephone, but that has not prevented attempts to demonize it — the latest being the ludicrous claim that the Internet promotes terrorism. Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut is trying to pressure YouTube to pull…
Showing all posts tagged internet
Taking the low road to jail
Arresting a blogger in Singapore for calling somebody a “stupid Malay.” Welcome to the land of thought crimes.
Don’t let the women be heard
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s repression and paranoia continues to worsen: Iranian authorities have blocked access to several websites and blogs of women’s rights advocates and journalists critical of the government, a press report said on Tuesday. The move follows a new directive sent out by a committee tasked with identifying illegal websites to Internet service providers, the…
“Do no evil”, indeed
Clearly not satisfied with assisting the Chinese regime with its internet repression, Google now provides information to Indian authorities: …a 22 year-old Indian IT worker has been charged under two sections of the Indian Penal Code for posting obscene content online, comments made about political leader Sonia Gandhi, and now faces up to five years…
Talking past the gate-keepers
YouTube announces a Citizen News channel, specifically designed to bolster the already-growing online community of citizen journalists reporting from the far corners of the globe. Professional reporters need not apply:
Praying for Obama
At least one Palestinian, living in Gaza, believes that Barack Obama will help solve the Middle East crisis.
Three questions: Antony Loewenstein
The following interview appears in today’s Sydney Morning Herald: Which writer, alive or dead, would you most like to see at a writers’ festival? George Orwell. We need somebody to skewer the imperial ambitions of the right and the self-righteousness of the left. He could regale audiences with tales of war and hopefully convince any…
Earthquakes, Twitter and compassion
My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: The horrific Chinese earthquake has focused the world’s attention on human suffering, but censorship issues were never far from the surface, writes Antony Loewenstein. The devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province last week shifted the global focus away from the…
Kill your TV
Media usage may be fragmenting but traditional mediums remain (far too) powerful: Americans — including “young people” — still get their political news from TV, according to a new study published by TV trade pub Broadcasting & Cable, and conducted by market-research firm Crawford, Johnson & Northcott, whose clients include… several TV stations. According to…
The small details matter
The wonders of Twitter (a technology that I’ve generally thought of as fairly irrelevant to the pursuit of journalism.) Jeff Jarvis explains why I may be wrong: We online citizens are living in public, revealing small details of our lives with our updates and our content. It’s in the smallness of this personal news that…