Australia: ABC staff threaten strike after Arab journalist sacked

Award-winning journalist and author Antoinette Lattouf
MEMO | January 17, 2024
ABC journalists in the broadcaster’s Sydney offices yesterday threatened to strike unless management addresses concerns over the unlawful dismissal of radio host Antoinette Lattouf, Anadolu news agency reported.
The award-winning journalist and author, who is of Lebanese heritage, was sacked by ABC last month for sharing on Instagram a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on the besieged Gaza Strip.
The internationally-recognised rights watchdog released a report on how starvation was being used as “a weapon of war” by the Israeli government in Gaza. ABC also published a news item on the report.
On Tuesday, the Sydney Morning Herald revealed a leaked chain of WhatsApp messages from a group called Lawyers for Israel who had lobbied for Lattouf to be sacked.
“The ABC sacked broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf after a high-level and coordinated letter-writing campaign from pro-Israel lobbyists that directly targeted the corporation’s chair, Ita Buttrose, and managing director David Anderson,” the news daily said.
The report reveals that the Israeli lobby “repeatedly wrote to the ABC demanding Lattouf be sacked, and threatened legal action if she was not.”
Yesterday, about 80 ABC staff members demanded a meeting with Anderson, who is currently on leave.
They threatened to stage a walkout if their concerns were not addressed.
Lattouf has legally challenged her termination, saying she was sacked on the grounds of “political opinion or a reason that included political opinion” and later expanded the claim to include race, due to her Lebanese heritage.
While ABC has denied Anderson was behind Lattouf’s sacking, the broadcaster has told a court that the journalist was removed “because she ignored a direction from managers and shared a controversial social media post from Human Rights Watch.”
Lattouf demands a clear public apology, financial compensation and the offer of a proportionate position.
Hearings are scheduled to begin later this week.
In a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald, Lattouf’s lawyer, Josh Bornstein, said that after “October 7 and the ensuing conflict in the Middle East, it has become common knowledge in the media industry that Arab and Muslim journalists are being subjected to intimidation, censorship and expulsion.”
FBI Director Says Public-Private Sector Partnerships Are Important for Guarding Against “Misinformation”
By Tom Parker | Reclaim The Net | January 14, 2024
During an interview with CNBC, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray lauded his agency’s partnerships with the private sector to target “misinformation” and “disinformation,” despite growing scrutiny over the way these types of partnerships have been used to censor the speech of Americans.
Wray complained that social media has escalated misinformation and disinformation and that AI is “taking it to the next level.” He then lauded private sector partnerships as a way to defend against the proliferation of AI misinformation and disinformation.
“I come back to the importance of partnerships to guard against it,” Wray said. “Not just our partnerships, but there’s an important role for the private sector. For example, AI companies, which many of which are very actively engaged in this fight to help detect deepfakes. You know, in some ways, AI is quite good at detecting AI, and so seeing the private sector invest its own time and money into trying to help detect some of the things that you’re describing I think is an important piece of it. Obviously, government partners, research community, etc., is another piece of it.”
After praising these private sector partnerships that target misinformation and disinformation, Wray attempted to downplay censorship concerns and insisted that these efforts only target foreign actors.
“To be clear, our role at the FBI is focused on the role of the foreign actors, as in the source of the information, not the content,” Wray said. “We’re not the truth police. We don’t aspire to be.”
While Wray asserted that these efforts target foreign actors, lawmakers have previously challenged this assertion and pointed to a federal court ruling that stated the FBI had flagged domestic speech as potential misinformation. This federal court ruling is part of a legal case that’s headed to the Supreme Court and alleges several federal agencies, including the FBI, violated the First Amendment by pressuring Big Tech companies to censor the speech of Americans.
Numerous reports have also detailed how the FBI has flagged the speech of Americans to Big Tech companies for censorship.
‘Witch hunts in Israel’: Teacher placed in solitary confinement for criticizing Gaza killings
Press TV – January 14, 2024
The Israeli regime has held a history teacher in solitary confinement and fired him for raising concerns on social media about the Zionist forces killing of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and criticizing the military.
Meir Baruchin was kept in solitary confinement in a high-security jail in early November, over a series of Facebook posts he’d made, mourning the civilians killed in Gaza, criticizing the Israeli military, and warning against wars of revenge.
“Horrific images are pouring in from Gaza. Entire families were wiped out. I don’t usually upload pictures like this, but look what we do in revenge,” said his message on 8 October, a day after the Israeli regime started a genocidal war in Gaza in response to Hamas’ October 7 Operation Al-Aqsa Strom.
“Anyone who thinks this is justified because of what happened yesterday should unfriend themselves. I ask everyone else to do everything possible to stop this madness. Stop it now. Not later, Now!!!” he wrote below a picture of the family of Abu Daqqa, killed in one of the first airstrikes on Gaza.
Ten days after that Facebook message, he was fired from his teaching job in Petach Tikvah municipality. Less than a month later he was in the solitary confinement wing of al-Qud’s notorious “Russian Compound” prison, detained to give police more time to investigate critical views he had never tried to hide.
Baruchin was initially told to come to a police station for questioning over charges of sedition. When he pointed out to police that they needed a warrant from the attorney general to charge an Israeli citizen with that offense, treason charges were duly drawn up.
When he arrived at the police station, his arms and ankles were cuffed, and he was shown a warrant to search his home. Five detectives escorted him there, turned his apartment upside down, and eventually confiscated two laptops and six hard drives. The police then asked for more time to investigate, and a judge ordered that he be detained.
“I wasn’t allowed to take anything with me to the cell,” he told the Observer. “I walked in with my clothes on and stayed with the same clothes for four days. There were cold-water showers, a tiny piece of soap, two blankets stinking from cigarette smoke, and a tiny towel,” he said.
He was interrogated again before a second judge ordered his release.
But he is living on savings while he waits for the verdict and even if he wins the treason charges have not been dropped: he could live in their shadow for five years, the limit for the police to prosecute.
He is not the only teacher to be targeted. Authorities also summoned Yael Ayalon, head of a Tel Aviv high school, after she shared a Haaretz article warning that Israeli media was hiding the suffering of Gaza’s civilians. “Israeli citizens need to be aware of this reality,” the piece said.
“This story is much bigger than my personal story, or Yael’s personal story. It is a time of witch hunts in Israel, of political persecution,” he said. “I became a ‘Hamas supporter’ because I expressed my opposition to targeting innocent civilians.”
He said he’d received hundreds of private messages of support from fellow teachers and students who were too frightened to go public, and showed several to the Observer.
“The message is crystal clear: keep silent, watch out,” he says, adding that they strengthened his conviction about speaking out. “I thought to myself, when I retire, I might conclude this is the most significant lesson I ever gave in civics.”
He still follows what is happening in Gaza closely, and flicks on his phone through images of the recent dead, a journalist, a violinist, a baby.
His latest post before the interview with the Observer was an image of an improvised grave marker, that looks like part of a broken piece of furniture. “Unknown martyr, green jacket and trainers,” the inscription reads.
“The whole story in one picture,” he says. “The Israeli mainstream media don’t broadcast this picture. They don’t get this picture, and don’t want to get this picture.”
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Complains About X Reinstating Censored Accounts
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | January 12, 2024
Without considering the possibility that there were perhaps too many of them to begin with – Australia’s eSafety Commissioner is complaining in a new report that X, since the Musk takeover, has fired too many “safety and public policy personnel.”
Another complaint from the commissioner’s “transparency report” is about previously censored accounts getting reinstated on the platform.
The sum of the new policy, according to this Australian office – a government agency that’s “independent (but) supported by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)” – is that X is now less capable of “tackling online hate.”
It is no wonder that these accusations are made by eSafety, considering that it has been given powers to deal with what’s described as “cyberbullying, image-based abuse, and illegal and harmful online content.”
Basing the report on information obtained from X, eSafety writes that 80 percent of “safety engineers” have been let go since October 2022 (the same figure applies to global public policy staff). Moderators working for X have fared somewhat better – still, over 50 percent of them have been fired.
Considering that these employees were doing more than simply moderating – there have been many confirmed and very controversial cases on clear censorship against content and accounts – free speech supporters are likely fine to learn these precise numbers for the first time.
However, the Australian eSafety is not, taking a negative stance toward the developments and warning that they have “implications for Australian users.”
Commissioner Julie Inman Grant is quoted in the report as saying that, “It’s almost inevitable that any social media platform will become more toxic and less safe for users if you combine significant reductions to safety and local public policy personnel with thousands of account reinstatements of previously banned users.”
About that last point – we now know that the number of banned accounts that have been allowed back on X is at this point in excess of 6,100. But, the Australian office is not even sure if these figures concern X’s operations globally or just in Australia – although eSafety “understands” the latter to be the case, and draws this understanding from media saying earlier that a total of more than 62,000 accounts have been reinstated.
The commissioner is also displeased with the fact that X did not find it necessary to place “additional scrutiny” on these accounts – banned under previous ownership, and its policies.
Censorship Investigation: Jim Jordan Subpoenas Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines
The agency ignored requests to hand over documents
By Dan Frieth | Reclaim The Net | January 12, 2024
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has issued a subpoena to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. This action is part of a wider investigation by the committee into allegations that the federal government has been working in concert with Big Tech companies to suppress certain viewpoints on social media platforms. These allegations raise serious concerns about violations of First Amendment rights.
Chairman Jordan, in his communication to Haines, underscored the gravity of the situation. He cited evidence gathered by the Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, along with other publicly available information, highlighting the federal government’s involvement in pressuring and collaborating with Big Tech and other intermediaries. This collaboration, as Jordan pointed out, has led to the censorship of specific viewpoints online, in direct opposition to the principles enshrined in the First Amendment.
We obtained a copy of the subpoena cover letter for you here.
He emphasized that the First Amendment explicitly forbids government officials from imposing restrictions on speech based on viewpoint. Moreover, he mentioned the state action doctrine, which prohibits government officials from bypassing constitutional limits by engaging private actors to do what the government itself cannot lawfully do.
“The investigative work performed by the Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, along with other publicly available information, have revealed how the federal government has pressured and colluded with Big Tech and other intermediaries to censor certain viewpoints on social media in ways that undermine First Amendment principles,” the subpoena reads. “The First Amendment prohibits government officials from imposing viewpoint-based restrictions on speech. State action doctrine prohibits government officials from circumventing constitutional strictures by using private actors—whether through coercion, encouragement, entwinement, or joint participation—to accomplish what the government cannot directly.”
According to a press release from Chairman Jordan, in an ongoing investigation, the ODNI has come under scrutiny for not providing documents requested by the Committee, despite repeated efforts for voluntary cooperation. This is what has sparked the need for a subpoena.
The Committee’s request encompasses records concerning the activities of the ODNI’s Foreign Malign Influence Center, which, according to publicly available information, should be within the scope of their inquiry.
Additionally, the Committee has acquired documents indicating that ODNI personnel were participants in meetings with major social media companies and various federal government agencies. These gatherings, commonly referred to as “USG-Industry Sync” meetings, are of particular interest to the Committee. Despite these revelations, the ODNI has not yet submitted any records related to these meetings or any other related sessions, raising questions about their responsiveness and transparency in this matter.
US journalist jailed and ‘tortured’ by Ukraine has died – family
RT | January 12, 2024
Chilean-American blogger Gonzalo Lira has died in a Ukrainian prison, his family said on Friday.
Lira, 55 at the time of his death, lived in Kharkov and blogged as ‘CoachRedPill,’ but switched to YouTube commentary after the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022. He was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) last May and accused of “discrediting” the Ukrainian leadership and the military.
“I cannot accept the way my son has died. He was tortured, extorted, incommunicado for 8 months and 11 days and the US Embassy did nothing to help my son. The responsibility of this tragedy is the dictator Zelensky with the concurrence of a senile American President, Joe Biden,” his father Gonzalo Lira Sr. wrote in a note published by The Grayzone.
Lira Sr. also reached out to X host Tucker Carlson, confirming the death of his son in Ukrainian custody. He had spoken to Carlson about the case in early December.
Lira resurfaced from custody in late July with a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), revealing his torture in jail and attempts by the SBU to extort him for money. He said he was trying to flee to Hungary and seek asylum. “Either I’ll cross the border and make it to safety, or I’ll be disappeared by the Kiev regime,” he wrote, in his last public message.
Two days later, a source confirmed to RT that Lira had been caught and imprisoned by Ukrainian authorities.
According to a handwritten note Lira’s sister received on January 4, provided to the Grayzone by her father, Gonzalo Lira Jr. had severe health problems caused by pneumonia and a collapsed lung, which began in mid-October. Ukrainian prison authorities only acknowledged the issue on December 22, and stated he would undergo surgery.
Following his father’s appearance on Carlson’s show, X owner Elon Musk personally inquired about Lira’s case with both US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, apparently to no effect.
Lira was a national of both the US and Chile. According to his thread from last July, the Chilean Embassy in Kiev at least tried to help him, while the US mission gave him only “empty bromides.” Lira suggested that this was because Victoria Nuland – currently the acting deputy to Secretary of State Antony Blinken – hated him personally.
UK Communications Regulator Forms 350-Person Team to Enforce UK’s New Online Censorship Law
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | January 11, 2024
The authorities in the UK are “thinking of the children” – but really, of online censorship, say critics – and in doing so, thanks to Online Safety Act, are dipping their toes into the long since established in the US “revolving door” policy.
In the UK there is evidence of this flow going in one direction – from private Big Tech corporations to government jobs.
Reports say that in order to implement the controversial law that considerably restricts online speech, the regulator tasked with this, Ofcom, has employed as many as some 350 new staff – those from tech giants among them.
Former senior Microsoft, Google, and Meta employees are now working for Ofcom – and a further 100 jobs will be created in order to make sure the Online Safety Act is enforced.
Those who pushed its adoption for a long time and continue to justify it, as well as the new, ex Big Tech hires, like to frame and sell the legislation as necessary in order to protect children’s well-being online.
However, this is also the easiest way to protect themselves from criticism, as few people are willing to argue against a case positioned in this way.
However, many still have and do, and the gist of their opposition to the act and nebulous terms like “legal but harmful content” that must be suppressed is that one of the provisions – forcing messaging apps to scan user content (with child sexual abuse always first mentioned as a target – but not the only one) means a serious threat to encryption and therefore, online safety of everyone, including children.
But when big legacy media outlets are now reporting about the law, and the Ofcom hiring policy that has just come to light, they too like to focus on just the part of the Online Safety Act that its creators say is there for the sake of the children.
If they mention any “critics” – it’s to, bizarrely, like the FT has done, say that despite the move to bring in hundreds of new people, Ofcom will still be “stretched” – in, that is, its effort to control and censor at such a large scale.
Ramaswamy accuses Google of attempting to “rig this election” after YouTube deletes channel of creator who interviewed him
By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | January 11, 2024
GOP Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has accused Big Tech of engineering electoral outcomes through censorship measures. This comes following YouTube’s banning of a popular conservative online personality who had just conducted an interview with Ramaswamy.
GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy and video creator shaneyyricch have both vociferously criticized YouTube.
As per shaneyyricch, his channel had racked up a substantial 150,000 followers and had garnered over 185 million views in merely three months.
Despite this, it was terminated without any warning or given justification by YouTube. A ban slapped on him for violating community rules, he insists, had not been preceded by any strikes against his account.
Undeterred, he promised to keep generating content on X and Rumble.
In the wake of his unexpected ban, shaneyyricch shared the video he recorded with Ramaswarmy on X, soliciting opinions on why it could’ve possibly led to the termination of his YouTube channel.
As part of the content in consideration, Ramaswamy elaborates on several proposed changes for the electoral process, including one-day-only voting, making the Election Day a national holiday, mandating voter IDs, and sticking to paper ballots.
In a public denunciation of YouTube, Ramaswamy declared, “Big Tech censorship to rig an election…who would have ever imagined.”
He then threw an open challenge to Google, stating, “If Google is going to rig this election, just end the charade & say so. That seems to be the message they’re sending.”
Killing and banning journalists reveals what Israel wants to conceal
By Ramona Wadi | MEMO | January 11, 2024
On Monday, Israel’s High Court declared that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) can continue barring foreign journalists from entering Gaza, on the pretext of security concerns. According to the court decision, foreign journalists can place “an undue onus on IDF resources in wartime,” reported the Times of Israel.
As Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the ruling sheds light on the urgency for Israel to prevent further scrutiny by the media of what’s happening in Gaza. The IDF has implemented several constraints on media, including guidelines of what should not be published and what should be approved by the Israeli military censor. In a statement issuing directives to the media, Kobi Mandeblit, Brigadier General Chief Censor, introduces them thus: “In light of the current security situation and the intensive media coverage, we wish to encourage you to submit to the Censor all materials dealing with the activities of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and the Israeli security forces prior to their broadcast.” What we happen to see on mainstream media from journalists embedded with the IDF, therefore, is not only heavily censored, but also definitely in line with the Zionist narrative “Israel good, Palestinians bad”. Footage showing Israeli atrocities are accompanied by claims that Israel is abiding by international law and doing everything possible to prevent civilian casualties.
Moreover, on mainstream media pro-Palestine voices are talked over without giving them the chance to articulate the reality of what is happening in Gaza. Footage showing Israeli atrocities are accompanied by claims that Israel is abiding by international law and doing everything possible to prevent civilian casualties. In Gaza, Palestinian journalists are targeted deliberately in extrajudicial killings, despite their very clear “Press” vests and helmets. As of today, at least 79 journalists have been killed in Gaza, 72 of them Palestinian; 16 have been wounded; three are reported missing; and 21 have been arrested by Israel. Other sources put the number killed at 100, and this is besides other forms of violence against them, including killing the family members of Palestinian journalists.
In the most recent extrajudicial killing of journalists, Hamza Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza Wael Dahdouh, and Mustafa Thuraya, were killed by an Israeli missile strike on their vehicle. The IDF justified the killing by saying terrorists were being targeted. Later, the story changed, with IDF spokesperson Daniel Hangari explaining: “We understand they were putting a drone, using a drone. And using a drone in a war zone, it’s a problem. It looks like the terrorists.”
But what does a terrorist look like? As Israelis’ justifications for genocide become further deranged, so do their actions. The targeting of journalists is nothing new for the apartheid state. Shireen Abu Akleh’s murder in Jenin in 2022 garnered the most media attention due to her dual Palestinian-US citizenship. Even so, justice didn’t prevail.
In Gaza today, the presence of journalists and their protection is of utmost importance. But not for Israel. Palestinian journalists are being killed by the IDF with the ludicrous suggestion that they look like terrorists, while international journalists are barred from the enclave due to purported security concerns and added logistics for the IDF. In Israel’s narrative, the only way to protect journalists is to prevent them from entering Gaza and reporting remotely, otherwise journalists suddenly “look like terrorists” and are thus subject to being murdered, just as Palestinian civilians have been murdered by the US-supplied Israeli bombs and bullets.
The truth is that journalists have brought Israel’s genocide to worldwide attention, exposing how the use of “never again” in the Zionist narrative has become the façade for Israel and the international community’s complicity in allowing the colonisation of Palestine to take place and continue unabated. However, there are moments where silence never works. For months, the world has been shown proof of Israel’s genocidal actions. Shutting out journalists by preventing access or killing them only points towards the brutality that Israel would rather not expose. In doing so, Israel has invited unwanted attention, and now there is no escaping it.
Parents in Scotland to face 7 years in jail for refusing to appease children’s gender identity
BY THOMAS BROOKE | REMIX NEWS | JANUARY 10, 2024
Parents in Scotland could soon be sentenced to seven years in prison if they refuse to allow their children to change their gender under plans proposed by the Scottish government.
A public consultation was launched on Tuesday on legislation designed to end conversion practices for both sexual orientation and gender identity and includes widespread measures to criminalize parents who refuse to engage in their children’s desire to not just undergo gender transitions but to identify as another gender by, for example, dressing as the opposite gender.
The consultation proposed by Equalities Minister Emma Roddick would criminalize “coercive” behavior by parents that intends to “change or suppress” a child’s gender identity and consequently causes “harm” to the child.
“Coercive” behavior is broadly defined in the plans and ranges from “violent, threatening, or intimidating” behavior towards the victim to “controlling the victim’s day-to-day activities” or “pressuring the victim to act in a particular way.”
It states the behavior needs to be sustained but subsequently explains that such behavior need only happen “on at least two occasions” to meet this criteria.
Harm is also defined loosely as either “physical or psychological,” and the latter must be shown to have caused the child “fear, alarm, and distress.”
The draft legislation includes a defense if the parent can prove their actions were objectively reasonable.
For Women Scotland, a campaign seeking to protect women’s and children’s rights in the country, expressed their concerns about the draft legislation.
“We have grave concerns that these plans will criminalize loving parents, who could face years in jail simply for refusing to sign up to the gender ideology cult,” spokesperson Marion Calder said.
“They will also hand activists and social workers unprecedented powers to meddle in family life, while having a chilling impact on therapists and counselors.
“If the SNP and Greens insist on pushing this through, it is likely to go the same way as the toxic self-ID and named person laws and be blocked in the courts,” she added.
The left-wing Scottish National Party (SNP) has come under fire for pushing through several controversial progressive policies relating to transgender issues, the most recent being last year’s decision to remove the requirement for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria in order to apply for a gender recognition certificate to legally change one’s gender.
The reforms also slashed the time an applicant must live in their preferred gender before legally changing it from two years to three months and lowered the minimum age at which a person can apply for a gender recognition certificate from 18 to 16 years.
The American Psychological Association Wants (More) Federal Funding To Curb Online “Misinformation”
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | January 9, 2024
The American Psychological Association (APA) is among those organizations enlisted to join the “war on misinformation” back in 2021, when APA took a $2 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help push the Covid narratives of the time.
APA’s particular task there was to come up with “a scientific consensus statement on the science of misinformation.”
Now, APA is clamoring for even more federal money as it declares psychology to be “leading the way on fighting misinformation” and advertises psychologists as the right people to research the problem (as it has been presented over the last years), and also be “part of the solution.”
An article on APA’s site doesn’t shy away from using terminology that spreads a sense of alarm, such as “the scourge of misinformation” and asserting that clinicians now have to treat patients “subsumed” by conspiracy theories, while institutions and communities are all allegedly suffering unspecified “harm.”
And APA also doesn’t shy away from mentioning the US presidential election, or from positioning that event as something that makes combating misinformation “messier and more important than ever.”
Messy it is, alright. To position itself properly among all those vying for funding/influence by exaggerating the threat posed by misinformation as a new phenomenon, APA actually states that, with the election in mind, fighting misinformation is “one of the top trends facing the field (physiology) in 2024.”
Really, APA? Maybe the author meant – a top trend faced by the organization itself, since it has had to show something in return for the $2 million 2021 CDC grant given to it to research “the science of stopping misinformation.”
(Spoiler: that “science” is already well-developed and applied; it’s called censorship.)
Beside the general alarmist tone, APA also came up with “recommendations.”
First, shut up – “don’t repeat misinformation.” Next, leverage “trusted sources to share accurate information.” At this point APA is pretty much parroting Big Tech’s various “guidelines” that have justified a lot of legitimate information getting obliterated over the past years as (never precisely and objectively defined) “misinformation.”
The “recommendations” address fellow physiologists, urging them to become “literate” in this newly crafted “science” – in order to be able to take active part in “the solution.”
According to APA’s current standards, helping people (as psychology professionals) should now include the total of eight recommendations (prominent and fairly ominous, free speech-wise, among which is – “collaborate with social media companies to understand and reduce the spread of harmful misinformation”).
And practitioners should do this everywhere – “(in) our labs, our communities, or our families.”
