The Cook Islands will not pursue membership in the United Nations and the Commonwealth due to its inability to meet the criteria for UN membership and existing relationship with New Zealand, which fulfils Commonwealth membership requirements.
Prime Minister Mark Brown has clarified that the Cook Islands is not qualified for UN membership, a long-standing government proposal that has remained uncertain.
In an exclusive interview with Cook Islands News, Brown was asked to provide an update on the government’s plans for a UN membership.
“That’s old news now, I mean we’ve been around the block with that a few years, and a few times,” Brown said.
“So that’s again another one, we haven’t pursued that. There are a number of criteria that the UN requires for membership and according to them, we don’t meet those requirements.”
Cook Islands has maintained diplomatic ties with the UN since the 1990s. It is not currently a member of the UN.
Earlier this year, the Cook Islands government applied for membership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a first step on the road to becoming a member of the UN.
Cook Islands Minister for Foreign Affairs Tingika Elikana then told RNZ that the decision to become a UN member would ultimately need to be decided by the general population of the Cook Islands through a referendum.
The Cook Islands is part of the realm of New Zealand, which makes Cook Islanders also New Zealand citizens. If the Cook Islands joins the United Nations as a separate member to NZ, it would potentially forfeit its citizenship rights under the current treaty which binds the nations.
Cook Islands Foreign Affairs Minister Tingika Elikana . . . “I think a referendum would need to be run and then we will enter into discussions with New Zealand.” Image: Johnny Blades/VNP
“I don’t think short-term elected politicians should decide on that. I think a referendum would need to be run and then we will enter into discussions with New Zealand,” Elikana then said.
When asked about the possibility of joining the Commonwealth, an international association of 56 member states, primarily comprised of former British territories, Brown said the government would not be making another effort to try and become a member.
“We did enquire a number of years ago about it, but the understanding was because we’re part of the realm of New Zealand, that is considered our membership in the Commonwealth, even though we don’t have any place at the table, and we don’t speak at the Commonwealth,” Brown explained.
“So, they consider that our realm relationship is where we are in terms of Commonwealth membership.”
Cook Islands News understands the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration has written to the Commonwealth Secretariat about the country’s membership.
Brown confirmed that a letter had already been submitted to the Commonwealth for that purpose, but he was uncertain whether a response had been received.
“But from what I understand, that is the response that we’ve had from officials at the Commonwealth, is that they consider us through New Zealand as part of the realm of New Zealand as already being covered in the Commonwealth, even though we don’t have a seat or a voice there.”
When asked if this would be considered the government’s final attempt to gain Commonwealth membership, the Prime Minister responded “yes”.
“I think so, I mean I’ve got to weigh it up as well with what benefit we get from being part of the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting),” he said.
Brown added that there were areas where the Cook Islands did receive support from the likes of the Commonwealth Secretariat.
“We have had support from the likes of the Commonwealth Secretariat in the past with things like technical assistance that they provided for us in the early stages of our development of our Seabed Minerals Authority office.”
Republished with permission from the Cook islands News.
As 2024 came to a close and we have stepped into a new year overshadowed by ongoing atrocities, have you stopped to consider how these events are reshaping your world?
Did you notice how your future — and that of generations to come — is being profoundly and irreversibly altered?
The ongoing tragedy in Palestine is not an isolated event. It is a crisis that reverberates far beyond borders, threatening your safety, the well-being of your children and family.
Palestinian advocate Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab . . . a powerful address in Auckland last weekend about how people in New Zealand can help in the face of Israel’s genocide. Image: APR
Even fragile ecosystems and creatures have been obliterated and affected by the fallout from Israel’s chemicals and pollution from its weapons.
The deliberate targeting of civilians, rampant violations of international law, and the obliteration of the rights of children are not distant horrors. They are ominous warnings of a world unravelling — consequences that are slowly seeping into the comfort of your home, threatening the very foundations of the life you thought was secure.
But here’s the hard truth: these outcomes don’t just happen in a a vacuum. They persist because of the silence, indifference, or complicity of those who choose not to act.
The question is, will you stand up for a better future, or will you look away? And how could Palestine possibly affect you and your family? Read on.
Israel acting with impunity for decades
Israel has been acting with impunity for decades, flouting the norms of our legal agreements, defying the United Nations and its rulings and requests to act within the agreed global rules set after the Holocaust and the Nazis disregard for humanity.
The Germans, under Nazi rule, pursued a racist ideology to restructure the world according to race, committing crimes against humanity and war crimes that resulted in a devastating world war and the deaths of millions of people, including millions of Jews. A set of rules were formed from the ashes of these victims to ensure this horror would never happen again. It’s called international law.
However, after the Nazis defeat, it took less than a few years before atrocities began again, perpetrated by the very people who had just been brutally massacred and targeted.
European Jews, including holocaust survivors, armed by Czechoslovakia, funded by the Nazis (Havaara agreement), aided militarily by Britain, the US, Italy and France among others, arrived on foreign shores to a land that did not belong to them.
Once there, they began to disregard the very rules established to protect not only them, but the rest of humanity — rules designed to prevent a repeat of the Holocaust, safeguard against the resurgence of ideologies like Nazism, and ensure impunity for such actions would never occur again.
These rules were a shared commitment by countries to conduct themselves with agreed norms and regulations designed to respect the right of all to live in safety and security, including children, women and civilians in general. Rules that were designed to end war and promote peace, justice, and a better life for all humankind.
Rules written to ensure the sacred understanding, implementation and respect of equal rights for all people, including you, were followed to prevent us from never returning to the lawlessness and terror of World War Two.
But the creation of Israel less than 80 years ago flouted and violated these expectations. The mass murder of children, women and men in Palestine in 1948, which included burning alive Palestinians tied to trees and running them over as they lay unable to move in the middle of town squares, was only the beginning of this disrespectful dehumanisation.
Terrorised by Jewish militia
Jewish militia terrorised Palestinians, lobbing grenades into Palestinian homes where families sheltered in fear, raping women and girls, and forcing every man and boy from whole villages to dig their own trenches before being shot in the back so they fell neatly into their graves.
Pregnant Palestinian women had their bellies sliced open, homes were stolen along with everything in it — including my families — and many family members were murdered.
This included my great grandmother who was shot, execution style, in front of my mother as she carried a small mattress from our home for her grandchildren when they were forcibly displaced. I still don’t know what happened to her body or where she is buried. I do know where our house is still situated in Jerusalem, although currently occupied.
These atrocities enabled Israel’s birth, shameful atrocities behind its creation. There is not one Israeli town or village that is not built on top of a Palestinian village, or town, on the blood and bones of murdered Palestinians, a practice Israel has continued.
As I write, plans to build more illegal settlements on the buried bodies of Palestinians in Gaza have already been drawn up and areas of land pre-sold.
These horrific crimes have continued over decades, becoming worse as Israel perfected and industrialised its ability to exterminate human souls, hearts and lives. Israel’s birth from its inception was only possible through terrorist actions of Jewish militia. These militia Britain designated as terrorist organisations, a designation that still stands today.
Jewish militia such as (Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang) formed into what is now known as the Israeli Defence Force, although they aren’t defending anything; Palestine was not theirs to take in the first place.
There was never a war of independence for Israel because the state of Israel did not exist to liberate itself from anyone. Instead, Britain illegally handed over land that already belonged to the Palestinians, a peaceful existing people of three pillars of faith — Palestinian Christians Muslims and Jews. If there were any legitimate war of independence, it would be that of the Palestinian people.
Free pass to act above the law
Israel continues to rely on the Holocaust’s memory to give it a free pass to act above the law, threatening world peace and our shared humanity, by using the memory of the horrors of 1945 and the threat of antisemitism to deter people from criticising and speaking out against the state’s unlawful and inhumane actions.
Yet Israel echoes the horrors of Nazi Germany and its destruction with its behaviour, the difference being the industrialisation of mass killing, modern warfare and weapons, the use of AI as a killing machine, the creation of chemical weapons and huge concentration and death camps which far surpass Germany’s capabilities.
Jews around the world have been deeply divided by Israel’s assertion that it represents all Jewish people. Not all Jews religiously and politically support Israel, many do not feel a connection to or support Israel, viewing its actions and policies as separate from their Jewish identity. For them, Israel’s claims do not define what it means to be Jewish, nor do they see its conduct as aligned with Jewish values.
This is not a “Jewish question” but a political one and conflating the two undermines the diverse perspectives within Jewish communities globally and is harmful to Jewish people. It is important to maintain a clear distinction between Judaism and the political actions of Israel.
How does a genocide across the world affect you? The perpetration of genocide and gross violations of human rights, facilitated or supported by Western powers, erodes the very foundations of the global legal framework that protects us all. This assault weakens democracy, undermines international law, and destabilises the structures you rely on for a secure future.
“The perpetration of genocide and gross violations of human rights, facilitated or supported by Western powers, erodes the very foundations of the global legal framework that protects us all.” Image: Al Jazeera headline APR
It leaves your defences crumbling, your safety compromised, and your vulnerabilities exposed to the chaos that follows such lawlessness as a global citizen of this world under the same protections and with the same equality as the Palestinians.
Palestinian children are no less deserving of safety and rights than any other children. When their rights are ignored and violated, it undermines protections for children worldwide, creating a precedent of vulnerability and injustice. If violations are deemed acceptable for some, they risk becoming acceptable for all.
Sitting safely in Aotearoa does not guarantee protection. The actions of Israel and the US, Western countries — massacring and flattening entire neighbourhoods — send a dangerous message that such horrors are only for “others”, for “brown people” who speak a different language.
But Western countries are the global minority. Many nations now view the West with growing disdain, especially in light of Israel and America’s actions, coupled with the glaring double standards and inaction of the West, including New Zealand, as they stand by and witness a genocide in progress.
When children become a legitimate target, the safety of all children is compromised. Your kids are at risk too. Just because you live on the other side of the world does not mean you are immune or beyond the reach of those who see such actions as justification for retaliation.
If such disregard for human life is deemed acceptable for one people, it will inevitably become acceptable for others. Justice and equality must extend to all children, regardless of nationality, to ensure a safer world for everyone.
But why should you care? Because Israel and the US are undermining the framework that protects you. Israel’s violations of International and humanitarian law including laws on occupation, war crimes and bombing protected institutions such as hospitals, schools, UN facilities, civilian homes and areas of safety, undermines these and sets a dangerous precedent for others to follow. Israel does not respect global peace, civilians, human rights nor has respect for life outside of its own. This lawlessness and lack of accountability is already giving other states the green light to erode the norms that protect human rights, including the decimation of the rights of the child.
The West’s support for Israel, namely the US, the UK, Canada, much of Europe, Australia and New Zealand, despite its clear violations of international law, exposes a fundamental hypocrisy. This weakens the credibility of democratic nations that claim to champion human rights and justice.
The failure of institutions like the UN to hold Israel accountable erodes trust in these bodies, fostering widespread disillusionment and scepticism about their ability to address other global conflicts. This has already fuelled an “us versus them” mentality, deepening the divide between the Global South and the Global North.
This division is marked by growing disrespect for Western governments and their citizens, who demand moral authority and adherence to the rule of law from nations in the East and South yet allow one of their “own” to brazenly violate these principles.
This hypocrisy undermines the hope for a new, respectful world order envisioned after the Holocaust, leaving it damaged and discredited.
Israel, despite its claims, has no authentic ties to the Middle East. What was once Palestinian land deeply rooted in Middle Eastern culture, has been overtaken and reshaped into to an artificial state imposed by mixed European heritage. It now stands as a Western outpost in stark contrast and isolated from surrounding Eastern cultures.
The failure of the West and the international community to stop the Palestinian genocide has begun a new period of genocide normalisation, where it becomes acceptable to watch children being blown up, women and men being murdered, shot and starved to death.
This acceptance then becomes a part of a country’s statecraft. Palestinian genocide, while it might be a little “uncomfortable” for many, has still been tolerable. If genocide is tolerable for one, then its tolerable for another.
Bias and prejudice
If you can comfortably go about your day, knowing the horror other innocent human beings are facing then perhaps it might be time to reflect on and confront any underlying biases or prejudices you hold.
An interesting thought experiment is to transform and transfer what is happening in Palestine to New Zealand.
Imagine Nelson being completely flattened, and all the inhabitants of Auckland, plus some, being starved to death.
Imagine all New Zealand hospitals being destroyed, Wellington hospital with its patients still inside is blown up. All the babies in the neonatal unit are left to die and rot in their incubators, patients in the ICU units and those immobile or too sick to move are also left to die, this includes all children unable to walk in the Starship hospital.
Electricity for the whole country is turned off and all patients and healthcare workers are forced to leave at gunpoint. New Zealand doctors and nurses are stripped down to their underwear and tortured, this includes rape, and some male doctors are left to die bleeding in the street after being raped to death with metal poles and electrodes.
Water is then shut down and unavailable to all of you. You cannot feed your family, your grandchildren, your parents, your siblings, your best friends.
Imagine New Zealanders burying bodies of their children and loved ones in makeshift mass graves, while living in tents and then being subjected to chemical weapon strikes, quad copters or small drones’ attacks that drop bombs and exterminate, shooting people as they try to find food, but targeting mostly women and children.
Imagine every single human being in Upper Hutt completely wiped out. Imagine 305 New Zealand school buses full of dead children line the streets, that’s more than 11,000 killed so far. Each day more than 10 New Zealand kids lose a limb, including your children.
This number starts to increase with the hope to finally ethnically cleanse Aotearoa to make way for a new state defined by one religion and one ethnicity that isn’t yours, by a new group of people from the other side of the world.
These people, called settlers, are given weapons to hurt and kill New Zealanders as they rampage through towns evicting residents and moving into your homes taking everything that belongs to you and leaving you on the street. All your belongings, all your memories, your pets, your future, your family are stolen or destroyed.
Starting from January 2025, up to 15 New Zealanders will die of starvation or related diseases EVERY DAY until the rest of the world decides if it will come to your aid with this lawlessness. Or maybe you will die in desperation while others watch you on their TV screens or scroll through their social media seeing you as the “terrorist” and the invaders as the “victims”.
If this thought horrifies you, if it makes you feel shocked or upset, then so too should others having to endure such illegal horrors. None of what is happening is acceptable, as a fellow human being you should be fighting for the right of all of us. Perhaps you might think of our own tangata whenua and Aotearoa’s own history.
What could this mean for New Zealand?
We are not creating a bright future for a country like New Zealand, whose remote location, dependence on trade, and its aging infrastructure, leaves it vulnerable to changing global dynamics. This is especially concerning with our energy dependence on imported oil, our dependence on global supply chains for essential goods including medicine (Israel’s pager attack against Hezbollah has compromised supply chains in a dangerous and horrific violation that New Zealand ignored), our economic marginalisation, and our security challenges.
All of this while surrounded by rising tensions between superpowers like the US and China which will affect New Zealand’s security and economic partnerships. Balancing economic and political ties is complicated by this government’s focus on strengthening strategic alliances with Western nations, mainly the US, whose complicity in genocide, war crimes, and disrespect for the rule of law is weakening its standing and threatens its very future.
Targeting marginalised groups
The precedent set in Palestine will embolden oppressive regimes elsewhere to target minority groups, knowing that the world will turn a blind eye. Israel is a violent, oppressive apartheid state, operating outside of international law and norms and has been compared to, but is much worse than the former apartheid South Africa.
This will have a huge impact felt all over the world with the continued refugee crisis. Multicultural nations such as New Zealand will struggle to cope with the support needed for the families of our citizens in need.
An increase of the far right reminiscent of Nazi ideology and extremism
Israel is a pariah state fuelled by radicalisation and extremism with an intolerance to different races, colour and ethnicity and indigenous populations. This has created a fertile ground for extremist ideologies, destabilising regions far beyond the Middle East as we have seen in Europe with the rejuvenation of the far-right movement.
Israel’s genocidal onslaughts will continue to be the cause for ongoing instability in the region, affecting global energy supplies, trade routes, and security. The Palestinian crisis will not be answered with violence, oppression and war. We aren’t going anywhere, and neither should we.
Weaponising aid and healthcare
Israel’s deliberate restriction of food, water, and medical supplies to Gaza weaponises humanitarian aid, violating basic principles of humanity. A new weapon in the arsenal of pariah states and radical violent countries and a new Israeli tactic to be copied and used elsewhere. Targeting hospitals, healthcare workers, distribution centres, ambulances, the UN, and collectively punishing whole populations has never been and will never be acceptable.
If it is not acceptable that this happens to you in Aotearoa, then nor is it acceptable for Palestinians in Palestine. It is intolerable for other “terror regimes” to commit such acts, so why is it deemed acceptable when carried out by Israel and the US?
Undermining the rights to free speech, peaceful protest and freedoms
During the covid pandemic, many New Zealanders were concerned with government-imposed restrictions that could be used disproportionately or as pretexts for authoritarian control. This included limitations on freedom of movement, speech, assembly, and privacy.
And yet Palestinians endure military checkpoints, curfews, restricted movement within and between their own territories, and the suppression of their right to protest or voice opposition to occupation — all due to Israel’s oppressive and illegal control. This is further enabled by the political cover and tacit support provided by this government’s failure to speak out and strongly condemn Israel’s actions.
Through its failure to take meaningful action or fulfil its third-party state obligations, this government continues to maintain normal relations with Israel across diplomatic, cultural, economic, and social spheres, as well as through trade. Moreover, it wrongly asserts on its official foreign affairs websites and policies that an occupying power has the right to self-defence against a defenceless population it has systematically abused and terrorised for decades.
The silencing of pro-Palestinian activists and criminalisation of humanitarian aid also create a chilling effect, discouraging global solidarity movements and undermining the moral fabric of societies. The use of victimhood to shroud the aggressor and blame the victim is a low point in our harrowed history. As is the vilification of moral activism and those that dare to stand against the illegal and sickening mass killing of civilians.
The attempt to persecute brave students standing up to Zionist and Israeli-run organisations and those supporting Israel (including academic and cultural institutions), by both trigger-happy billionaire Jewish investors and elite families and company investors whose answer to peaceful resistance is violence, demonstrates how far we have fallen from democracy and the rights of the citizen.
I find it completely bizarre that standing up against a genocide of helpless, unarmed civilians is demonised in order to protect the thugs, criminals and psychopaths that make up the Israeli state and its criminal actors, and the elite families and corporations profiting from this war.
Even here in Aotearoa, protesters have been vilified for drawing attention to Israel’s war crimes and double standards at the ASB Classic tennis tournament. Letting into New Zealand an IDF soldier who is associated with an institution directly implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity should be questioned.
These protesters were falsely labelled as “pro-Hamas” by Israeli and Western media. They were portrayed negatively, seen as a nuisance. Their messages about supporting human rights and stopping a horrific genocide from continuing were not mentioned.
The focus was the effect their chants had on the tennis match and the Israeli tennis player, who was upset. Exercising their legal rights to demonstrate, the protesters were not a security issue. Yet Lina Glushko, the Israeli tennis player, claimed she needed extra security to combat a dozen protesters, many over the age of 60, who were never in any proximity of the controversial player nor were ever a threat.
No mention that Lina Glushko lives in an illegal settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, or that she was in service from 2018-2020 during the Great March of Return. Or that this tennis player has made public statements mocking the suffering of Palestinians, inconsistent with Aotearoa’s commitment to combating hate speech and promoting inclusivity and respect.
Her presence erodes the integrity of international sports and sends a dangerous message that war crimes and human rights violations carry no meaningful consequences despite international law and the recent UNGA (UN General Assembly) and ICJ (International Court of Justice) resolutions and advisory opinions.
Allowing IDF soldiers entry into New Zealand disregards the pain and suffering of Palestinians and the New Zealand Palestinian community, dehumanising their plight. It sends a message of complicity to the broader international community, one that was ignored by most Western media.
Similarly, Israel’s attempts to not just control the Western media but to shut down and kill journalists, is not only a war crime, but is terrifying. Journalists’ protection is enshrined in international law due to the essential nature of their work in fostering accountability, transparency, and justice. They expose corruption, war crimes, and human rights abuses. Real journalism is vital for democracy, ensuring citizens are informed about government actions and global events.
Israel’s targeting of journalists undermines the rule of law and emboldens it and other perpetrators to commit further atrocities without fear of scrutiny or consequences.
The suffering of Palestinians is a human rights issue that transcends borders. Allowing genocide and oppression to continue undermines the shared humanity that binds us all.
Israel’s actions reflect the dehumanisation of an entire population and our failure to enforce accountability for these crimes weakens international systems designed to protect your family and you.
Israel’s influence is far reaching, and New Zealand is not immune. Any undue influence by foreign states, including Israel, threatens New Zealand’s sovereignty and ability to make independent decisions in its national interest. Lobbying efforts by organisations like the Zionist Federation or the Jewish National Fund (JNF), the Jewish Council and the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand push policies that do not align with New Zealand’s broader public interest.
Aligning with a state that is violating rights and in a court of law on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, leaves citizens wide open to the same controls and concerns we are now seeing Americans and Europeans face at the mercy of AIPAC and Israeli influence.
Palestine is a test of the international community’s commitment to justice, human rights, and the rule of law. If Israel is allowed to continue acting with impunity, the global system that protects us all will be irreparably weakened, paving the way for more injustice, oppression, and chaos. It is a fight for the moral and legal foundations of the world we live in and ignoring it will have far-reaching consequences for everyone.
So, as you usher in 2025, don’t sit there and clink your glasses, hoping for a better year while continuing to ignore the suffering around you. Act to make 2025 better than the horrific few years the world has been subjected to, if not for humanity, then for yourself and your family’s future. Start with the biggest threat to world peace and stability — Israel and US hegemony.
What you can do
You can make a difference in the fight against Israel’s illegal occupation and violations of human rights, including the deliberate targeting of children by taking simple yet impactful steps. Here’s how you can start today:
Boycott products supporting oppression:
Remove at least five products from your weekly supermarket shopping list that are linked to companies supporting Israel’s occupation or that are made in Israel. Use tools like the “No Thanks” app to identify these items or visit the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) website for detailed advice and information.
Hold the government accountable:
Write letters to your government representatives demanding action to uphold democracy and human rights. Remind them of New Zealand’s obligations under international law to stand against human rights abuses and violations of global norms. Demand fair and equitable foreign policies designed to protect us all.
Educate yourself:
Learn about the history of the Palestine-Israel conflict, especially the events of 1948, to better understand the roots of the ongoing crisis. Knowledge is a powerful tool for advocacy and change.
Seek alternative news sources:
Expand your perspective by accessing a wide range of news sources including from platforms such as Al Jazeera, Double Down News, and Middle East Eye.
Be a citizen, not a bystander:
Passive spectatorship allows injustice to thrive. Take a stand. Whether by boycotting, writing letters, educating yourself, or raising awareness, your actions can contribute to a global movement for justice for us all.
Together, we can challenge systems of oppression and demand accountability for crimes against humanity. Let 2025 not just be another year of witnessing suffering but one where we collectively take action to restore justice, uphold humanity, and demand accountability.
The time to act is now.
The New York-based global media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned a decision by the Palestinian Authority to suspend Al Jazeera’s operations in the West Bank and called for it to be reversed “immediately”.
“Governments resort to censoring news outlets when they have something to hide,” said CPJ chief executive Jodie Ginsberg in a statement.
“The Palestinian Authority should reverse its decision to suspend Al Jazeera’s operations and allow journalists to report freely without fear of reprisal.”
The Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported yesterday that the PA had suspended Al Jazeera on grounds of “inciting material”.
The ban comes after the authority criticised Al Jazeera’s last week coverage of a standoff between Palestinian security forces and militant fighters in Jenin camp, located in the West Bank, according to reports.
Israel raided Al Jazeera’s Ramallah offices in September and ordered its closure for 45 days, accusing the broadcaster’s West Bank operations of “incitement to and support of terrorism”.
Palestinian Authority suspends broadcast of Al Jazeera. Video: Al Jazeera
In a statement, the Al Jazeera network has condemned the PA closure of its offices in the occupied West Bank, calling the move “consistent” with the Israeli occupation’s “practices against its crews”.
The network “considers the Palestinian Authority’s decision an attempt to dissuade it from covering the escalating events taking place in the occupied territories”, the statement said.
It added the move “comes in the wake of an ongoing campaign of incitement and intimidation by parties sponsored by the Palestinian Authority against our journalists”.
The network further called the ban “an attempt to hide the truth about events in the occupied territories”, particularly in Jenin.
Palestinian Authority suspends Al Jazeera operations in the West Bank https://t.co/dHclCfcPXU
Political pressure ‘from Israel’
Political pressure from Israeli authorities on the PA is likely behind the temporary ban decision, claims the network’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara.
“There is no doubt pressure by the Israeli authorities to ban Al Jazeera like it was banned in Israel,” Bishara said.
“The PA is foolishly and short-sightedly trying to prove its credentials to Israeli authorities . . . because they want a role in Gaza and the only way they can do that is by appeasing the Israeli occupation.”
Bishara said the suspension would fail to curtail the channel’s coverage of events in Palestine, just as it had failed to achieve the same goal in Israel.
“This is not going to stop us, this is not going to shut us up,” he said. “We question power and that’s what we do, we question the PA and every other authority in the world.”
Also condemning the PA ban, Mustafa Barghouti, the head of the opposition Palestinian National Initiative, said the ban was “a big mistake” and “should be reversed as soon as possible”.
“I think this is a wrong decision, especially in the light of the fact that Al Jazeera . . . has been at the avant garde in exposing the crimes against the Palestinian people, and continues to do so — especially the genocide that is taking place in Gaza,” said Barghouti, who had previously served as Palestinian minister of information.
“This is an issue of freedom of expression, an issue of freedom of press, an issue of freedom of media,” he told Al Jazeera.
He added that the Palestinian Authority was taking a “dangerous path” that underlines the lack of unified Palestinian leadership.
“At the end of the day, the Israeli occupation is targeting everybody, including Fatah and Hamas and everybody else,” he said.
“So our approach should be an approach of unity, encouraging freedom of expression, because at the end of the day, freedom of expression will only support the struggle against the occupation.”
Palestinian ban follows Israeli ban, killing of journalists
The PA’s temporary ban on Al Jazeera comes months after the network was banned from operating by the Israeli government.
Israel, which has sought to disrupt Al Jazeera’s coverage multiple times throughout its 18-year history, ordered the closure of Al Jazeera’s offices and a ban on its broadcasting in Israel in May.
A month earlier, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed a law that allowed Israel to temporarily shut down foreign media outlets deemed to be security threats.
Al Jazeera condemned the move as a “criminal act” and has stood by its coverage, particularly of Israeli operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
In September, Israeli authorities shut down Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, a move decried by Amnesty International’s MENA director as a “shameless attack on the right to freedom of expression and a crushing blow for press freedom”.
Several Al Jazeera journalists and their families have been killed while reporting in the occupied Palestinian territories in recent years, including Shireen Abu Akleh, a renowned correspondent fatally shot by Israel while reporting in Jenin in May 2022.
Amid the war in Gaza, Israeli strikes have killed Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa, correspondent Ismail Al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi, cameraman Ahmed al-Louh, and journalist Hamza Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh.
Twenty years ago this month, on December 10, 2004, former San Jose Mercury News investigative reporter Gary Webb died by apparent suicide, following a stretch of depression. The subject of the 2014 film Kill the Messenger, Webb had left the newspaper in 1997 after his career was systematically destroyed because he had done what journalists are supposed to do: speak truth to power.
In August 1996, Webb penned a three-part series for the Mercury News (8/18–20/96) that documented how profits from the sale of crack cocaine in Los Angeles in the 1980s had been funneled to the Contras, the right-wing, CIA-backed mercenary army responsible for helping to perpetrate, to borrow Noam Chomsky’s words, “large-scale terrorist war” against Nicaragua.
Press freedom organizations and the organizers of the International Journalism Festival (IJF) called on Iran on Tuesday to release Italian journalist Cecilia Sala with immediate effect.
Sala was arrested in Iran on December 19 and is being held in the notorious Evin prison. Iran confirmed her detention on December 30, when state news agency IRNA reported that she was being held after “violating the laws of the Islamic republic of Iran.”
Italy’s foreign minister has said the case was “complicated” and some reports suggested Sala was being held in retaliation for the detention of a Swiss-Iranian businessman and suspected arms dealer in Italy.
Sala, who works for the newspaper Il Foglio and the podcast company Chora Media, was in Iran on a journalist visa and was due to return to Italy on December 20. “Cecilia is a highly respected journalist and should not be used as a political pawn,” said festival co-founder and director Arianna Ciccone. “Iran has silenced her voice by putting her in jail and this is unacceptable.”
Sala has spoken several times at the world-renowned festival, which is held annually in Perugia, Italy.
Press freedom groups, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said Sala’s arrest reflected a pattern of suppression of independent journalism in Iran and highlighted the willingness of Iran to target both foreign and domestic reporters as a means to stifle reporting critical of the regime.
“Iran has a long and ignominious history of jailing journalists – as well as of targeting reporters and their families at home and abroad,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “Cecilia Sala’s arrest is a powerful reminder of the daily threats faced by those reporting in and about Iran and she and all those wrongfully detained by Iran should be released immediately.”
Iran is one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists. Preliminary figures from the Committee to Protect Journalists showed there were 16 journalists in jail as of December 1, 2024, which would make the country the 7th biggest jailer of journalists worldwide.
“The detention of Cecilia Sala, without any reason having been officially communicated by the Iranian authorities, and despite the fact that the journalist had a valid visa, presents all the characteristics of arbitrary detention,” said RSF Director General Thibaut Bruttin. “We are also concerned about her conditions of detention as she is held in solitary confinement in Evin prison – infamous for being the cruel place where free voices critical of the regime are detained.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry has confirmed that close to 46,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s ongoing assault, but Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah estimates the true number is closer to 300,000.
“This is literally and mathematically a genocidal project,” says Dr Abu-Sittah, a British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon who worked in Gaza for more than a month treating patients at both Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli Baptist hospitals.
Israel continues to attack what remains of the besieged territory’s medical infrastructure.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, and Faris Odeh, a 15-year-old boy from Gaza, are iconic figures of Palestine, both photographed standing unarmed before Israeli tanks with nothing but their resolve.
On Sunday, an Israeli attack on the upper floor of al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City killed at least seven people and wounded several others. On Friday, Israeli troops stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, northern Gaza’s last major functioning hospital, and set the facility on fire.
Many staff and patients were reportedly forced to go outside and strip in winter weather.
The director of Kamal Adwan, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, was arrested, and his whereabouts remain unknown. [Editor: He is reportedly being held in the Sde Teiman base in Israel’s Negev desert, a place notorious for the torture and deaths of detainees].
“It’s been obvious from the beginning that Israel has been wiping out a whole generation of health professionals in Gaza as a way of increasing the genocidal death toll but also of permanently making Gaza uninhabitable,” says Abu-Sittah.
“On October 7, the Israelis crossed that genocidal Rubicon that settler-colonial projects cross.”
‘A genocidal project’. Video: Democracy Now!
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We begin today’s show in Gaza, where a sixth baby has died from severe cold as the death toll tops 45,500 and Israel’s assault on medical infrastructure continues in the besieged territory.
On Sunday, an Israeli attack on the upper floor of al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City killed at least seven people and wounded several others.
On Friday, Israeli troops stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, northern Gaza’s last major functioning hospital.
The director of Kamal Adwan, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, was arrested, [and he is reportedly being held in the Sde Teiman base in Israel’s Negev desert, a place notorious for the torture and deaths of detainees].
Many staff and patients were reportedly forced to go outside and strip in winter weather. This is nurse Waleed al-Boudi describing Dr Hussam Abu Safiya’s arrest.
WALEED AL-BOUDI: [translated] Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya was arrested from Al-Fakhoura School after he had stayed with us and refused to leave. Even though they told him to and that he was free to go, he told them that he won’t leave his medical staff.
He took all of us and wanted to get us out at night. But they yelled at him and arrested him, a man of great humanity.
We appeal to the entire world, all of the world, all the human rights organiSations to stand by Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the great man, the man who planted, within us and within our hearts, patience so we can persevere in our steadfast north.
I swear we wouldn’t have left, but by force. We cried blood on the doors of Kamal Adwan Hospital when we were forced out by the occupation army.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: A person who was with Dr Hussam Abu Safiya shared testimony that, quote, “The Israeli forces whipped Dr Hussam using an electrical wire found in the street after forcing him and others from the medical staff to remove their clothes”.
This is Dr Hussam Abu Safiya in one of his final interviews before being detained, produced by Sotouries.
DR HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: [translated] I always say the situation requires one to stand by our people’s side and not run away from it.
Gaza is our homeland, our mother, our beloved and everything to us. Gaza deserves all of this steadfastness and deserves all of the sacrifices.
It is not just about Gaza, but we deserve to be a people that deserves freedom just like every other people on Earth.
I think the occupation wants us to get out and for us to ask them to get us out, so they can publicly say that the healthcare system is the one asking to leave and that it wasn’t them who asked us to, but we are aware of that.
But we will not leave, God willing, from this place, as I said, for as long as there are humanitarian services to be provided to our people in the northern Gaza Strip.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was Dr Hussam Abu Safiya in one of his last interviews before Israeli forces arrested him on Friday in a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital along with at least 240 others in a raid which left the hospital nonoperational.
Israel’s military alleged that Hamas militants were using Kamal Adwan Hospital [But have never provided evidence for their claims].
The World Health Organisation is calling on Israel to end its attacks on Gaza hospitals. Earlier today, the World Health Organization’s chief, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, said: “People in Gaza need access to health care. Humanitarians need access to provide health aid. Ceasefire!”
Last week, World Health Organisation spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris was asked on Channel 4 News whether there was any evidence of the Israeli claim that the hospital is a Hamas stronghold.
DR MARGARET HARRIS: So, whenever we send a mission, we go and we look at the health situation.
Now, I’ve not had at any point our healthcare teams come back and say that they’ve got any concerns beyond the healthcare, but I should say that what we do is look at what the health situation is and what needs to be done.
But all we’ve ever seen going on in that hospital is healthcare.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, for more, we go to Cairo, Egypt.
AMY GOODMAN: Nermeen, thanks so much. I am here with a man who knew Dr Abu Safiya well and is in constant contact with people on the ground in Gaza, particularly the medical professionals.
Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah is with us here, British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon. He worked last year in Gaza for almost — for over a month with Médecins Sans Frontières — that’s Doctors Without Borders (MSF) — in two hospitals. He worked at Al-Shifa, the main hospital in Gaza, as well as Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
Welcome to Democracy Now! You’ve been in touch with family of Dr Abu Safiya. If you can talk about where he is right now, believed to have been arrested by the Israeli military, and then the crisis just right now on the ground with the closing of Kamal Adwan and more?
DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: So, unfortunately, the family is afraid that he has been moved to the infamous Sde Teiman torture camp, an internment camp where, before him, Dr Adnan al-Bursh was tortured, and tortured to death, Dr Iyad Rantisi was tortured to death, where there is documented evidence of not just Israeli guards taking part in torture, but even Israeli doctors taking part in the torture of Palestinians.
And so, that is the fear that not just the family has, but all of us have.
And what we’ve seen in this process, in this destruction, systematic destruction of the health system, with the total destruction of all of the hospitals in the north, so not just Kamal Adwan, before that, the Indonesian Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital, and, immediately after, the targeting of al-Wafa Hospital and then the targeting again of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, which was the first hospital the Israelis targeted on the October 17.
The targeting of al-Wafa Hospital was intended to kill medical students from Gaza’s Islamic University who were sitting in exam in that hospital. And luckily for them, the Israelis got the wrong floor. And then the targeting of Al-Ahli Hospital, which is now the last hospital functioning in that whole arbitrarily created northern part of Gaza, is a sign that the Israelis will now move towards the Ahli Hospital for destruction.
I just want to highlight there is research that is about to be published that shows that the chances of being killed as a nurse or a doctor in Gaza during this genocidal war is three-and-a-half times that of the general population.
So it’s been obvious from the beginning that Israel has been wiping out a whole generation of health professionals in Gaza as a way of increasing the genocidal death toll but also of permanently making Gaza uninhabitable.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, you, of course, as we mentioned, as Amy mentioned in the introduction, you have worked in two Gaza hospitals. You’ve just talked a little bit about what’s recently — the recent Israeli attacks on medical infrastructure in Gaza, but if you could explain, just to give a sense of what’s happened overall since October 7, 2023.
If you could say the scale of the destruction of medical infrastructure, as well as the systematic attacks on medical personnel, as you said, this new research that’s coming out that shows that they’re three to four times more likely to be killed than the general population?
So, if you could just say, begin from October 2023 to now?
DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: So, what happened on October 12th is that the Israeli army started to call by phone medical directors of all of the hospitals, telling them that unless they evacuated the hospitals, the blood of the patients would be on their hands.
And I remember that day I was with Dr Ahmed Muhanna from Al-Awda Hospital, who’s still been arrested now for over a year, an anesthetist and a medical director, and he received a phone call from the Israeli army to tell him to evacuate Al-Awda Hospital.
Of course, we realised at that point that the destruction of the health system was going to be a prerequisite for the kind of ethnic cleansing that the Israelis wanted in Gaza.
I was in Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on the day of the October 17, when the Israelis bombed that hospital, killing over 480 patients. And then we had the whole narrative about Shifa Hospital, the siege of Shifa Hospital, the destruction of three pediatric hospitals in the north, and then the first attack on Shifa Hospital.
And then, after that, 36 hospitals in Gaza have now been reduced to the three partially working hospitals in the south and only a remnant of Al-Ahli Hospital in the north. We have had over a thousand health workers — doctors, nurses, health professionals — killed, over 400 imprisoned, and then the destruction of the health infrastructure, the destruction of water and sewage, the use of water as a tool of collective punishment in order to create the public health catastrophe that exists in Gaza in terms of infectious diseases, and the intentional famine.
And so, at the moment, we have in Gaza what the doctors are referring to as the triad of death: hypothermia because of the winter, wounding because of the injuries, and malnutrition.
And with the three, what happens is that people die of at higher temperatures, people die of lesser injuries, because the coexistence of these three conditions means that the body is depleted of any physiological reserve.
And so, that’s why we’re watching over seven kids in the last week die of hypothermia, an adult nurse die of hypothermia, not because the temperatures are subzero — the temperatures are just hovering above zero — but because they’re so malnourished and they’re injured and a lot of them have infectious diseases, and so they’re dying at the same time.
Israel has created a genocidal machine that takes Palestinian lives beyond the injury, beyond the bombs, beyond the shrapnel.
And so people are dying of infectious diseases. People are dying because of the health system has collapsed, and so their chronic diseases become medical emergencies. And people are dying from the famine and the malnutrition.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, in light of that, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, if you could comment on the fact that so many people now, an increasing number of people, are questioning this death toll of 45,500, over that number who have been killed in Gaza since or who have died in Gaza since October 2023?
People are saying that is a vast undercount. From what you’re saying, that seems almost certain. If you could comment as a medical professional? You know, what do you think might be a more accurate figure?
DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: So, 45,000 are people whose bodies were taken to a Ministry of Health hospital, and they were taken by people who witnessed or who recognised them, and a death certificate was issued.
This 45,000 excludes the tens of thousands who are still under the rubble, more so in the north, where the emergency services were targeted by the Israelis and so are now completely unable to function.
And so, we see pictures of dogs eating bodies of those killed in the streets. Not only people under the rubble, people who have been killed and not reported, or their bodies have not been retrieved.
When you drop 2000-pound bombs, there’s very little of the human body that is left. And so there are people who literally pulverized by these bombs.
Then you have those whose chronic illnesses, once untreated, became deadly, so the kidney dialysis patients, the heart disease patients, the diabetics, who were no longer able to get treatment.
It doesn’t take into account the women who are dying from maternal care, from obstetric injuries during delivery, because they’re delivering in makeshift hospitals, they’re delivering in the tents, and they’re malnourished when they give birth, and so them and their babies have a higher rate of maternal mortality, of infant mortality.
And then you have those who are dying of infectious diseases, of the thousands who have hepatitis at the moment, of the polio, and those who are dying not immediately from their injuries but from the wounds that do not have access to healthcare to stop the infection setting in, and then, eventually, the infection becoming sepsis and killing them.
The number is closer to 300,000. This is around 10 to 12 percent of Gaza’s population.
France, at the end of the Second World War, 4 percent of its population were killed. This is literally and mathematically a genocidal project.
This is not a political term. This is a literal and mathematical term, where you want to eliminate the population and to ensure that whoever is left is incapable of becoming part of a society, because they’re tending to their wounds or they’ve been so severely debilitated by the injuries and the neglected injuries.
We at @amnesty are extremely concerned over the fate & wellbeing of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital who was detained by Israeli forces along with others during a raid on the hospital on 27 December. He must be released immediately and unconditionally.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr Abu-Sittah, you have asked, “How can a live-streamed genocide continue unhindered?” What is your response to that question right now?
DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: Right now with the arrest of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, where is the British Medical Association? Where is the American Medical Association? Where are the royal colleges? Where is the French Medical Association?
Western medical institutions, their moral bankruptcy has become so astounding during this genocide. For them to become part of a genocidal enablement apparatus, for their silence and, in a lot of times, their collusion to silence those who speak out against the genocide.
For me, as a health professional, you’re shocked at how completely empty of any moral value these medical associations have become, when they have become complicit in a televised genocide which targets doctors.
AMY GOODMAN: You know, I’m speaking to you here in Cairo. In May, Germany did not allow you in to speak. You are a British Palestinian doctor.
Since you were in Gaza last year, you’ve been speaking out about what’s happening. Explain exactly what happened. I mean, Human Rights Watch and other groups were demanding that this ban be lifted. They banned you from where?
DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: So, I was invited to speak at a conference in Germany. I was stopped at Berlin Airport and was told that I’m banned from going into Germany for a month, and I was deported at the end of that day back to the UK.
A few months later, I had an invitation from the French Senate. When I arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport, I discovered that the Germans, a few days after they deported me, had put in a ban for the whole of the Schengen — and Schengen is the EU plus Norway, plus Sweden, plus Switzerland — using an administrative law so that they wouldn’t have to put it in front of the judge. We then were able to challenge that and have it overturned.
But at the same time, pro-Israel groups, like UK Lawyers for Israel, submitted multiple complaints against me with the General Medical Council to have my medical licence removed, submitted complaints against me with the Charity Commission in the UK to have me banned for life from ever holding office in a UK registered charity.
This is what — this is why this genocide has continued unhindered and unchallenged for over 14 months. There are apparatus of genocide enablement that exists in the West, either through collusion or by actively targeting.
Over 60 doctors in the UK have had complaints against them with the General Medical Council to have their medical licences removed as a result of their support of the Palestinians during the genocide.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Dr Abu-Sittah, Jimmy Carter died yesterday at the age of 100. He wrote the book in the 2000s, which is quite amazing, but after he was president, Palestine: Peace [Not] Apartheid. I’m going to rejoin Nermeen for the end of the show, an interview I did with him on that issue. But your thoughts on President Carter?
DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: The logic of the relationship between the Zionist colonialist movement and the Palestinian indigenous population has always been that of elimination.
At a certain point — and that’s unfortunately now behind us since the 7th of October — apartheid separation was the chosen method of elimination of the Palestinians. On the 7th of October, the Israelis crossed that genocidal Rubicon that settler-colonial projects cross.
And once the genocidal Rubicon is crossed, the elimination of the indigenous population by the settler-colonial project then purely becomes genocidal.
Israel, even at the end of this genocidal war in Gaza, will not be able to deal with the Palestinians in a nongenocidal way. Once the settler-colonial project becomes genocidal, it cannot undo itself.
We’ve seen that in North America with the killing of the children in Canada. We’ve seen that in Australia. We’ve seen that everywhere.
AMY GOODMAN: And Carter, again, as we just have 30 seconds, writing the book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid?
DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: Well, Carter had a historic opportunity to change the course of this struggle, had he insisted that part of the Camp David Accords was the creation of a Palestinian state. And no amount of recantation will ever change that missed opportunity.
He could have forced on the Israeli government, and the first right-wing Israeli government at that point, under Begin — he could have forced the creation of a Palestinian state, but he failed to do that.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And finally, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, we just have 30 seconds. You just said that a genocidal settler-colonial project cannot undo itself. How do you see this ending, then?
DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: You see, the world has a choice, because surplus populations like the Palestinians, like refugees crossing the Mediterranean, like the poor people in the favelas and in the inner-city slums, these will either be dealt with through a genocidal project, as Israel has dealt with the Palestinians in Gaza — and this kind of response or this kind of template will become part of the military doctrine that is taught to armies across the world in dealing with these surplus populations.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, thank you so much for joining us, a British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon who worked in Gaza as a volunteer with Doctors without Borders treating patients at both Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
Amy will rejoin us for our last segment talking about her interview with former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at age 100.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Chinese state media has launched a campaign to highlight friendly cooperation with the United States in an attempt to improve turbulent ties as a new administration under Donald Trump prepares to take office, an analyst said.
The state-run People’s Daily and Global Times, which often carry searing criticism of the U.S., called on Dec. 25 for written work, photos and videos from people and organizations around the world with the aim of “bridging cultural differences and fostering friendship and trust” with the U.S.
“What they are doing now is part of the latest efforts by the Chinese government to foster a more collaborative relationship with the Trump administration,” Li Wei-Ping, a researcher with Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, told Radio Free Asia.
President-elect Donald Trump has made no secret of his plans to hit China with massive tariffs and experts say his second presidency looks set to become dominated by a grand rebalancing of trade ties.
Li said that China has been working to steer its relations with the U.S. in a more positive direction since Trump’s election win, with remarks by top officials such as Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the tone of state media editorials.
Wang, in a Dec. 27 commentary in the state-run Study Times, urged the new U.S. administration to “make the right choices” by working with China and “striving for stable, healthy, and sustainable development in Sino-U.S. relations.”
Xinhua News Agency, in a Dec. 28 editorial, also extolled people-to-people exchanges such as tourism in fostering relations.
“The talk, the articles, and the campaign … could be deemed as a whole as an indication that the Chinese government is preparing for the Trump administration 2.0.,” said Li.
Trump had also made friendly gestures to China such as his invitation to Chinese leader Xi Jinping to his inauguration in January, said Li, while noting that many factors could impact what had been a “turbulent” relationship in recent years.
Trump has, for instance, nominated outspoken China critics to top jobs: Marco Rubio for secretary of state; Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida for national security adviser, and Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York as ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump then announced on Dec. 9 he had picked three China trade hawks for top roles at the State Department, including Michael Anton, who has previously argued it is not in U.S. interests to defend Taiwan from an invasion by China.
In early December, the Chinese Foreign Ministry called on the U.S. not to do anything to undermine Beijing’s territorial claim on Taiwan, enshrined in its “one-China” principle.
“I am hesitant to say the narrative has totally shifted and believe we need more time to see if this current amicability will last,” Li said.
Editing by Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alan Lu.
BBC editor Raffi Berg has almost complete control of the British broadcaster’s online coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and is ensuring that all events are reported with a pro-Israel bias, according to a new report published on 28 December by Drop Site News.
“This guy’s entire job is to water down everything that’s too critical of Israel,” one former BBC journalist said.
Drop Site News spoke to 13 current and former staffers who stated that the BBC’s coverage consistently devalues Palestinian life, ignores Israeli atrocities, and creates a false equivalence in an entirely unbalanced conflict.
Since the xenophobia-fueled presidential re-election of Donald Trump, calls have been growing on social media for a pro-immigrant labor strike beginning on January 11, days before Trump is to take office. The emerging movement’s goal is to highlight the social, cultural, and economic importance of immigrants in the United States. The Trump campaign’s racist rhetoric — targeted at Latin Americans and Caribbean Islanders — is an urgent threat driving the need to speak out against his proposed immigration policies — such as the plan to conduct mass deportations.
Van Jones is saying mainstream media is the fringe now. ABC, CBS, NBC, they’re the fringe because media has really moved towards social media because they can’t get news. You cannot get real news from corporate cable news anymore. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. […]
Israel kills the journalists deliberately. This is unprecedented. The Western media — including here in Aotearoa New Zealand — kills the truth about genocide in Gaza.
The journalists from the Al-Quds Today TV channel were outside the al-Awada Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp when their satellite broadcast van was struck by a pre-dawn Israeli strike.
Video footage that went viral showed the van with the words “PRESS” clearly marked in red block letters engulfed in flames.
The slain journalists were – let’s honour their names — Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan and Ayman al-Jadi.
Jadi had gone to the hospital with his wife who was giving birth to their first child. He had gone out to check on the car and his mates when it was bombed.
Baby born on day father died for ‘truth’
Imagine that, the baby was born on the very day his father died while doing his job as a journalist — reporting the truth.
It is another cruel example of the tragic lives lost in this genocide by Israel which has killed more than 45,400 people, mostly women and children.
Al Jazeera’s report on the journalist killings. Video: AJ
Just last week, four other journalists were killed over two days. And now the total is 201 Palestinian journalists killed since 7 October 2023.
This is by far the highest death toll of journalists in any war or conflict.
And in 20 years of the Vietnam War, just 63 journalists were killed.
Al Jazeera reports that Israel, which has not allowed foreign journalists to enter Gaza except on military embeds with the Israeli “Defence” Forces (IDF), which is increasingly being dubbed by critics as the Israeli “Offence” Forces (“IOF”), has been condemned by many media freedom organisations.
Samoan Palestine decolonisation activist Michel Mulipola . . . speaking at today’s Auckland rally about the 95th anniversary of the Black Saturday Mau massacre by NZ forces in Samoa. Image: APR
Gaza ‘most dangerous region’
The besieged enclave is now regarded as the “most dangerous region of the world” for journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders in its annual report.
New Zealand journalist and author Dr David Robie . . . critical of New Zealand media’s role over the Gaza genocide. Image: Del Abcede/APR
Al Jazeera itself was banned by Israel in May from reporting within the country, and was subsequently barred from reporting within the occupied West Bank and the closure of the Ramallah bureau in mid-September.
Israel has tried to silence Al Jazeera previously in by threatening it in 2017, bombing its broadcast office in Gaza in 2021, and assassinating celebrated journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022 and other reporters with impunity.
Al Jazeera, TRT News and many independent news outlets as Democracy Now!, The Intercept, Middle East Eye and The Palestine Chronicle stand in contrast to mainstream media such as BBC, CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post that have frequently been called out in investigative reports for systemic bias against Palestine.
Among the poignant messages from Palestinian journalists documenting this war are Bisan Owda, who signs on her video reports every day with “I’m still alive”.
But I would like to share this reflection from another journalist, videographer Osama Abu Rabee who says on his X news feed that he is “capturing the untold stories of resilience and hope”. He said in one post this week:
Kia Ora Gaza facilitator Roger Fowler (in hat) . . . a tribute for his many years of support for the Palestine freedom cause. Image: APR
‘Moments away from death’
“One of my most vivid memories is when three journalists and I were in Eastern Jabalia and we needed to connect our e-sims to edit and upload content of a massacre.
“We went to a room but the connection wasn’t good so I suggested we go into another room. Less than 5 minutes later, the room we had been in got bombed.
“People came over running thinking that we were killed but luckily there were only injuries.
“This was one of the many times that I was moments away from death. I know that I’m targeted as a Palestinian but also as a journalist.
“Every single day I step out of my house and put on my ‘press’ vest and I look behind at my family, I’m not sure if I’ll see them again.
“I hope you understand the risks we are taking to show you the truth.
“Even 15 month later, we continue to go out every single day and document the horrors that people in Gaza experience.
“We do this so that when God asks what you do, we respond with ‘we did what we could’.”
NZ media’s role shameful
Can journalists and the media in Aotearoa New Zealand say with hand on heart that “we did what we could” in the face of this genocide?
Palestinian advocate Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab . . . powerful address in how people in New Zealand can help in the face of Israel’s genocide. Image: APR
Of course not, the role of New Zealand media has been shameful, apart from notable exceptions such as Gordon Campbell.
It has failed to hold the Christopher Luxon coalition government to account over its pathetic inaction over the genocide.
It has failed to press the government into taking a stronger and more principled stance at the United Nations to call for sanctions against the apartheid and genocidal regime, or to even expel Israel from the global chamber — or the ambassador from Wellington.
Take Ireland, a smallish country like New Zealand, as an inspirational example. Earlier this month, Ireland responded immediately to the closure of Israel’s embassy in Dublin by opening a Palestinian museum on the premises.
Prime Minister Simon Harris condemned Israel’s genocidal actions, particularly against children and reaffirmed his country’s commitment to human rights and international law.
“You know what I think is reprehensible? Killing children, I think that’s reprehensible.
“You know what I think is reprehensible? Seeing the scale of civilian deaths that we’ve seen in Gaza.
“You know what I think is reprehensible? People being left to starve and humanitarian aid not flowing,”
Silence of the news media
Have we ever had such a courageous statement like this from our Prime Minister. Absolutely not.
It is shameful that our government has not taken a stand.
And it is shameful that the New Zealand media has been so silent over this most horrendous episode of our times — genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in front of our very eyes for 15 months.
To my knowledge, journalists in Aotearoa have not made even made statements of solidarity with the journalists of Gaza and their horrific sacrifice to bear witness to the truth.
New Zealand journalists have already “normalised” the genocide. Shameful.
Dr David Robie is convenor of Pacific Media Watch and editor of Asia Pacific Report. This was first presented as an address to a Palestinian solidarity rally in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Te Komititanga Square in Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau on 28 December 2024.
A banner condemning New Zealand media for being “silent and complicit” over Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Image: APR
Five Palestinian journalists have been killed in a new Israeli strike near a hospital in central Gaza after four reporters were killed last week, reports Al Jazeera citing authorities and media in the besieged enclave.
The journalists from the Al-Quds Today channel were covering events near al-Awda Hospital, located in the Nuseirat refugee camp, when their broadcasting van was hit by an Israeli air strike.
Footage from the scene circulating on social media shows a vehicle engulfed in flames.
The video of the white-coloured van shows the word “press” in large red lettering across the back of the vehicle.
The dead journalists have been named as Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan and Ayman al-Jadi.
Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif reports that Ayman al-Jadi had been waiting for his wife in front of the hospital while she was in labour to give birth to their first child.
Civil defence teams retrieved the bodies of the victims and extinguished a fire at the scene, the Quds News Network said.
Israel claims ‘targeted’ attack
Israel’s military confirmed the strike.
It claimed it had carried out a “targeted” attack against a vehicle carrying members of Islamic Jihad and that it would continue to take action against “terrorist organisations” in Gaza.
BREAKING: 5 journalists were just killed by Israel.
An Israeli strike targeted the PRESS vehicle belonging to “Al-Quds Today” channel while the journalists were sleeping inside the vehicle in front of Al-Awda Hospital in Al-Nuseirat, Central Gaza. Their bodies were charred.… pic.twitter.com/B1u1eXIn3j
“Prior to the attack, many steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians, including the use of precision weapons, aerial observations, and additional intelligence information,” the military said in a post on X.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) earlier this month condemned Israel’s killing of four Palestinian journalists in the space of a week, calling on the international community to hold the country accountable for its attacks against the media.
“On December 14 and 15, the Israeli army murdered three media professionals in northern Gaza and the central Gaza Strip,” RSF said in a statement.
“Some of the few remaining reporters in the northern region, subjected to a ground invasion by Israeli forces, were recently forced to evacuate their homes.”
RSF named three of the killed journalists as Al-Jazeera cameraman Ahmad al-Louh, a 39-year-old media worker who was was filming a report on the Palestinian Civil Defence in the Nuseirat camp when he was killed on December 15 by an air strike; Mohammed Balousha, a reporter for the Emirati channel Al-Mashhad who was mortally wounded by a targeted drone strike while reporting in the Sheikh Radwan district in northern Gaza, and correspondent Mohammed Jaber al-Qarinawi, 30, who was killed along with his wife and their three children by an isolated air strike — “a sign that his home had probably been targeted”.
‘Stark reminder’ on media attacks, says RSF
RSF’s director of campaigns Rebecca Vincent said: “These latest killings are a stark reminder of the ongoing assault by Israeli forces against media professionals in northern Gaza, where the handful of journalists remaining are now at risk of disappearing altogether.
“In parallel to ongoing attacks on media in central Gaza where displaced persons are now seeking refuge, this is a clear continuation of the Israeli authorities’ attempts to control the narrative on its war through any means possible.
“We repeat in the strongest possible terms that targeting journalists is a war crime, and these atrocious attacks must stop. It is time for concrete action by other states — in particular Israel’s allies — to urge the Israeli government to immediately comply with international law.”
Ninety-six percent of Gaza’s journalists have been forcibly evacuated from their homes, and 92 percent have lost essential reporting equipment, according to data from RSF’s local NGO partner, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ).
At least 141 journalists have been killed in Israel’s war in Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to the CPJ.
However, other monitoring agencies put the death toll higher — the Gaza-based Government Media Office has documented 201 killings of journalists by Israel.
Israel has continued a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 45,000 people, most of them women and children, since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on 7 October 2023.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
From an exuberant mountaineering woman to a boy representing unheard refugees, here are some of the brave individuals that gave us hope
Nine years ago, Cecilia Llusco was one of 11 Indigenous women who made it to the summit of the 6,088 metre-high Huayna Potosí in Bolivia. They called themselves the cholitas escaladoras (the climbing cholitas) and went on to scale many more peaks in Bolivia and across South America. Their name comes from chola, once a pejorative term for Indigenous Aymara women.
Istanbul, December 23, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Turkish authorities to release journalists who were jailed in Istanbul on Sunday and allow the media to report freely.
On Saturday, Turkish authorities detained several dozen people, including journalists, at a protest against the December 20 killing of Kurdish journalists Jihan Belkin and Nazim Dashdan, who hold Turkish citizenship, in a suspected Turkish drone strike in northern Syria on December 20. The next day, an Istanbul court placed five journalists and two media workers in police detention pending trial and placed five other journalists under judicial control.
“The Turkish government is attempting to control the flow of news about Syria by intimidating the press, as evidenced by the arrest of journalists at a protest, the house arrest of Özlem Gürses, and other legal actions,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities must immediately release the imprisoned journalists and media workers, free Gürses, and allow members of the media to do their jobs without fear of retaliation.”
The journalists and media workers arrested at the Istanbul protest are:
Enes Sezgin, social media manager for the pro-Kurdish daily Yeni Yaşam
Osman Akın, news editor for Yeni Yaşam
Can Papila, designer for Yeni Yaşam
Serpil Ünal, reporter for the leftist outlet Mücadele Birliği
Journalists were also detained at a similar protest in the eastern city of Van Friday but they were released.
State owned Anatolia Agency reported on Sunday that the chief prosecutor’s office in Istanbul is investigating independent news website T24 over its coverage of the reactions to the two journalist killings in Syria. Authorities are also investigating Seyhan Avşar, a reporter with independent news website Gerçek Gündem, on suspicion of terrorism propaganda and knowingly spreading misinformation for social media posts on Belkin and Dashdan.
In a separate incident on Saturday, an Istanbul court put journalist Özlem Gürses under house arrest pending trial on suspicion of demeaning the Turkish military over her comments on her YouTube channel regarding Turkey’s military presence in Syria. Gürses continues broadcasting from her home in Istanbul.
In another incident, the chief prosecutor’s office in Istanbul opened an investigation into the Bar Society of Istanbul for suspicion of terrorism propaganda and spreading misinformation due to its statement on Saturday calling for an investigation into the suspected Turkish drone killings of Belkin and Dashdan, and the release of journalists and others detained in Istanbul at the protest against their deaths.
CPJ emailed the chief prosecutor’s office in Istanbul for comment but did not receive a reply.
From being the headline to creating them, Moana Maniapoto has walked a rather rocky road of swinging between both sides of the media.
Known for her award-winning current affairs show Te Ao with Moana on Whakaata Māori, and the 1990s cover of Black Pearl, the lawyer-by-trade doesn’t keep her advocacy a secret.
Her first introduction to news was at the tail end of the 1980s when she was relaxed in the guest seat at Aotearoa Radio — Auckland’s first Māori radio station — but her kōrero hit a nerve.
“I said something the host considered radical,” she said.
“He quickly distanced the station from my remarks and that got the phones ringing.”
It became a race for listeners to punch numbers into the telephone, the first person to get through was New Zealand filmmaker, producer and writer Merata Mita, who ripped into the host.
“How dare you talk down to her like that,” Maniapoto recalled. The very next day she answered the call to host that show from then on.
No training, no worries
Aotearoa Radio was her first real job working four hours per day, spinning yarns five days a week — no training, no worries.
“Oh, they tried to get us to speak a bit flasher, but no one could be bothered. It was such a lot of fun, a great bunch of people working there. It was also nerve-wracking interviewing people like Erima Henare (NZ politician Peeni Henare’s father), but the one I still chuckle about the most was Winston Peters.”
She remembers challenging Peters over a comment he made about Māori in the media: “You’re going to have to apologise to your listeners, Moana. I never said that,” Peters pointed out.
They bickered in true journalist versus politician fashion — neither refused to budge, until Maniapoto revealed she had a word-for-word copy of his speech.
All Peters could do was watch Maniapoto attempt to hold in her laughter. A prompt ad break was only appropriate.
But the Winston-win wasn’t enough to stay in the gig.
“After two years, I was over it. It was tiring. Someone rang up live on air and threatened to kill me. It was a good excuse to resign.”
Although it wasn’t the end of the candlewick for Maniapoto, it took 30 years to string up an interview with Peters again.
Short-lived telly stints
In-between times she had short-lived telly stints including a year playing Dr Te Aniwa Ryan on Shortland Street, but it wasn’t for her. The singer-songwriter has also created documentaries with her partner Toby Mills, their daughter Manawanui Maniapoto-Mills a gunning young actress.
Moana Maniapoto has featured on the cover of magazines. Image: RNZ
Maniapoto has featured on the cover of magazines, one in particular she remembers was Mana magazine in 1993.
“Sally Tagg photographed me in the shallow end of a Parnell Baths pool, wrapped in metres of blue curtain net, trying to act like it was completely normal,” she said.
Just 10 years ago she joined Mana Trust which runs the online Sunday mag E-Tangata, mentored by Gary Wilson (co-founder and co-editor) and print journalist Tapu Misa who taught her how to transfer her voice through computer keys.
“Whakaata Māori approached me in 2019, I was flattered, but music was my life and I felt wholly unequipped for journalism. Then again, I always love a challenge.”
Since jumping on board, Te Ao with Moana has completed six seasons and will “keep calm and carry on” for a seventh season come 17 February, 2025 — her son Kimiora Hikurangi Jackson the producer and “boss”.
It will be the last current affairs show to air on Whakaata Māori before moving the TV channel to web next year.
Advocating social justice
Her road of journalism and music is winding. Her music is the vehicle to advocating social justice which often landed her in the news rather than telling it.
“To me songwriting, documentaries, and current affairs are all about finding ways to convey a story or explore an issue or share insights. I think a strength I have are the relationships I’ve built through music — countless networks both here and overseas. Perfect for when we are wanting to deep dive into issues.”
Her inspiration for music grew from her dad, Nepia Tauri Maniapoto and his brothers. Maniapoto said it was “their thing” to entertain guests from the moment they walked into the dining room at Waitetoko Marae until kai was finished.
“It was Prince Tui Teka and the Platters. Great vocal harmonies. My father always had a uke, gat, and sax in the house,” she said.
Born in Invercargill and raised in Rotorua by her māmā Bernadette and pāpā Nepia, she was surrounded by her five siblings who some had a keen interest in kapa haka, although, the kapa-life was “too tough” for Maniapoto. Instead, nieces Puna Whakaata, Mourei, and Tiaria inheriting the “kapa” gene. Maniapoto said they’re exceptional and highly-competitive performers.
ONO songwriters Te Manahau Scotty Morrison, Moana Maniapoto and Paddy Free. Image: Black Pearl/RNZ
Blending her Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, and Tūhourangi whakapapa into song was no struggle.
The 1990s was filled with soul, R’n’B, and reggae, she said, singing in te reo was met with indifference if not hostility.
‘Labelled a radical’
“If you mixed in lyrics that were political in nature, you were labelled a ‘radical.’ I wasn’t the only one, but probably the ‘radical’ with the highest profile at the time.”
After her “rare” single Kua Makona in 1987, Moana & the Moahunters formed in the early 1990s, followed by Moana and the Tribe which is still going strong. Her sister Trina has a lovely singing voice and has been in Moana & The Tribe since it was formed, she said.
“I’m incredibly proud of it. So grateful to Paddy Free and Scotty Morrison for their skills. Looks pretty too on vinyl and CD, as well as digital. A cool Xmas present. Just saying.”
The microphone doesn’t seem to be losing power anytime soon. All albums adequately named one-to-six in te reo Māori, one can only punt on the next album name.
“It’s kinda weird now morphing back into the interviewee to promote my album release. I’m used to asking all the questions.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Michael Leunig — who died in the early hours of Thursday December 19, surrounded by “his children, loved ones, and sunflowers” — was the closest thing Australian cartooning had to a prophet. By turns over his long career, he was a poet, a prophet and a provocateur.
The challenge comes in attempting to understand Leunig’s significance: for Australian cartooning; for readers of The Age and other newspapers past; and for the nation’s idea of itself.
On this day, do you remember the gently philosophical Leunig, or the savagely satirical one? Do you remember a cartoon that you thought absolutely nailed the problems of the world, or one you thought was terribly wrong-headed?
Leunig’s greatness lay in how intensely he made his audiences think and feel.
There is no one straightforward story to tell here. With six decades of cartooning at least weekly in newspapers and 25 book-length collections of his work, how could there be?
The light and the dark One thread is an abiding fondness for the whimsical Leunig. Mr Curly and Vasco Pyjama live on in the imaginations of so many readers.
Particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, Leunig’s work seemed to hold a moral and ethical mirror up to Australian society — sometimes gently, but not without controversy, such as his 1995 “Thoughts of a baby lying in a childcare centre”.
Feed the Inner Duck. Image: Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-ND
Another thread is the dark satirist.
In the 1960s and 1970s, he broke onto the scene as a wild man in Oz, the Sunday Observer and the Nation Review who deplored Vietnam and only escaped the draft owing to deafness in one ear.
Then he apparently mellowed to become the guru of The Age, still with a capacity to launch the occasional satirical thunderbolt. Decidedly countercultural, together with Patrick Cook and Peter Nicholson, Leunig brought what historian Tony Moore has called “existential and non-materialist themes to the Australian black-and-white tradition”.
By 1999, he was declared a “national living treasure” by the National Trust, and was being lauded by universities for his unique contributions to the national culture.
But to tell the story of Leunig’s significance from the mid 90s on is to go beyond the dreamer and the duck. In later decades you could see a clear distinction between some cartoons that continued to console in a bewildering world, and others that sparked controversy.
Politics and controversy Leunig saw 9/11 and the ensuing “War on Terror” as the great turning point in his career. He fearlessly returned to the themes of the Vietnam years, only to receive caution, rebuke and rejection from editors and readers.
He stopped drawing Mr Curly and Vasco Pyjama. The world was no longer safe for the likes of them.
Then there was a cartoon refused by The Age in 2002, deemed by editor Michael Gawenda to be inappropriate: in the first frame, a Jew is confronted by the gates of the death camp: “Work Brings Freedom [Arbeit Macht Frei]”; in the second frame an Israeli viewing a similar slogan “War Brings Peace”.
Rejected, it was never meant to see the light of day, but ABC’s Media Watch and Crikey outed it because of the constraint its spiking represented to fair media comment on the Middle East.
That the cartoon was later entered, without Leunig’s knowledge, in the infamous Iranian “Holocaust Cartoon” competition of 2006, has only added to its infamy and presaged the internet’s era of the uncontrollable circulation of images.
A decade later, from 2012, he reworked Martin Niemöller’s poetic statement of guilt over the Holocaust. The result was outrage, but also acute division within the Australian Jewish community.
First They Came. Image: Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-ND
Dvir Abramovich (chairperson of the Anti-Defamation Commission) made a distinction between something challenging, and something racist, believing it was the latter.
Harold Zwier (of the Australian Jewish Democratic Society) welcomed the chance for his community to think critically about Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank.
Mummy was Busy. Image: Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-ND
Then from 2021 — a covid-19 vaccination needle atop an armoured tank, rolling towards a helpless citizen.
Leunig’s enforced retirement (it is still debated whether he walked or was pushed) was long and drawn-out. He filed his last cartoon for The Agethis August. By then, he had alienated more than a few of his colleagues in the press and the cartooning profession.
Support of the downtrodden Do we speak ill of the dead? We hope not. Instead, we hope we are paying respect to a great and often angry artist who wanted always to challenge the consumer society with its dark cultural and geopolitical secrets.
Leunig’s response was a single line of argument: he was “Just a cartoonist with a moral duty to speak”.
You don’t have to agree with every provocation, but his purpose is always to take up the cause of the weak, and deploy all the weaponry at his disposal to support the downtrodden in their fight.
“The role of the cartoonist is not to be balanced”, said Leunig, but rather to “give balance”.
For Leunig, the weak were the Palestinian civilians, the babies of the post-iPhone generation, and those forced to be vaccinated by a powerful state; just as they were the Vietnamese civilians, the children forced to serve their rulers through state-sanctioned violence, the citizens whose democracy was undercut by stooges of the establishment.
That deserves to be his legacy, regardless of whether you agree or not about his stance.
The coming year will give a great many people pause to reflect on the life and work of Leunig. Indeed, he has provided us with a monthly schedule for doing just that: Leunig may be gone, but 2025 is already provided for, via his last calendar.
The censorship network, this Orwellian organization that started with Obama or towards the end of Obama’s regime and then Biden put on steroids. It was like Animal Farm. The head piggies are making decisions for the sheep. You got Napoleon Pig making decisions about what the sheep can hear or can’t hear. It’s called the […]
The union for Australian journalists has welcomed the delivery by the federal government of more than $150 million to support the sustainability of public interest journalism over the next four years.
Combined with the announcement of the revamped News Bargaining Initiative, this could result in up to $400 million in additional funding for the sector over the coming years.
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance says the new funding under the News Media Assistance Program (News MAP) will boost journalism and media diversity but must be tied to the enforcement of minimum employment standards for all media workers, including freelancers, says the MEAA website.
The acting director of MEAA media, Michelle Rae, said the Albanese government had picked up on recommendations from the union during consultation over the News MAP earlier this year.
“We are pleased that the government has adopted a holistic and structured approach to support for the news media industry, rather than the patchwork of band aid solutions that have been implemented in the past,” she said.
“MEAA has long argued that commercially produced public interest journalism requires systematic, long-term support beyond a three-year time frame to ensure its viability and to promote a diverse media landscape.
“The longer-term approach confirmed by the government will allow media outlets to plan for their future sustainability with additional certainty about their income over the next four years.”
Importantly, the new funding was primarily directed at local and community news, the sector that had been most impacted by the decline of advertising revenue over the past two decades.
“The $116.7 million to support this sector will go a long way towards helping communities in regional Australia and the suburbs of our main cities to rebuild local journalism in areas that have become or are in danger of becoming news deserts,” Rae said.
“The unique role of Australian Associated Press as an independent and accessible news service has been recognised with $33 million in new funding.
“MEAA also welcomes the government’s commitment to mandate at least $6 million of its advertising budget is spent in regional newspapers.”
Rae said that while it was worthwhile to explore measures to attract philanthropic funding of the news media industry, any solutions to the decline of public interest journalism must not be reliant on sponsorships or donations that undermine the independence of media outlets.
“There is a place for demand-side incentives to subscribe and pay for quality news media through the use of subsidies, vouchers or tax deductibility,” she said.
“But care must be taken to ensure that philanthropic funding does not allow donors to dictate the editorial policies of media outlets.”
Fiji activists have recreated the nativity scene at a solidarity for Palestine gathering in Fiji’s capital Suva just days before Christmas.
The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and Fijians for Palestine Solidarity Network recreated the scene at the FWCC compound — a baby Jesus figurine lies amidst the rubble wrapped in a piece of black and white checked fabric, a Palestinian keffiyeh, draped over his body.
The scene was created to symbolise the reality of the children living and being born in Palestine at this time.
“If Christ were to be born today,” said Pastor Munther Ishaq, “he would be born under the rubble and the Israeli shelling.”
Activists say the scenes witnessed over the past year in the besieged Gaza enclave support this imagery.
“Photos of children covered in dust, families bent over the bodies of loved ones, aid workers carrying the injured into hospitals that lack the elements needed to offer care,” said the FWCC in a social media post.
45,000 Palestinians killed
“Over the past year, Israeli attacks have killed more than 45,000 Palestinians living in Gaza, equal to 1 out of every 55 people living there.
“At least 17,000 children have been killed, the highest number of children recorded in a single year of conflict over the past two decades.
“More than 17,000 children have lost one or both parents.
“At least 97,303 people are injured in Gaza — equal to one in 23 people.”
The Bethlehem nativity scene a year ago in December 2023. Video: Al Jazeera
The escalating chip row between the United States and China has taken a sharp turn as tensions over semiconductor technology grow. With Donald Trump set to begin his new term as president in January, uncertainties surrounding U.S. policies are fueling speculation.
Amid this volatile environment, rumors targeting American chipmaker Nvidia have surfaced in China, particularly after Beijing announced an antitrust investigation into the company.
As the world’s largest provider of processors that power artificial intelligence, Nvidia is now under scrutiny just weeks after the U.S. unveiled a sweeping semiconductor export control package aimed at curbing China’s technological advances.
Below is what AFCL found.
Did Nvidia’s CEO mock Chinese people?
A video emerged in Chinese-language social media posts that claim it shows Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang mocking Chinese people by saying they enjoyed pain and suffering.
The caption of the video shared here and here reads: “Nvidia’s founder Jensen Huang provocatively says: The life of ordinary Chinese people is full of pain and suffering, which they call will and grit. And the room laughs.”
The 54-second video shows what appears to be Huang’s media interview.
Some Chinese online users claimed that Jensen Huang mocked Chinese people.(Screenshot/Weibo)
But the claim is false.
A keyword search found the original video published on the YouTube channel of the Chinese American Semiconductor Professional Association on Dec. 11, 2023.
A review of the video shows Huang was actually discussing the benefits of being raised by Chinese parents.
At the video’s 54-minute mark, a member of the audience can be heard asking Huang what qualities he believed most contributed to his success.
In response, Huang stressed the importance of character in success, saying that he thought the questioner was “blessed to have been raised (as) Chinese.”
He added: “One of the characteristics of Chinese, of course, is the ability to tolerate long-term pain and suffering. If you’ve been raised by a Chinese parent, you have enjoyed a lot of pain and suffering.
“Isn’t that right? And so, in fact, the ability to endure pain and suffering is called grit, GRIT. It is now recognized as one of the most important characteristics of successful people and so I wish upon you a lifelong, plenty of pain and suffering.”
It’s clear that Huang was referring to the broader values and traditions he associated with Chinese culture when he mentioned the term “Chinese”, not specifically “Chinese nationality.”
Does a photo show Huang getting drunk in Vietnam after ‘losing’ the Chinese market?
A photo of Huang was shared on Douyin, China’s equivalent of TikTok, on Dec. 15, 2024, alongside a claim that it shows Huang “getting drunk” in Vietnam after “losing” the Chinese market.
The photo and the claim began to circulate online after China opened an antitrust investigation into Nvidia.
“Down at losing the Chinese market, Jensen Huang drowned his sorrows on a Vietnamese street corner, going grey haired overnight,” the caption of the image reads.
“Don’t know where his new beloved leather jacket went, he’s just wearing a T-shirt, clearly distraught.”
Some Chinese online users claimed Huang got drunk in Vietnam after the recent investigation by China was launched against Nvidia.(Screenshot/Douyin)
But the claim is false.
A reverse image search found the corresponding photo published in media reports in December 2023, months before China’s recent investigation against the American chipmaker.
The same photo was also uploaded by Vietnam’s consul-general in San Francisco Hoang Anh Tuan on his Facebook page on Dec. 10, 2024.
The purported recent photo of Huang was actually taken during a visit to Vietnam in 2023.(Screenshots/Facebook and Vietnam+)
Is Nvidia pulling out of China due to the investigation?
A claim has been repeatedly circulated in Chinese-language posts that Nvidia plans to exit China due to Beijing’s antitrust investigation.
However, the claim lacks evidence.
Nvidia dismissed the claim on Dec. 12, a few days after China’s announcement of the investigation, and said it would “continue” to serve Chinese customers.
“China is an important market for Nvidia. Nvidia adheres to the original intention of putting customers first and will continue to provide Chinese customers with the highest quality and most efficient products and services,” the company said in its official Weibo page.
Screenshot of Nvidia’s statement dismissing online rumors about its plan to exit China.(Screenshot/Weibo)
Separately, Huang said in November that the chipmaker remained committed to maintaining its presence in mainland China.
Keyword searches found no credible reports or statements that show Nvidia’s plan to exit China.
Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Taejun Kang.
Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Rita Cheng and Alan Lu for Asia Fact Check Lab.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, in a letter to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on December 19, 2024, asked him to ensure that journalists and media outlets can work freely in Ukraine and that no one responsible for intimidating journalists goes unpunished, following a year marked by several incidents of pressure, intimidation, and surveillance, as well as lack of accountability.
I am writing from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent non-governmental organization advocating for press freedom worldwide, to request your assistance in ensuring that journalists and media outlets in Ukraine can work freely and without fear of reprisal, and that no one responsible for intimidating journalists goes unpunished.
CPJ acknowledges the immense challenges facing your government in the midst of war and values Ukraine’s commitment to democratic standards and the rule of law. We recognize the need in exceptional circumstances for some limitations on journalistic access to information or areas for security reasons, and note that in the third year after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s media landscape remains vibrant and dynamic.
However, we are increasingly concerned by signals pointing to an unwarranted attempt by the Ukrainian government to control the media and stifle investigative journalism. Over the last year, our research and detailed exchanges with local journalists show a pattern of unwarranted restrictions and other interventions that curtail the operations of a free press and ultimately do a disservice to the democracy that you are aiming to defend.
In October, independent news outlet Ukrainska Pravda (UP) stated that it was experiencing “ongoing and systematic pressure” from your office. UP’s program director, Andrii Bystrov, told CPJ that government officials regularly receive directives from your office not to talk to the outlet on certain matters. On October 10, Ukrainska Pravda specified that Dmytro Lytvyn, the recently appointed communications adviser for your office, banned security forces and officials from communicating with the outlet’s journalists. Lytvyn denied the allegations on October 15. Ukrainska Pravda also alleged that your office is pressuring private companies to pull advertising from the outlet, and Bystrov told us that some advertisers had withdrawn following calls from your office.
In addition to the Ukrainska Pravda incident, CPJ has recorded several other concerning incidents. These include:
Pressure, intimidation and surveillance: Several Ukrainian investigative journalists have been subjected to surveillance and intimidation by officials in connection with their work. In addition, journalists seeking press accreditation previously told CPJ in 2023 that they had been questioned by the Security Service of Ukraine and pressured to take certain approaches in their reporting.
Lack of accountability: No one has been held accountable for intimidating investigative journalist Yuriy Nikolov in January. Similarly, no results have been communicated in the investigations related to the surveillance reported in January of investigative outlet Bihus.info or the attempt in April to serve investigative journalist Yevhen Shulhat with a military summons in retaliation for his work.
In addition, CPJ is concerned about a bill currently being debated in the Verkhovna Rada that could increase criminal penalties for publishing information from public databases during martial law, thereby threatening the work of investigative journalists.
In its June 2022 opinion on Ukraine’s European Union membership application, the European Commission stated that “media freedom has also improved significantly in recent years, especially thanks to online media.” Directly pressuring independent media or indirectly letting those who intimidate them operate with impunity would represent a significant step backwards in the realization of Ukraine’s European aspirations.
As someone committed to defending Ukraine’s international standing, who has recognized that “any pressure on journalists is unacceptable,” we request that you take immediate steps to end Ukrainian government officials’ surveillance, harassment, or intimidation of journalists, and ensure that anyone who has acted to weaken freedom of the press in Ukraine is held to account.
We thank you for your consideration.
Jodie Ginsberg, CEO, Committee to Protect Journalists
Palestinian history is “deliberately ignored” and is being effectively “erased” as part of Western news media narratives, while establishment forces work to shut down anyone speaking out against Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, academics have told a university conference of legal and Middle East experts.
Also, the murder of Palestinians and resistance by them had been routinely mischaracterised as “loss and failure” on their part as though it was their own fault.
Although the conference took place over one and-a-half days in July and brought together Arab, Muslim, Jewish and Indigenous speakers from Palestine, Australia, Germany, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom, details have only just been released.
The release of the conference proceedings comes more than one year on from the start of the Israeli War on Gaza, now extended into Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, with arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and an Amnesty International investigation concluding Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The western media has ranged from selective reporting of facts… and publishing outright lies that justify the murder of Palestinians.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) at least 45,097 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including over 17,492 children, with more than 107,244 people injured and in excess of 10,000 people missing under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
By comparison 63 journalists were killed in 20 years of the Vietnam War.
Posed war crime questions
The conference posed major questions regarding the erasing of Palestinian history, how it enables present-day war crimes and how defiance has resonated and inspired ongoing resistance by:
Palestinians fighting to defend their lives and their land, or as seen around the world, in civic protests;
the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement;
human rights advocacy;
alternative social media production; and
legal challenges in the highest of our international institutions, the ICC and the International Court of Justice.
The conference was officially opened with the Welcome to Country, from Uncle Greg Simms, Gadigal elder of the Dharug Nation.
Uncle Greg spoke about the importance of land and country to the survival of Australia’s Indigenous people, the role of ancestral ties and connections, the importance of history and allies in the face of genocide, and the need to empathise with the people of Palestine at this time.
Dr Janine Hourani’s address. Video: UTS
Janine Hourani from the University of Exeter and Palestinian Youth Movement, in her keynote speech detailed the history of Palestinian resistance to Zionist occupation, addressing how the recording of history, privileged by a select few, served to stifle narratives, as well as erase key figures and moments in time, “reproducing a particular version of Palestinian history that focuses on defeat and loss, rather than resistance and rebellion”.
“The Western media has ranged from selective reporting of facts, reporting Palestinians as ‘died’ and Israeli settlers as ‘murdered’ and publishing outright lies that justify the murder of Palestinians,” said Hourani.
“Since October we’ve heard multiple political interventions being made about the Western media’s complicity in the current genocide in Palestine.”
Souheir Edalbi, a law lecturer at Western Sydney University, convened the session that followed, featuring four speakers.
Anti-Palestinian racism
Randa Abdelfattah, an author, lawyer and academic, addressed anti-Palestinian racism which serves to disarm criticism of Israel and Zionism.
Udi Raz, an academic and activist based in Germany, presented a case study of Mizrahi or Arab Jews in Germany, interrogating the definition of semitism and otherness in that context, the culturally pervasive racism towards Arabs, and German anxieties about what constitutes a non-European identity.
Annie Pfingst, an author and academic, listed 11 different types of “erasure” by Israel, from the confiscation, possession and renaming of Palestinian villages through to the holding of Palestinian bodies killed by the Israeli forces, not returned to their families, or buried in the “cemetery of numbers”.
She described a “necrological regime” that turns dead bodies into prisoners of the state, penalising and torturing the community, serving “to further evict the native in line with the structure of the settler colonial imperative of elimination”.
We have seen many instances of pro-Palestinian voices who have been sacked from their work places.
Jessica Holland, a researcher, curator and archivist, discussed how the history of archiving of Palestinian material is “deeply embedded within a legacy of coloniality”, and the importance of Palestinian social history and archiving projects, in redressing and countering hegemonic understandings and organisation of materials.
“Journalists, teachers, doctors, health care workers, public servants, lawyers, artists, food hospitality workers. Across every profession and industry [showing] solidarity with Palestine has been met with a repertoire of repressive tactics, disciplinary employment processes, cancelled contracts, lawfare, police brutality, parliamentary scrutiny, coordinated complaints and harassment campaigns, media coverage, doxxing, harassment, attempts at law reform and policy amendments,” said Abdelfattah.
“We have seen in the past few days the treatment of [Senator] Fatima Payman and the intimidation, bullying and silencing she has endured.
“We have also seen many instances of pro-Palestinian voices who have been sacked from their work places.”
On day two of the conference Aunty Glendra Stubbs gave the Acknowledgement of Country, which was followed by the keynote speaker Jeff Halper, anthropologist, author, lecturer, political activist and director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
Normalising violence
Halper addressed how Israel as a Zionist settler colonial state normalises violence, erasure and apartheid against Palestinians, where physical and cultural genocide are built in, necessitating indigenous resistance.
A second panel, “Social Movements, in Defiance”, convened by Alison Harwood, a social change practitioner, included speakers Nasser Mashni from the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), Sarah Schwartz from the Jewish Council of Australia, and Latoya Rule from UTS Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research.
Speakers shared insights on how social movements mobilise from within their diverse communities, to reach and potentially impact the Australian and international social and political stage.
Interdisciplinary storyteller and media producer Daz Chandler presented a series of pre-recorded interviews and a live discussion with participants involved in University campus encampments from around the world including activists from Birzeit University in the Occupied West Bank, Mexico, Trinity College in Dublin, UCLA, the University of Melbourne, University of Tokyo, University of Sydney and Monash University.
Two further sessions focused on responses “From the Field”, with a third panel convened by Paula Abboud, a cultural worker, educator, writer and creative producer, featuring The Age journalist Maher Moghrabi, author and human rights lawyer Sara Saleh, Lena Mozayani from NSW Teachers for Palestine, and Dr Sana Pathan from ANZ Doctors for Palestine.
Each reflected on their work and the challenges they encountered in their respective professional fields. Obstructions they faced ranged from hindering and silencing the expression of ideas, through to the prevention of carrying out critical on-the-ground work to save lives.
Hometown of Nablus
The final panel of the conference was moderated by Derek Halawa, a Palestinian living in the diaspora, who shared his experience of travelling to his hometown of Nablus.
He followed virtual footsteps from his cousin’s video, through the alley ways, to reach the home of his great grandfather, a journey which culminated in reaching the steps of Al Aqsa Mosque, with both spaces symbolising belonging and hope.
Cathy Peters, media worker and co-founder of BDS Australia described a diverse range of disruption movements calling for the end of ties with Israeli companies, since the war on Gaza.
This was followed by RIta Jabri Markwell, solicitor and adviser to the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network, addressing specific points of Australian law dealing with terrorism, freedom of speech, and racial discrimination.
The conference, which was was co-convened by Barbara Bloch, Wafa Chafic, James Goodman, Derek Halawa and Christina Ho, concluded with UTS Sociology Professor James Goodman giving an overview of the proceedings and potential actions post-conference.
One post-conference outcome is an additional series of interviews produced by Daz Chandler exploring the power of creative practices utilised within the Palestinian resistance movement.
It features renowned Palestinian contemporary artist Khaled Hourani, Ben Rivers: co-founder of the Palestinian Freedom Bus, Yazan al-Saadi: co-founder of Cartoonists for Palestine, Taouba Yacoubi: Sew 4 Palestine, Birkbeck University of London; and artist and activist from Naarm Melbourne, Margaret Mayhew.
It may be no surprise that the “mainstream” corporate news media have turned into advertising agencies for US government policy. But it still surprises that what the CIA called a compatible left – those on the left it deemed compatible with maintaining imperialist rule – celebrates another US successful “regime change,” this time, Syria.
Portside ran an article, Liberation in Syria Is a Victory Worth Embracing, which criticized “some self-styled Western ‘anti-imperialists’” for their lack of enthusiasm for the “victory.” While it does note Israel bombed Syria 220 times up to mid-November this past year, one finds no mention of the long US blockade imposed on Syrians.
“In nearly twenty years as a journalist, this was one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed.”
That’s how veteran CNN journalist Clarissa Ward described her foray into a Syrian prison on December 12, where she promptly claimed to have rescued a forgotten inmate after three months in jail. But there was just one problem with the “extraordinary moment”: a review of a dramatic story depicted by CNN reveals a number of glaring inconsistencies, the greatest of which is that the man stands accused of being an impostor.
On November 20, billionaire Gautam Adani, along with seven other Adani group executives, was indicted by a United States court on charges of fraud and bribery.
The Adani group chairperson, once Asia’s richest businessman, was named alongside his nephew Sagar R Adani, the executive director of the group’s renewables arm Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) and Vneet S. Jaain, managing director and CEO of AGEL for wire and securities fraud and allegedly agreeing to pay bribes worth $250 million to Indian government officials to secure solar energy deals. American prosecutors stepped in because the ports-to-power conglomerate had tried to obtain financing from US investors for their renewable energy projects (including those for which bribes were paid) based on reportedly false and misleading statements about the firm’s anti-corruption and anti-bribery efforts.
This is not the first time that the Adani group’s allegedly shady dealings have come to light. In January last year, US-based short seller Hindenburg Research had published a report accusing the group of accounting irregularities, round-tripping of funds and stock-price manipulation, wiping off over $150 billion in the group’s market value.
At that time, Alt News had done a deep dive into how the news was reported by major Indian news outlets and found a serious gap in publication and reportage on the issue. In this report, we attempt a similar analysis of how (and to what extent) several mainstream media outlets covered the news.
There are two reasons why such analyses are crucial. One, the Adani group is a massive enterprise with presence across most sectors including construction, ports, energy, airport infrastructure, FMCG, media and commodities. So, the reporting of such allegations can result in a major plunge in stock prices and lead to losses for investors and the company as it is an index heavyweight. For instance, the latest news sent stocks of Adani group’s flagship firm Adani Enterprises falling over 20% in two days. On November 21, shares of Adani Green opened nearly 20% down and by November 27 they had hit a 52-week low. Conversely, when such major incidents are underplayed or underreported by the media, the magnitude of losses can be checked. Two, Adani has majority stakes in three major news outlets, leaving one wondering about its role in shaping the country’s perception of major news events. Opposition leaders and several others have also questioned the alleged closeness between the business tycoon and the country’s Prime Minister, which they believe is the reason the group has been in the clear, from a regulatory and media scrutiny standpoint, despite many red flags.
How The News Unfolded In The Digital Sphere
The US Securities and Exchange Committee’s press release on the indictment was published on its website at around 2:18 hours IST on November 21. It is possible that the SEC statement and the ruling was issued to media houses slightly ahead of being made publicly available. The following morning, just around the time Indian markets began trading, the Adani group notified stock exchanges that it was cancelling a proposed bond offering considering the latest US ruling. Then by afternoon, it issued a statement denying the charges.
“The allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless and denied. As stated by the US Department of Justice itself, ‘the charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.’ All possible legal recourse will be sought,” the spokesperson’s statement read.
While the indictment and the following developments were likely too late for Indian print media to carry in their newspapers the following day, let’s look at how digital media fared in their reporting of the matter.
The earliest post on X (formerly Twitter) on the ruling was by Beijing-headquartered China Global Television Network (CGTN) Europe at 2:14 hours IST on November 21 (or 20:44 hours GMT, November 20). Most major international news outlets and agencies such as CNBC, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and Reuters caught up soon. Wires were issued, reports quickly written up and posts on X followed suit.
BREAKING: Gautam Adani, the chair of India’s Adani Group and one of the world’s richest people, has been indicted in New York federal court with other defendants in connection with an alleged multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme, authorities said Wednesdayhttps://t.co/A5dv5MU1hd
Meanwhile, on X, there was hardly any mention of this by most major news outlets until morning. At 5:54 hours IST on November 21, X user Sanjay Dutt (@thesanjaydutt) posted about the Adani indictment, sharing a report by The Hindu on it.
On looking at the HTML code for the article, Alt News was able to determine that The Hindu had published the news by around 3:00 hours IST, roughly an hour after the SEC made it public.
Bengaluru-based news Deccan Herald’s report was up on its site at 2:29 am. Similarly, Telangana Today published its report at 4:26 hours IST. The daily’s editor Srinivas Reddy K shared it on X at 4:31 am. Subsequently, The Times of India published their report at 6:24 hours IST and Hindustan Times at 8:12 hours IST.
Business publications, such as Moneycontrol—part of Reliance-owned Network18—and Mint published the news at 6:44 hours IST and 10:39 hours IST, respectively.
India Today, News18, and Zee News shared the latest developments on X around 8:30 hours IST on November 21, while Times Now and its Hindi counterpart Times Now Navbharat followed at 9:45 hours IST and 11:15 hours IST, respectively. Among news outlets Aaj Tak, Republic, ABP News and India TV, the issue was largely underplayed. The first post on X from Aaj Tak’s handle was on the dip in Adani stocks. An hour after this, it shared a post detailing Adani group’s cancellation of its upcoming bond issuance. Likewise, ABP News posted about Adani stocks plunging at 10:30 hours IST and got into the reasons for this plunge two hours later.
The first post from Republic’s official X account on the incident was at 14:25 hours IST, an hour after the business group issued a statement denying the charges.
Quiet since the news broke, news channel NDTV posted its first report on the matter only at 14:39 hours IST, citing the group’s official statement denying the claims. Meanwhile, the first X post from the channel’s business news arm, NDTV profit, was at 11:07 hours, IST but this too was centered around AGEL’s decision to cancel its bond issuance following the indictment. The report only briefly mentions the charges levelled against the group in the US.
It’s important to mention here that the Adani group wrested control of NDTV from Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy in December 2022. Since then, the channel has undergone several changes with many key faces including news presenters, editors and reporters quitting. This was the group’s second major acquisition after buying 49% stake in Quintillion Media, which operates the news outlet BQ Prime that was previously Bloomberg Quint, in May 2022.
Among Indian wire agencies Asian News International (ANI), Press Trust of India (PTI) and Indo-Asian News Service (IANS)—that many Indian news organisations subscribe to and are dependent on for news reports—we noticed an interesting pattern. While PTI’s wire went out around 4:30 am on November 21, their first post on X was not until 9:11 hours IST even though its X handle was active from 7:16 hours IST that day. Posts from its account were mostly reshares of tweets posted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his visits to other countries and pollution in Delhi. Below are a few instances.
Similarly, news agency ANI posted its first tweet on this only at 9:48 hours IST, after stock markets opened, despite their website having the news report on the issue by 7:00 hours IST. ANI’s X handle was active when the news broke. Following are a screenshots of the some of the posts from ANI’s handle even as X was abuzz with the news of the indictment.
ANI’s first X post on the issue was not the news of the indictment but instead the Adani group’s letter to Indian bourses notifying them about the cancellation of “proposed USD denominated bond offerings” in the view of the allegations levelled against the conglomerate. It did not even post its own report (available on its website) on X. On checking the website of the National Stock Exchange, we found that Adani’s clarification on the bond offerings was sent to the exchanges at 9:29 hours IST.
US prosecutors charge Gautam Adani and others in alleged Solar Energy contract bribery case
Adani Green says, “The United States Department of Justice and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission have issued a criminal indictment and brought a civil complaint,… pic.twitter.com/uoBDJPuhOE
The first report by IANS was the group’s denial of the charges. Note that the Adani group has a controlling stake in IANS too. It had acquired an over 50% stake in December 2023 and upped this in January through its subsidiary AMG Media Networks.
Coming to state-sponsored DD News. Its first post on X was at 5.41 hours IST, a few hours after the statement from the Adani group was released.
Apart from their own websites, news organisations do rely a fair bit on social media platforms, especially X, to amplify and disseminate important news updates quickly. On these platforms as well as their websites, publications compete over speed, accuracy and drawing more readers as a result of putting out information first. The contents and timing of their posts are thus crucial when the matter is of this nature, which is why such delays raise concerns.
Indian Prime Time Television
Most mainstream TV channels, including India Today and its Hindi counterpart Aaj Tak, featured the news of the Adani indictment in their prime-time segments (between 20:00 and 23:00 hours). But how some of these debates actually unfolded deserves a closer look.
News18’s debates ‘Goonj’ and ‘Aar Paar’ hosted by Rubika Liyaqat or Amish Devgan did not carry the developments but in the segment ‘Desh Nahi Jhukne Denge‘ hosted by Aman Chopra, the case was mentioned as part of the news round-up for the day. The channel, however, chose to focus on how the allegations of bribery against Adani, which Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi was trying to draw attention to would backfire against the Opposition. That’s because many of the states mentioned in the indictment where the bribery allegedly took place were governed by Congress or its allies. Chopra added that this was yet another attempt by Rahul Gandhi to tarnish Prime Minister Modi’s image before ending the section with tributes to Modi and his international presence.
In Republic’s ‘Debate With Arnab’ segment, host Arnab Goswami’s monologue at the beginning of the show goes on about how the indictment by an American court is proof that the US is “very insecure” about India owing to the strength of “the Indian infrastructure machine“. He also brings up conspiracy theories by “Deep State” actors who are keen on disrupting the success of the Adani group. The debate was largely centered on the conspiracy.
India TV’s Rajat Sharma briefly covered the ruling in his prime-time segment ‘Aaj Ki Baat’. Questioning the timing of the indictment, he wondered aloud whether it was a coincidence or larger conspiracy as the Hindenburg report released in 2023 was just before a Parliament session and had similarly resulted in Adani stocks crashing. He says that Rahul Gandhi’s attempt to find a Modi factor in it has failed because the states mentioned in the indictment were governed by Congress and allies.
A similar argument on the rogue timing of the indictment also featured in DD News‘ debate ‘5 Ki Panchayat’. Show host Reema Parashar, in her opening presentation, says how each time just before the start of a Parliament session, an agenda arises or is deliberately introduced to cause disruptions in the House proceedings to show the government in poor light.
ABP News’ prime-time programme ‘Mahadangal’ hosted by Chitra Tripathi, discusses Gandhi wanting to bring a George Soros-type model to the Indian market and is likely targeting Gautam Adani for his role in the fast-growing infrastructure of India. George Soros, a Hungarian-American investor and founder of the Open Society Foundations, is involved in funding democracy and human rights initiatives, and has been accused of influencing global politics through these. Soros has also been a critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In February 2023, he also criticised Adani after the Hindenburg report was published. This combined with Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s jibes against the PM and his comments on the closeness between Modi and Adani has led the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government to link Gandhi with Soros. The BJP has also accused the Congress leader of attempting to destabilise the Indian government.
Rahul Gandhi was also the centre of debates on Times Now’s Nation Wants To Know and India Upfront. The channel’s Hindi counterpart, Times Now Navbharat, discussed the US ruling in its show Sawal Public Ka hosted by Navika Kumar. But the segment was titled “As the Parliament session approaches… has the ‘toolkit gang’ become active again?” Needless to say, the focus was on the leader than the gravity of the charges and what it could mean for the conglomerate. .
A Gap in Reportage?
Hours after the indictment news was made public, Kenyan President Willian Ruto announced the cancellation of deals with the Adani group. Kenya had agreed to hand over control of a key airport to the conglomerate for a 30-year lease in exchange for a new runway and upgrading the passenger terminal there. The country also has several energy deals with the Adani group.
Ruto said that the decision was made based on the new information provided by investigative agencies and partner nations. The news of Kenya cancelling the deals, worth over $2.5 billion, broke around 18:00 hours IST on November 21. However, this crucial information was not part of majority of the prime-time segments of TV news channels. Times Now Navbharat, Times Now, India TV, ABP and DD News did not mention the development at all in their prime-time debates while Republic showed a clip of the Kenyan President cancelling the Adani deals without any commentary.
India ranks 159 on the Press Freedom Index. Partisan coverage of many events has been a rising concern. With some of the largest businesses backing news outlets and their alleged closeness to the governing regime, honest and unbiased journalism and reportage face multiple threats. The media analysis of the Adani indictment is just one case in point.
The case that began on September 17 concerning the control of the Murdoch family trust has been decided. It saw a dicey attempt by the one of the most ruthless newspaper and media moguls in history to limit influence and control of his publishing and broadcasting empire after his death. The relevant parties? The children, of course.
The central instrument of dispute was a trust, intended as an irrevocable instrument born from the divorce of Rupert Murdoch and his second wife Anna Torv Murdoch Mann. Anna’s wish was that Rupert and the children share control over the businesses of the imperium. Any new contenders – namely those arising from Rupert’s union with Wendy Deng – would also be shut out, though not financially. This meant that Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James would each have an equal voting share concerning company decisions after their father’s croaking.
Power, and its exercise, instils a permanent restlessness. Rupert was unlikely to leave the trust, whatever its status, alone. Patriarchs of such character are bound to have their favourites, angling for those who advance their concerns and interests while marginalising perceived threats and inadequate helpers. Over time, Lachlan seemed to push his way through to the front as one most likely to continue the father’s media vision. According to The New York Times, it was he who ultimately pushed matters to alter the trust in mid-2023 given rattling moves from Elisabeth Murdoch. At a subsequent meeting of the trust, Rupert stated that, while he loved his brood, “these companies need a designated leader and Lachlan is that leader”.
The other children had also stirred the patriarch’s sense of peace, much of it arising from the role played by Fox News and News Corp. James, for instance, is seen as the most “troublesome” by Lachlan, given his grumblings over the Fox-News Corp besmirching of climate change science and other unenviable causes. The result was Project Harmony, an attempt to cut out the other children from making decisions on the future direction of the media imperium. This change of heart was always going to be difficult to realise, given the limits imposed on any unilateral changes made by the “settlor” in Nevada law.
In June, Nevada’s Probate Commissioner gave Rupert a streak of hope. Changes could be made to the trust subject to the proviso that they be done in good faith and for the sole benefit of the heirs. The father’s sly contention was that granting Lachlan full control would end up advantaging all the children. The tribal chieftain had spoken.
This month, Commissioner Edmund J. Gorman Jr. made his sharp assessment: he was far from impressed. “The effort was an attempt to stack the deck in Lachlan Murdoch’s favour after Rupert Murdoch’s passing so that the succession would be immutable. The play might have worked; but an evidentiary hearing, like a showdown in a game of poker, is where gamesmanship collides with the facts and at its conclusion all the bluffs are called and the cards lie face up.” Both Rupert and Lachlan had acted in bad faith in engaging what Gorman regarded as a “carefully drafted charade” intended to favour Lachlan’s position of power.
James, Elisabeth, and Prudence, keeping up appearances, supplied a statement to The New York Times welcoming the Commissioner’s finding “and hope that we can move beyond this litigation to focus on strengthening and rebuilding relationships among all family members.” This seems unlikely, given a few contingencies. For one thing, the commissioner’s finding is to be passed on to the Probate Court, requiring a district judge to ratify or reject it. Either way, this will permit the defeated party to appeal the ruling. The lawyers on all sides are swooning.
Media vultures in search of carrion see this ruling as remarkable – probably more so than it is. A former Murdoch editor turned snow white, Eric Beecher, argues that the leadership of both New Corp and Fox “is now deeply uncertain as a result of the commissioner’s ruling. The non-Murdoch shareholders – who own more than 80% of each company – have woken up to the news that their chairman is likely to lose when his father dies”. Shareholders and markets, Beecher goes on to remind us, “hate uncertainty.”
This certainly presents a problem for the Murdoch family. Whatever their disagreements, the cash incentive has always been sovereign in power. Principles have been treated as baubles and luxuries. Fox News, beastly as it is, remains a sacred cow in the profit stakes. For over 20 years, it has raked in the viewer numbers. It has an enviable primacy over others in the swill bucket of cable news, seizing some 70% of the market in November. Competitors such as CNN and MSNBC have seen their audiences fall since the November election.
That said, the model Fox News breathes and feeds on has an inbuilt obsolescence. Alternative avenues were cultivated by the Trump campaign in 2024, most notably through podcast formats offered by such figures as Joe Rogan. Subscription television is on a precipitous decline in the US. Lachlan’s siblings may end up seeing the very outlets of Daddy Rupert they despise yet profit from atrophy over time. No one should shed a tear for that fact.
The case that began on September 17 concerning the control of the Murdoch family trust has been decided. It saw a dicey attempt by the one of the most ruthless newspaper and media moguls in history to limit influence and control of his publishing and broadcasting empire after his death. The relevant parties? The children, of course.
The central instrument of dispute was a trust, intended as an irrevocable instrument born from the divorce of Rupert Murdoch and his second wife Anna Torv Murdoch Mann. Anna’s wish was that Rupert and the children share control over the businesses of the imperium. Any new contenders – namely those arising from Rupert’s union with Wendy Deng – would also be shut out, though not financially. This meant that Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James would each have an equal voting share concerning company decisions after their father’s croaking.
Power, and its exercise, instils a permanent restlessness. Rupert was unlikely to leave the trust, whatever its status, alone. Patriarchs of such character are bound to have their favourites, angling for those who advance their concerns and interests while marginalising perceived threats and inadequate helpers. Over time, Lachlan seemed to push his way through to the front as one most likely to continue the father’s media vision. According to The New York Times, it was he who ultimately pushed matters to alter the trust in mid-2023 given rattling moves from Elisabeth Murdoch. At a subsequent meeting of the trust, Rupert stated that, while he loved his brood, “these companies need a designated leader and Lachlan is that leader”.
The other children had also stirred the patriarch’s sense of peace, much of it arising from the role played by Fox News and News Corp. James, for instance, is seen as the most “troublesome” by Lachlan, given his grumblings over the Fox-News Corp besmirching of climate change science and other unenviable causes. The result was Project Harmony, an attempt to cut out the other children from making decisions on the future direction of the media imperium. This change of heart was always going to be difficult to realise, given the limits imposed on any unilateral changes made by the “settlor” in Nevada law.
In June, Nevada’s Probate Commissioner gave Rupert a streak of hope. Changes could be made to the trust subject to the proviso that they be done in good faith and for the sole benefit of the heirs. The father’s sly contention was that granting Lachlan full control would end up advantaging all the children. The tribal chieftain had spoken.
This month, Commissioner Edmund J. Gorman Jr. made his sharp assessment: he was far from impressed. “The effort was an attempt to stack the deck in Lachlan Murdoch’s favour after Rupert Murdoch’s passing so that the succession would be immutable. The play might have worked; but an evidentiary hearing, like a showdown in a game of poker, is where gamesmanship collides with the facts and at its conclusion all the bluffs are called and the cards lie face up.” Both Rupert and Lachlan had acted in bad faith in engaging what Gorman regarded as a “carefully drafted charade” intended to favour Lachlan’s position of power.
James, Elisabeth, and Prudence, keeping up appearances, supplied a statement to The New York Times welcoming the Commissioner’s finding “and hope that we can move beyond this litigation to focus on strengthening and rebuilding relationships among all family members.” This seems unlikely, given a few contingencies. For one thing, the commissioner’s finding is to be passed on to the Probate Court, requiring a district judge to ratify or reject it. Either way, this will permit the defeated party to appeal the ruling. The lawyers on all sides are swooning.
Media vultures in search of carrion see this ruling as remarkable – probably more so than it is. A former Murdoch editor turned snow white, Eric Beecher, argues that the leadership of both New Corp and Fox “is now deeply uncertain as a result of the commissioner’s ruling. The non-Murdoch shareholders – who own more than 80% of each company – have woken up to the news that their chairman is likely to lose when his father dies”. Shareholders and markets, Beecher goes on to remind us, “hate uncertainty.”
This certainly presents a problem for the Murdoch family. Whatever their disagreements, the cash incentive has always been sovereign in power. Principles have been treated as baubles and luxuries. Fox News, beastly as it is, remains a sacred cow in the profit stakes. For over 20 years, it has raked in the viewer numbers. It has an enviable primacy over others in the swill bucket of cable news, seizing some 70% of the market in November. Competitors such as CNN and MSNBC have seen their audiences fall since the November election.
That said, the model Fox News breathes and feeds on has an inbuilt obsolescence. Alternative avenues were cultivated by the Trump campaign in 2024, most notably through podcast formats offered by such figures as Joe Rogan. Subscription television is on a precipitous decline in the US. Lachlan’s siblings may end up seeing the very outlets of Daddy Rupert they despise yet profit from atrophy over time. No one should shed a tear for that fact.
An Israeli air strike has killed Palestinian photojournalist Ahmed Al-Louh and five Palestinian Civil Defence workers in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp as Tel Aviv announces that it will double illegal settlements in the Golan Heights.
Al-Louh, who worked as a cameraman for Al Jazeera alongside other media outlets, was killed yesterday in the strike on the Civil Defence post in the central Gaza camp, according to medics and local journalists.
The attack occurred as Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 28 Palestinians on Sunday, medics said. Allouh is the third journalist killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government has approved a plan to increase the number of settlers in the illegally occupied Golan Heights, days after seizing more Syrian territory following the ousting of Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad, reports Al Jazeera.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the government had “unanimously approved” the “demographic development” of the occupied territory, which would seek to double the Israeli population there.
This new settlement plan is only for the portion of the Golan Heights that Israel has occupied since 1967. In 1981, Israel’s parliamentary Knesset moved to impose Israeli law over the territory, in an effective annexation.
Al Jazeera Arabic reported that journalist Al-louh was working while he was killed, wearing a “press” vest and helmet. He was taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza’s city of Deir el-Balah.
Al Jazeera condemns ‘heinous crime’ Al Jazeera Media Network condemned Al-Louh’s killing, and called on human rights and media organisations “to condemn the Israeli Occupation’s systematic killing of journalists in cold blood, the evasion of responsibilities under international humanitarian law, and to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice”.
Israeli strike kills Al Jazeera journalist. Video: CNN News
“We urge relevant international legal institutions to take practical and urgent measures to hold the Israeli authorities and all those who are responsible accountable for their heinous crimes and to adopt mechanisms to put an end to the targeting and killing of journalists,” the network added.
Al-Louh had been covering Israel’s war on Gaza when it first began in October 2023, embedded with the Gaza Strip’s Palestinian Civil Defence teams, Al Jazeera reporter Hind Khoudary said.
“It’s another heartbreaking day for Palestinians, Civil Defence teams, journalists. We [have been] wondering, how many times are we going to continue reporting on the killing[s] of our colleagues and beloved ones?” Khoudary said, reporting from Deir el-Balah.
Gaza’s media office said the head of the civil emergency service in Nuseirat, Nedal Abu Hjayyer, was also killed in Sunday’s attack.
“The civil emergency headquarters in Nuseirat camp was hit during the crews’ presence. They work around the clock to serve the people,” said Zaki Emadeldeen from the civil emergency service to reporters at the hospital.
“The civil emergency service is a humanitarian service and not political. They work in war and peace times for the service of the people,” he said, adding that the place was hit directly by an Israeli air strike.
The Israeli military said they were looking into the attack.
Journalists ‘paying highest price’
“Since the war in Gaza started, journalists have been paying the highest price — their lives – for their reporting. Without protection, equipment, international presence, communications, or food and water, they are still doing their crucial jobs to tell the world the truth,” said Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) programme director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York.
“Every time a journalist is killed, injured, arrested, or forced to go to exile, we lose fragments of the truth. Those responsible for these casualties face dual trials: one under international law and another before history’s unforgiving gaze.”
Several other Palestinian journalists were killed this past week, with 195 killed in Gaza since Israel’s war began, Khoudary said.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said earlier on Sunday that Palestinian journalist Mohammed Jabr al-Qrinawi was killed along with his wife and children in an Israeli air attack that targeted their home in Bureij refugee camp, in central Gaza, late on Saturday.
Earlier on Saturday, Al Mashhad Media said its journalist Mohammed Balousha was killed in an Israeli attack in Gaza.
Several AJ journalists killed
Several Al Jazeera journalists have been killed since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, including Ismail al-Ghoul, Rami al-Rifi, Samer Abudaqa and Hamza Dahdouh.
Also on Sunday, an air strike hit people protecting aid trucks west of Gaza City. Medics said several were killed or wounded but exact figures were not yet available.
Residents also said at least 11 people were killed in three separate Israeli air strikes in Gaza City. Nine were killed in the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoon and Jabalia camp when clusters of houses were bombed or set ablaze, and two were killed by drone fire in Rafah.
BREAKING: 5 journalists were just killed by Israel.
