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Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

theguardian.com

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Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would you allow that to continue in your country? We have a constitution that protects our rights, and among them a right to make up our minds on the basis of an uncensored discourse. That's the other, implicit half of the first amendment: the right to listen to what others want to tell you.

This is fine but you have to realise that war isn’t just about bombs. It’s about information too. An information war. In order to make up your mind correctly you need to be feed accurate information. Al Jazeera making up causality figures in real-time isn’t how you make up your mind.

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Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#532
post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's correct and IMHO its the right thing to do when shooting begins because when people shoot each other this is no longer a discussion and the press is part of the warfare. Remember all the Russian media and social media accounts claiming that its American hysteria that they will invade Ukraine? They denied and mocked anyone who claimed that they will invade up until the tanks rolled in. Personally, I'm critical…

I find it downright perverse to call genocide "retaliatory" and the act of covering it up "normal".

To parse your statement we need to understand what genocide means to you. For most it means the systemic killing of every person of a certain genetic identity. Is that what you believe is happening or something else?

If genocide is illegal than covering up would be the only logical move. Therefore it would be normal.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#533
post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the risk of being downvoted as the parent comment. There were many reports in Israeli media showing their reporters framing a false narrative around the conflict. To be fair, I think that blocking etc. is a dumb move by the government. Even though they are clearly a very biased organization the damage of closing their offices is probably worse than the alternative. The fear mongering of the top parent comment is u…

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Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#534

"and block its websites." So this keeps Israelis from reading Al Jazeera. Now that's new. Israel started Internet censorship in 2017.[1] Initially it was limited to "terror group websites, online illegal gambling, prostitution services, hard drug sales". At the time, "due to warnings from rights groups that the law poses a slippery slope toward additional censorship, the final version of the legislation dictates that…

Apartheid South Africa also tried to ban news media. It's a sign of extreme desperation and signals political vulnerability. Hopefully, Israel will get elections soon, and center- or left-leaning coalition government will pursue different foreign and military policies that a significant majority of Israelis prefer over the absurdity of the militarists and militant settlers.

https://truthout.org/articles/media-and-the-end-of-apartheid...

EDIT: Haaretz is a good and honest news source that has been extremely critical of the current leadership. Also recommended documentary film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gatekeepers_(film)

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#535
post #18

How much precedent is there for this? Are there parallels for other countries? Does the US prohibit any news agencies from operating in our borders? Does Europe? Does Russia? Does China? I presume North Korea does, but I don't actually know. These aren't designed to be leading questions. I don't know the answers, and rather than searching, I figured someone else here might know offhand.

Well, Al Jazeera is or had been banned in many Arab countries. Also, this measure is temporary, only lasting 45 days.

The article indicates the 45 days can be renewed. Presumably repeatedly.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#536
post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you openly call for the murder of in the US under the protection of the first amendment ?

> Can you openly call for the murder of in the US under the protection of the first amendment ? Yes. We see this with open chants of "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and "Globalize the Intifada" ...as long as the call is not likely to produce "imminent lawless action". Brandenburg v. Ohio was a decision by the Supreme Court establishing the "imminent lawless action" test for determining when speech…

> "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"

For several decades, Israel's Likud party (currently in power) election manifesto was...

"From the river to the sea, there will be only Israeli sovereignty".

Perhaps that's where the Palestinians got it?

"Palestine will be free" is not "openly calling for murder".

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India pays a lot of money to Russia for oil, it doesn't make them a belligerent. China also has close ties, but arguably they've refrained from arming Russia. Are missiles coming out of Qatar? Are they even supplying arms to Hamas, or do they simply fund the civilian portions of the government?

Both India and China produce their own fascistic propaganda supporting Russia. I wouldn't blame the EU for banning the Global Times.

But isn’t that just an argument in favor of censorship?

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#539
post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have examples for Europe blocking Russia? Because all I have seen is DNS providers omitting certain sites (i.e RT), but their apps still work (plus URLs when using other DNS). An nothing of that coming from the nation states as all seems to be due to the activities of private companies doing these things.

At least in the UK, you used to be able to watch RT on broadcast. Now only the Internet version is accessible, and I think some ISPs DNS block them. Granted, a DNS block is easy to circumvent if you understand it, but most users will still be cut off.

Was it actually broadcast terrestrially? I remember picking it up from Astra2 (the "skytv" satellite) but looking online, it's not transmitted anymore.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#540
post #176

Just a point about Al Jazeera that is worth mentioning. There are two Al Jazeeras. One which is presented to Western audiences and one which is presented to Middle-Eastern audiences. The media and articles are politically aligned in each region. Don't assume what you read in the US/UK/wherever is the same as over there. In the case of Israel, the Middle-Eastern unit were literally showing videos demanding further upr…

In 1919 in the United States we put people in prison for handing out anti war pamphlets. They equated it to “yelling fire in a crowded theater” thus dangerous and illegal. Then in the 60s we revised our “understanding” of the 1st amendment. Today it would be pretty extraordinary to have antiwar proponents thrown in prison.

The point is, in the US we forget that our speech didn’t used to be so unrestricted. What some countries call a security risk, in America we would call essential political speech.

Of course there remains the question of the extent to which we should support countries which do not share our values.

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