Was extreme right-wing BNP leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on the BBC’s Question Time a win for free speech or a loss for quality television? Guardian commentators and British MPs weigh in.
Freedom of the press
Fox News is un-American
“The Australian-British-continental model of politicized media that Murdoch has applied at Fox is un-American” says Jacob Weisberg, calling on journalists to boycott appearing on the network. Hey, don’t blame us, Weisberg!
Twitter kills the Guardian gag
An oil trading firm’s attempt to gag London’s Guardian newspaper from reporting on toxic waste it dumped in west Africa has been thwarted by a surge of social media outrage.
Journalists flee Iran — and they’re the lucky ones
Iranian journalists who reported on the country’s post-election riots are now fleeing the country en masse after being “intimidated and terrorized” by the government — and they’re the lucky ones: some are still being held prisoner.
TechCrunch release confidential Twitter documents
Hundreds of pages of confidential internal documents from Twitter have been leaked to TechCrunch, which they claim “rhave so much news value that we think it’s appropriate to publish them.” And so they have.
Iran: The world leader in jailing journalists
In just the 13 days since the Iranian election, the country has become the world’s leading jailer of journalists, with 40 journos detained and arrest by police.
Judge upholds journo’s right to withhold IRA details
A judge has ruled that journalist Suzanne Breen’s life would be in danger if she was forced to hand information garnered during an interview Real IRA to the police.
The Russian media’s reaction to Iran
Unlike other countries, the mainstream Russian press has taken the official Iranian election results largely at face value; could they be feeling a touch of familiarity?
ABC forced out of Iran
The ABC’s Middle East correspondent Ben Knight reports on the censorship facing journalists in Iran, with the government revoking all press cards and refusing to let the press onto the streets.
Mugabe’s daughter in Hong Kong press freedom row
The daughter of Robert Mugabe, Bona Mugabe, has found herself in the middle of a row over press freedom after her bodyguards were spared prosecution for assaulting two news photographers outside her home in Hong Kong.
Breaking the Tiananmen taboo
An official Beijing newspaper made a quiet but unprecented mention of the Tiananmen Square Massacre yesterday. Why did they do it and — more importantly — why were they allowed to?
Will Obama act to save captive US journalists?
Three American journalists, one in Iran and two in North Korea, are currently imprisoned under dubious charges. What — if anything — will Obama do to save them?
China employs “market-based” media censorship
Pressure from advertisers and executives with CCP ties have made China’s media industry effectively self-censoring.
World Press Freedom Day: Australian needs to lift its game
On Monday, we mark World Press Freedom Day, which should give us pause this year as we reflect on how precious freedom of expression can be, and how easily it can be denied, writes Chris Warren.
Fleet Street shouldn’t get its knickers in a twist over Mosley
The fight for press freedom is crucially important, but it becomes a caricature when it is predicated on sleazy stories that festoon tabloids like the News of the World and its stablemates, writes Crikey publisher Eric Beecher.
