A U.S. government-funded agency that claims to promote democracy but which helps undermine governments independent of Washington has moved decisively into Britain’s media space since 2016.
This sudden embrace of the idea that governments can stage attacks on their own people to justify their pre-existing agendas is a sharp pivot from the scoff such a notion in mainstream liberal circles has typically received.
The PEN Center in Slovenia has elected imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange as an honorary member, calling him the “bravest journalist and publicist of the last two decades.”
A monopolistic Silicon Valley mega-corporation deleting political speech about an important historical figure because Washington says he was a terrorist is a notably brazen act of censorship.
As’ad AbuKhalil writes this “friend” of Western journalists was close to the ruthless regime, even to the commander of his own eventual assassination squad. He’ll be remembered as the servant of Saudi princes and an early champion of bin Laden.
On New Year’s Eve 2017, less than a month before he would die, CN founder Bob Parry wrote his last article, a manifesto on the remit of journalism and its threatened demise, a chilling forecast of what was to come.
Vijay Prashad explains why a group of international media organizations reject and denounce the U.S. government’s attack on Julian Assange and journalism.