This afternoon the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, ruled that the two large climate marches in Paris and the main cities in France on November 29 and December 12 would be prohibited. Negotiations between climate activist organisations and the French state have been ocurring early this week regarding approval for civil society public events and […]
Scare tactics and @TonyAbbottMHR’s war on #qanda over @ZakyMallah’s truth bomb: @jansant comments
When the politicisation of “national security” morphs into a vicious attack on the independence of our Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), it’s another sign Australia is racing down the road towards a fascist state. This confected outrage about #qanda reveals the depth of the totalitarian impulse in this government. It frightens me. — Jane Caro (@JaneCaro) […]
Visiting concentration camps in Utopia: @burgewords interviews @GGeorgiadisRN on ‘that’ comment the DIBP didn’t like
The Australian twittersphere freaked out when refugee advocate @VanessaPowell25 was threatened with legal action by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) earlier this month. Unless she removed a post on her Facebook, which documented one moment at a protest outside the Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney’s Western Suburbs, the DIBP would “consider […]
Silencing the ones who serve you: a public servant speaks out
As a public servant of some 20 years’ standing I don’t expect much support from the general population these days, but it has been heartening this week to see some impassioned responses from a range of respected commentators on social media to the new ‘dob in a colleague’ policy formulated for its staff by […]
Abbott’s attack on ABC proves politicians are free press chameleons – @journlaw reports
[clear] By Mark Pearson @journlaw 5th February 2014 Politicians are free expression chameleons. Regardless of their political colours, they are inevitably staunch advocates of a free media and the free flow of information while in opposition. When they win government they tend to shut down criticism and negative press by implementing policies and passing laws to limit […]
Murdoch bookends democracy diasaster for Oz nature: Margo’s pre-election comment
This is Margo’s pre-election comment, courtesy of 2bobradio and The Vine. In this week’s final, pre-poll interview, Margo Kingston, editor of citizen journalism website nofibs, talks of the threat to free speech posed by big media, the loss of hope to Australia’s democracy, and people power in the seat of Indi. The interview will air on Thursday Breakfast at 8.10 a.m. and […]