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All the news that doesn't fit
149/Barry White
DATELINE: 11/1/06
Censored 2006 gives us the most censored stories of 2004 and 2005 in the United States. It is a vast undertaking, involving over 250 people and managed through the Department of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at Sonoma State University. The edition is dedicated to journalist Gary Webb whose exposures of the CIA Contra drugs links was an important story adding to the evidence of corruption in the US national security state. He became the target of one of the most ferocious media attacks on any reporter in recent history. His work cost him his career and eventually his life.
It is difficult to pick out any of the 25 stories for particular mention. All are enlightening (and many frightening) and require careful reading. But examples of media coverage on Iraq are particularly relevant today. The chapters on Fallujah and the civilian death toll and how independent journalists are paying for their reporting from Iraq with their lives and their jobs, remind us of the power the military exercises in its attempt to manage the news.
In addition there is a section devoted to ’2006 Runners-Up’ - short tasters on some news stories that did not quite make the top 25. There is a chapter giving updates of previously reported censored news - ‘Déjà vu’, the most disturbing here is the report entitled ‘Haiti: Diplomacy by Death Squads’, the story behind the US backed overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004.
Other chapters critically examine the 11 September Commission Report; Greg Palast writes on the professional lynching of Dan Rather and there are chapters on PR Watch’s ‘Spins of the Year’ and an annual report on censorship worldwide from Index on Censorship. Finally the link between the media and corporate America is exposed in a chapter which examines the relationships between broadcast news media and US and international corporate boards. It lists the ten major media companies and their boards of directors and shows how they interlock with corporate America and other major US institutions.
Censored 2006
is essential reading for anyone who cares about the state of the media today.
You can visit the Project Censored Guide (with more than 1,000 independent media sources) at: www.projectcensored.org
LINKSProject Censored
Last modified: Wednesday, January 11, 2006
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Free Speech & Censorship
Gagging the truth
Borris Johnson vows 'I'll go to jail to print the truth'
UK paper gagged over Aljazeera memo
Freedom of Information Blockage
FoI training from the Campaign for Freedom of information
Journalists worldwide protest Canada's news lockout
Australia gets tough on journalists
Government to consult over Freedom of Information and the PCC
A law unto itself
Community Newspaper uses FoI Act
Open the Books!
Freedom of speech - the global challenge
IFEX handbook on free expression campaigns
A message from the McLibel two
Using FoI
Freedom At Last?
Congratulations
Lobbying, FoI and News International
