Just for the record, ABC Radio National's hosts of The Minefield, Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens, interviewed Peter Greste on 12/6/19 under the rubric A free press, sure, but free from what? And free for what?
Free of any mention of Julian Assange, that's what. Here's the relevant portion from Greste, following Aly's contention that the divide between the digital public and the traditional media is now so great as to appear unbridgeable:
"We've got to work a lot harder to regain public confidence in the media," replied Greste, "I hate the idea of talking about a business model that news ought to be a product and commodity that we sell... I don't think we should be thinking of the news as a product to be bought, sold and traded. I think if we see it as a public good, then we can start thinking about what to expect and need from our journalism. Then we can think about how we might design a machine that delivers that outcome. At the moment, what we're doing is allowing the digital environment to unfold in an ad hoc, random kind of way... We need to say: What do we need? and how to design a system to deliver that outcome."
Invoking news as the "public good" is the closest Greste gets in his statement to the subject of Julian Assange. Nitpicking aside, if concepts such as "public good", public interest, and the good, old-fashioned truth are not inextricably interlinked, then what is Greste on about here?
In a letter from the UK's Belmarsh Prison to independent British journalist Gordon Dimmack, who decided to make it public in May this year, following the US Justice Department's decision to lodge additional charges against Assange under the Espionage Act, Assange wrote:
"I have been isolated from all ability to prepare to defend myself, no laptop, no internet, no computer, no library so far, but even if I do get access it will be just for half an hour with everyone else once a week. Just two visits a month and it takes weeks to get someone on the call list and the Catch-22 in getting their details to be security screened. Then all calls except [to] lawyer[s] are recorded and are a maximum 10 minutes and in a limited 30 minutes each day in which all prisoners compete for the phone. And credit? Just a few pounds a week and no one can call in. A superpower that has been preparing for 9 years with hundreds of people and untold millions spent on the case. I am defenceless and am counting on you and others of good character to save my life. I am unbroken albeit literally surrounded by murderers. But the days when I could read and speak and organise to defend myself, my ideals and my people are over until I am free. Everyone else must take my place. The US government or rather those regrettable elements in it that hate truth liberty and justice want to cheat their way into my extradition and death rather than letting the public hear the truth for which I have won the highest awards in journalism and have been nominated seven times for the Nobel Peace Prize. Truth is ultimately all we have." (See 'Truth ultimately is all we have': Julian Assange appeals for public support, Oscar Grenfell, wsws.org, 25/5/19)
Greste shows no indication whatever of any desire to "save" Assange's life. Indeed, Assange seems as remote from his thinking as the dark side of the moon. His position would appear beyond callous.
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Just reading the quote from Greste, I wondered whether he was still wearing nappies. He comes across as a complete novice. He does not come within a light year of understanding why people are turning away from traditional sources of news! It is because they have been found out! Their purpose today (and perhaps always but we didn't have the means to know this in earlier times) is to mislead.
Do an honest article on Assange - by interviewing him - or on Palestine by going there and seeing for yourself for once, Mr Greste, and you may find that your audience will return. Go to Syria, as Eva Bartlett and Vanessa Bealey did. Go and talk to the real people of Venezuela. Learn to suspect statements of politicians, here and in our allies - of whatever persuasion. That's what the fourth estate is supposed to be about.
I reread the quote - yes he is still in nappies!
Off topic MERC but look what our NZ cousins have done:
https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Official-New-Zealand-government-website-wipes-Israel-off-the-map-592870
The utter corruption of the Western main stream media and the extent to which it is controlled by the security services is nicely illustrated by leaked documents obtained by to Matt Kennard, which he summarised in the following Twitter posts:
• 11 June 2019 - that Guardian Deputy Editor Paul Johnson joined a D-Notice committee for 1st meeting at Ministry of Defence in 2014. Air Vice-Marshal Vallance reports relationship w/ Guardian has "continued to strengthen". Alongside Air Commodore Adams and Brigadier Dodds he's now in "regular dialogues" w/ "Guardian journalists.
• 12 June 2019 - Guardian refused to engage with military/intel censors on Snowden revelations, until "the end of July" 2013 when they "begun to seek and accept" advice, agreeing "not to publish certain...details"
• 12 June 2019 - The Guardian’s post-Snowden UK military handlers: 1) RAF Air Vice-Marshal Andrew Vallance CB OBE 2) RAF Air Commodore David Adams 3) Brigadier Geoffrey Dodds OBE 4) Peter Watkins CBE, Director General of Strategy, Security and Policy Operations at MOD
• 14 June 2019 - Dominic Wilson, Director G at MOD, congratulated Guardian Deputy Editor Paul Johnson for “re-establishing links” btw Guardian and security services two weeks before Guardian published fabricated story about Assange-Manafort meetings. Was Guardian fed disinformation by its handlers?
https://twitter.com/DCKennard/status/1139460716514201606
As Craig Murray put it on his blog: “The Guardian is, like other British newspapers, as controlled by the military and security services just like in any other decent autocracy.”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/
I wish Greste the best of luck in working a lot harder to regain public confidence in the media.
Fascinating post MERC , thanks too Grappler and Monk.
I remember an old school type of journalist, sadly now retired, telling me about how some government assertion was just plain wrong and clearly disinformation. Apparently someone at the paper wanted to publish it as fact and a great debate ensured. It wasn't published but was later exposed. I think it was related to the ship the Tampa. The message was that good journalists need to be hyper skeptical, especially of governments.
No wonder Australians and some other English speaking people have little trust in institutions including media institutions. They have become part of the problem. These days the media have stock standard throwaway lines as to why they can't hold governments to account, like 'we don't have enough journalists to cover that' and 'why don't you take it to Bla Bla.' Previously journalists would gain their reputation by exposing wrong doing. That has been trained out of the current crop by circumlocutions like 'filters' and weird notions of what is in 'the public good.'
Greste should ask himself to choose between being a gatekeeper or a journalist.
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