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Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites

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Re: Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites

#101

Post by choult »

SixSigma wrote: post #86
higherpurpose wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK is next. There's no doubt in my mind they will start blocking news sites, blogs and social media in the next mass protest (if there will be one anytime soon, since UK population seems almost as complacent and docile as the American one, which is just perfect for authoritarians).

> since UK population seems almost as complacent and docile as the American one That is really quite offensive. We have a culture of protest and resistance. What we have at the moment is a paradise of easy living. Despite the depressing lie of what the media will give you with "food banks and poverty" the standard of living for most Britons is really quite good, much better than the 1980s which saw major public polit…

I wouldn't call dependence on food banks a "depressing lie" - demand for food banks across the UK has tripled in the past year: http://www.trusselltrust.org/foodbank-numbers-triple

Re: Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites

#102

Post by 1gor »

Did EFF complain about Ukraine government outlawing access to any Russian language news a few days ago?

Correction: Above sentence is not correct. Not all Russian language news were outlawed. Instead, only Russian TV channels were banned in Ukraine a few days ago. This has caused OSCE to express concern. See the link below.

Almost a half of Ukrainians speak Russian language. New Kiev government has banned national broadcasts in this language, effectively denying its people access to information.

When we hear the arguments that banning Russian-language press/TV in Ukraine is OK, since those are necessarily 'Putin propaganda', but banning radical sites[1] in Russia is wrong, because they are 'independent news', we can only admire the ability to maintain double standards without as much at batting an eye.

(http://www.osce.org/fom/116312)

[1] I don't necessarily agree with Russian government definition of 'extremist/radical', but their point is that above Russian sites have given their pages to neo-Nazis to call to armed struggle against the state.

Re: Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites

#103

Post by throwawayaway »

growupkids wrote: post #39
FD3SA wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe this is the post you are referring to [1]. In it, Aaron describes his reaction to reading Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky. I second your sentiment completely, and knowledge is indeed the path to freedom. The journey itself however, is fraught with malignant powers hell bent upon crushing us at every step. Ukraine is a tragic example in a long list of historic casualties, caught in the eternal fight for…

They aren't he'll bent on crushing you. Oh no, propaganda is about seducing you. They want you on their side, not crushed. Convincing you that you're much too clever to be sold a lie. Why this is the truth! Those others, why they don't want you to know the truth. That you are truly one of the smart ones, that's found the one true way. Some might call it brain washing, I just call it sales. Turn you into a believer, a…

Sounds like codinghorror.com

Re: Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites

#104

Post by guard-of-terra »

choult wrote: post #99
rjzzleep wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ironically, the uk has already done that before they passed the bill. they blocked independent media coverage of iran, and not only blocked it, but also banned them from sky satellites. germans then banned the channel from astra, which was revoked after a court appeal. i don't know of any updates to the story though. been a while since i followed the story. i find it particularly interesting, mainly because for the m…

I'd hardly call Press TV "independent" - it's state-funded and apparently strongly linked to the Revolutionary Guard - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_TV . Your Guardian link describes Ofcom - the TV regulator in the UK - offering two alternatives to Press TV to retain its license in order to comply with the requirement that the license is held by the same entity as that providing editorial oversight. It also ment…

"Independent" means just "not affiliated with the current regime in your country"

Re: Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites

#105

Post by malkung »

higherpurpose wrote: post #8
spenvo wrote: post #3

The greatest instrument used in the societal tragedies of the last century has (undoubtedly) been state delivered propaganda. Japan (Empire of the Rising Sun), Nazi Germany, Maoism (and the following Cultural Revolution), in America: Red Scare (age of McCarthyism, ending as a consequence of JMc.'s untimely death), the Red Peril (the predecessor of the Red Scare) -- the list goes on. The efficacy of those at the top t…

Anonymity in an uncensored Internet and in a democracy in general is just as important for the same reasons. Right now in Russia there are two kinds of people: those too afraid to speak or do anything, and those who get silenced. In such a situation there's no way to have a contrarian voice unless you're anonymous .

My impression from reading Russian blogs on LiveJournal is that there are two kinds of people in Russia right now: those extremely anti-Putin and those extremely pro-Putin, in about 50/50 proportion. No one is "too afraid" or "silenced".

Re: Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites

#106

Post by [deleted] »

baddox wrote: post #14
spenvo wrote: post #3

The greatest instrument used in the societal tragedies of the last century has (undoubtedly) been state delivered propaganda. Japan (Empire of the Rising Sun), Nazi Germany, Maoism (and the following Cultural Revolution), in America: Red Scare (age of McCarthyism, ending as a consequence of JMc.'s untimely death), the Red Peril (the predecessor of the Red Scare) -- the list goes on. The efficacy of those at the top t…

> Consider current-day North Korea, Venezuela, or countless Middle-Eastern countries (which regulate education as well as the internet) Doesn't the United States also regulate education and the Internet, and particularly the former? It seems like you're still likely to get labelled a kooky conspiracy theorist if you claim that modern Western governments actively engage in blatant propaganda campaigns, but it's consid…

[deleted]

Re: Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites

#107

Post by madaxe_again »

democracy wrote: post #51
spenvo wrote: post #3

The greatest instrument used in the societal tragedies of the last century has (undoubtedly) been state delivered propaganda. Japan (Empire of the Rising Sun), Nazi Germany, Maoism (and the following Cultural Revolution), in America: Red Scare (age of McCarthyism, ending as a consequence of JMc.'s untimely death), the Red Peril (the predecessor of the Red Scare) -- the list goes on. The efficacy of those at the top t…

Also in Germany there was a very good (for Hitler) historical context that didn't need many of out-of-@ss facts (you can get from mass media these days). Anyway, J. Goebbels was the god of propaganda and still is I guess a role model of some political journalists even these days.

Hm, you say that, but Goebbels didn't have any tricks of his own - he learned from the masters - two Americans, Bernays and von Wiegand, who sharpened their skills in the 20's working for the Hearst press and convincing America to smoke.

Re: Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites

#108

Post by madaxe_again »

SixSigma wrote: post #86
higherpurpose wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK is next. There's no doubt in my mind they will start blocking news sites, blogs and social media in the next mass protest (if there will be one anytime soon, since UK population seems almost as complacent and docile as the American one, which is just perfect for authoritarians).

> since UK population seems almost as complacent and docile as the American one That is really quite offensive. We have a culture of protest and resistance. What we have at the moment is a paradise of easy living. Despite the depressing lie of what the media will give you with "food banks and poverty" the standard of living for most Britons is really quite good, much better than the 1980s which saw major public polit…

"really quite good"

This is that media control thing that's being spoken about here. Go north, my son, things aren't so rosy outside of London.

People won't take to the streets here, full stop. The British populace have no appetite for it.

Re: Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites

#109

Post by malkung »

trekky1700 wrote: post #73
dangerden wrote: post #66

I'm from Russia. Yes, sure, it is a plan to control the media. Especially when Internet media are so popular. We still have access to all other western medias. It is pretty simple to compare the facts. Of course these happenings are tightly linked to the Ukraine crisis. I could say that western people also do not get the whole picture as national medias cover the crisis in a very biased way. One more time we see that…

I really don't see what every media outlet that isn't Russian state-controlled would have to gain from distributing "biased" journalism. We've seen raw footage released, we can read live tweets about what's happening and we can even communicate with people effected via the internet. The only side that seems to conflict with what's coming out of the region is the Russian side. I watched cellphone footage of troops wit…

> I really don't see what every media outlet that isn't Russian state-controlled would have to gain from distributing "biased" journalism.

That's in theory. In reality, I see a very clear bias in Russian as well as non-Russian major media outlets. And it's not just my observation, either. Have a look at this Guardian article, for example: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/10/ukraine-and-wes... The author tries to explain why this is so.

A quote: The one thing we know for sure is that we don't know what's going on. The situation is volatile and murky. But that doesn't stop western politicians jumping in feet first. We don't know exactly what forces are at play, but we still desperately want to pin our naive "goodies" and "baddies" labels on to somebody.

Re: Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites

#110

Post by madaxe_again »

akater wrote: post #28
higherpurpose wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK is next. There's no doubt in my mind they will start blocking news sites, blogs and social media in the next mass protest (if there will be one anytime soon, since UK population seems almost as complacent and docile as the American one, which is just perfect for authoritarians).

At least UK has independent courts. Human rights activists should hire good lawyers, get them in touch with experts on networks and cryptography, and start example cases, adding nice proper focused coverage on top of it all to form a public opinion. The precedents should be set until it's too late. UPD: I should probably have mentioned that I'm from Russia.

> At least UK has independent courts

Sorry, we have secret, closed courts now, without juries. They were intended for terror cases, but are being used a lot more broadly than most think. A barrister friend who raised concerns about this had his career assassinated-by-media last year, and is now a hate-figure.

I'm afraid it's too late.

Edit: This piece demonstrates quite nicely how this variety of assassination happens - you know, writing things in such a way that they look like direct quotes, when they're not, and getting every paper to carry the same story - http://barristerblogger.com/2013/08/29/criticism-robert-colo...

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