IN THE NEWS
Palestinians mark 76 years of dispossession as new catastrophe unfolds in Gaza
Palestinians on Wednesday will mark the 76th year of their mass expulsion from what is now Israel, an event that is at the core of their national struggle. But in many ways, that experience pales in comparison with the calamity now unfolding in Gaza.
Palestinians refer to it as the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe. Some 700,000 Palestinians — a majority of the prewar population — fled or were driven from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War that followed Israel’s establishment.
... full articleTo suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.
Sports broadcaster and former footballer Gary Lineker’s real thoughts on Gaza
Once you permit those who are convinced of their own superior rightness to censor and silence and suppress those who hold contrary opinions, just at that moment the citadel has been surrendered.
Criticizing Israel? Nonprofit Media Could Lose Tax-Exempt Status Without Due Process
IT DOESN’T TAKE much to be accused of supporting terrorism these days. And that doesn’t just go for student activists. In recent months, dozens of lawmakers and public officials have, without evidence, insinuated that U.S. news outlets provide material support for Hamas. Some even issued thinly veiled threats to prosecute news organizations over those bogus allegations.
... full articleI never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them.
The Guardian view on Giorgia Meloni’s Italy: the politics of ‘illiberal democracy’
According to the latest audit of press freedom by Reporters Without Borders, Italy has tumbled down its international rankings. A crucial factor in its report was the desire of Giorgia Meloni’s radical right government to sell off a state-controlled news agency to a press baron – one who just happens to be an MP in her ruling coalition. But in one of the European Union’s most important member states, as Ms Meloni’s radical right coalition consolidates its grip on power, there are plenty of other reasons to fear for the future of free expression and media impartiality.
... full articleGovernment was intended to suppress injustice, but its effect has been to embody and perpetuate it.