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Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

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Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#861
post #661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Europe doesn't have a Chinese-style Great Firewall, but EU countries have taken every reasonable step to prevent Russian state media from reaching EU audiences. Because they think the EU audiances are stupid?

Because they don't like anti-government point of views to become too widespread. In Italy the current defence minister is personally earning considerable amount of money by sending weapons to Ukraine, because he's also an owner and manager of companies that make said weapons. Do you think they'd want to favour open discussions? No. In fact besides RT being banned, they want to be able to block any website, giving pro…

> In Italy the current defence minister is personally earning considerable amount of money by sending weapons to Ukraine, because he's also an owner and manager of companies that make said weapons.

FUD is the reason why Russian liars are banned from EU.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#862

What is exactly wrong with shutting down someone who not just lies (nothing unique there lol) but systematically supports information war against your country?

Al Jazeera is not engaged in an "information war" against Israel. Al Jazeera is the major independent media organization operating in Gaza, and one of the main sources of accurate information about the conflict. That's what angers the Israeli government.

> the major independent media

Sorry, but you're either completely out of touch with what's going on there. Or you have bad intents.

Regardless of your attitudes and ideological preferences - calling Al Jazeera "independent" is the winner of international nonsense contest.

Independent in general, or their Gaza branch in particular - it is a nonsense.

Last independent people in Gaza were thrown off the roof about 15 years ago. Unfortunately. Don't you know how dictatorships work? Even if for the arguably right cause...

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#863
post #60

I don't feel good about this at all, but please keep in mind that there is still serious independent journalism in Israel. And it's doing very well. For example I can recommend pretty much anything published by Haaretz, or Barak Ravid. We should monitor the health of their domestic media should things start going un-democratic there. After all nothing can replace domestic media, this is painfully clear in the case of…

It's worth noting Qatar is the main benefactor of Al Jazeera, while also having funded Hamas for years, and hosting the Hamas leaders in their country. Al Jazeera in English is extremely different from al Jazeera in Arabic where journalism takes a back seat on any item somehow connected to Israel and especially Hamas. Like many of these seemingly weird decisions, there's more to it than "Israel bad".

Well, Israel has also funded Hamas for years!

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#864

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Germany they can't publicly gather to protest Israel's actions either, not legally anyway. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/10/26/complete-censo...

For some reason, Germany has very strict rules and traditions against any hint of anti-Jewish activities.

And there is certainly anti-Semitism mixed in with the protests, but I think Germany is still overdoing it. Silencing plenty of valid speech has a cost, too.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#865
post #590

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only does Israel target journalists, but it targets the families of journalists. Nobody is immune not even the bureau chief of Al Jezeera.

Damn that was a difficult read. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wael_Al-Dahdouh 2023-10-28: Wife, 15-year-old son, 7-year-old daughter, a grandson and seven other relatives killed in strike on refugee camp. 2023-12-15: Wounded by missile during filming, cameraman fatally wounded and bled to death with ambulances cut off. 2024-01-07: Eldest son, a journalist, killed in air strike. 2024-01-08: Two nephews killed. 2024-01…

I know it's a bit unrelated to this exact person, but this is how you get terrorists.

Imagine some foreign worker in europe/us, losing all his family this way until s/he literally has nothing left to lose, while the politicians in your new country brag about helping the killers of your family with more weapons and money.

Then when someone like that decides to bring the "war" to europe/us, and shoots/bombs/... some people, we all act as if "how is this possible?", "who could have radicalized him like that?" etc. Well, we did.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#866

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe has done the same with Russia. Also, I think a few other Arab countries like Egypt have blocked/banned Al Jazeera.

If you believe that RT is an organisation that is not interested in the truth, but is set up purely to disrupt and disturb, then a government can reasonably want to prevent its operation. Adding plausible noise to information causes people to have to do much more work to discern between what is true and what is not, time that many people do not have. A reluctance to ban a bad-faith organisation is good: a moral socie…

Who gets to decide that RT is not interested in the truth? Traditionally, liberal democracy has held that it's not safe for the government to make that decision.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#867

i am curious ig there is a valid threat in israelis reading al jazeera. or if they have any proof of any falsehoods being published there and why it would need to be shut down?. any good neutral resource around this for a non-israeli/non-palestinian person to make sense of this? from the surface this looks so grim, but i do not want to jump to conclusions... its so hard to make sense of this more and more.. and it be…

It's hard to read or watch Al Jazeera's reporting on this matter without feeling utterly disgusted at how a certain military is treating a civilian population (be it in Gaza or the West Bank). They make the Israelis and the IDF look like absolute monsters.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#868

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Nearly every democratic country has previously or is currently censoring the media in some ways, including the US[1] and EU[2]. Single factor analysis is one of the worst kinds of analysis. If we only consider this one factor, then there is basically no country that is not like Apartheid South Africa. Apartheid South Africa was not exceptional or notable because it did what nearly every other country has or is curren…

I think that most people would argue that past censorship by the US was a violation of democratic principles.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#869
post #729

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as it hurts even writing it, I don't think its a rare story there these days. History will not look kindly at both sides here, they really have no higher moral ground than the other

>History will not look kindly at both sides here, they really have no higher moral ground than the other There are four sides here: the Israeli government, Hamas, Israeli citizens, and Palestinian citizens. The first two are the active combatants. The third group were victims in October. The fourth group are still victims today. Killing unarmed and non-hostile citizens is absolutely immoral. Acting in such a reckless…

> No rational person should think those citizens were at fault.

Did you read some sort of an impressive proof for this fact prior to epistemically & cognitively (consciously &/or subconsciously) upgrading it to Objectively True? Because for something to be labeled as True in a strict system of logic, it requires a proof.

Note also that Consensus Belief of Truth is not identical to Proven Truth, even though it typically appears that way due to our cultural conditioning.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#870
post #668

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Europe has done the same with Russia. Yes. Which I find abhorrent as an European, and has made me realize even more than our countries are much less democratic than we officially paint them as.

Nono, it's only undemocratic when china does it. When the italian government wants to be able to block any website immediately and with no appeal, calling it an anti-piracy measure, it's completely fine and democratic.

Exactly. "Foo" is democratic when democratic or non-democratic country does it in a democratic way.
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