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Independent media

One Year After The Attack On NewsClick, Journalists Call For United Fight

October 11, 2024 Monthly Review, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , ,
Journalists unions and civil society groups came together to commemorate the first anniversary of the Indian government’s crackdown on independent media outlet NewsClick and arrest of its founding editor Prabir Purkayastha, on Thursday, October 3 at the Press Club of India (PCI) in New Delhi. The press conference and public meeting was organized by Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), Press Association (PA), Indian Women’s Press Corps (AWPC), and Kerala Union of Working Journalists, in collaboration with PCI. Along with Prabir, several other senior journalists including P Sainath, founding editor of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) and N Ram, former editor of India’s leading English daily The Hindu along with the office bearers of the unions addressed the gathering.

YouTube Financially Deplatforms Swath Of Indie Media

February 7, 2021 Caitlin Johnstone. , ,
The Google-owned video sharing platform YouTube has demonetized numerous independent media accounts, a jarring escalation in the steadily intensifying campaign against alternative news outlets online. Progressive commentators Graham Elwood, The Progressive Soapbox, The Convo Couch, Franc Analysis, Hannah Reloaded and Cyberdemon531 have all received notifications from YouTube that their videos are no longer permitted to earn money through the platform’s various monetization features, as has Ford Fischer, a respected freelancer who films U.S.  political demonstrations. No explanation has been offered for this decision beyond the vague claim that “your channel is not in line with our YouTube Partner Program policies” due to “harmful content.”

Inside The Battle For Portland

July 20, 2020 Shane Burley, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
On the night of July 11, as hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters amassed around the Justice Center in Portland, Oregon, federal Homeland Security officers opened fire with “crowd control” munitions. They shot a teargas canister directly at the head of Donavan LaBella, a peaceful protester who had been standing across the street holding a sign. The video that captured the protester — unconscious, bleeding and being carried to safety by other demonstrators and street medics — went viral almost immediately, pushing state officials to make public statements and demand that federal law enforcement pull back. This video was shot by a 17-year-old independent journalist Garrison Davis, who was filming on his cell phone and broadcasting on Twitter.

Letter From Truthdig’s Editor-In-Chief, Robert Scheer

March 27, 2020 Robert Scheer, Popular Resistance. , ,
To Zuade Kaufman: I want to register my strongest possible disagreement with your unilateral decisions to bar me from the Truthdig site, close the site, and discharge Truthdig's employees. Each of your actions represents a violation of Truthdig's Operating Agreement, which requires that you and I agree on actions such as those you have taken on your own. To make myself clear, you have not consulted me, and I disagree. Although you claim that your actions have been required by Truthdig's shaky financial situation, it appears that you have not taken into account funds that have been raised from third parties to support Truthdig. My understanding is that those funds are sufficient to continue Truthdig's operations, although perhaps at a reduced level.

‘Media Bias Fact Check’ Smears WikiLeaks, Supports Western Propaganda Machine

January 31, 2019 By Elizabeth Vos, Disobedientmedia.com , , ,
With the latest US-backed coup underway in Venezuela and Roger Stone’s arrest as much an exercise in theater as the rest of his political career, one may wonder what a critique of Media Bias Fact Check (MBFC) and similar sites could contribute to the conversation in our tempestuous news cycle. We examine the issue now, as attacks made on the credibility of independent media outlets damage the ability of independent journalists across the board to have their voices heard. In order to provide context for this report, we must reintroduce Disobedient Media’s recent report on multiple attacks against this outlet stemming from proxies of the Integrity Initiative.

How A NeoCon-Backed “Fact Checker” Plans To Wage War On Independent Media

January 19, 2019 Whitney Webb, Blackagendareport.com , ,
Soon after the social media “purge” of independent media sites and pages this past October, a top neoconservative insider — Jamie Fly — was caught stating that the mass deletion of anti-establishment and anti-war pages on Facebook and Twitter was “just the beginning” of a concerted effort by the U.S. government and powerful corporations to silence online dissent within the United States and beyond. While a few, relatively uneventful months in the online news sphere have come and gone since Fly made this ominous warning, it appears that the neoconservatives and other standard bearers of the military-industrial complex and the U.S. oligarchy are now poised to let loose their latest digital offensive...

The Biggest Threat To Free Speech No One Is Talking About

November 18, 2018 Robert Scheer, Truthdig. , , ,
If you clicked this story, odds are you’re a consumer of independent media. Yet even as you’re reading these words, your ability to do so in a timely manner is in grave jeopardy. Since the repeal in June of Obama-era rules guaranteeing net neutrality, websites like Truthdig, Democracy Now!, Common Dreams and more risk being pushed into an internet slow lane that could severely hamper their readership, if not drive them out of business entirely. For Jeff Cohen, editor and co-founder of the media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting(FAIR), it may be the most urgent threat to the First Amendment no one is talking about.

Social Media Censorship Intensifies

October 13, 2018 By Kurt Nimmo, Activistpost.com , , ,
The midterm election is being used as an excuse to purge social media accounts and thus reduce traffic to websites on the target list. First it was alt-right figures like Milo Yiannopoulos and Mike Cernovich who had their accounts pulled for behavior that is an everyday occurrence by others on social media. Then Alex Jones was taken down. This was a landmark event that served notice on other websites diverging from the establishment narrative and spreading dangerous “alternative facts.” Now the effort has moved on the the next level of targets, those with moderate to high social media traffic and successful websites with growing viewership. Not millions like Jones, but a couple hundred thousand all the way down to tens of thousands.

Harvard Study: Big Telecom Terrified Of Community-Run Broadband

January 17, 2018 By Karl Bode, Motherboard.vice.com , ,
A new study out of Harvard once again makes it clear why incumbent ISPs like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T are so terrified by the idea of communities building their own broadband networks. According to the new study by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, community-owned broadband networks provide consumers with significantly lower rates than their private-sector counterparts. The study examined data collected from 40 municipal broadband providers and private throughout 2015 and 2016. Pricing data was collected predominately by visiting carrier websites, where pricing is (quite intentionally) often hidden behind prequalification walls, since pricing varies dramatically based on regional competition.

Day 2 Of Countdown To Launch: John Zangas

December 10, 2017 Popular Resistance, www.popularresistance.org , ,
John Zangas is a journalist and photographer who is one of the co-founders of DCMediaGroup, an independent media platform. John is a dedicated documentarian of people's movements in and around the Washington, DC metro area. On top of his full time job, he gets up and out early to cover actions and stays up late to write and edit photos and videos about them. As a reporter in the field, John is fundamental to Popular Resistance's actions reaching the public in a real and dramatic way. John has the courage to get up close in the middle of protests to document the people who are taking action. DC Media Group and Popular Resistance provide platforms for activists to raise awareness of critical issues.

Day 4 Of Countdown To Launch: Kymone Freeman

December 7, 2017 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org ,
By Popular Resistance. Creating our own media is a critical task for the movement. Clearing the FOG is one way in which Popular Resistance creates our own media. The show, which has had more than 260 episodes, covers critical issues for the movement for economic, racial and environmental justice as well as peace. The show covers movement events and interview people who are involved in the movement.

From An Open Internet, Back To The Dark Ages

November 26, 2017 Jonathan Cook, www.counterpunch.org , , , ,
By Jonathan Cook for Counterpunch. In December the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to repeal already compromised regulations that are in place to maintain a semblance of “net neutrality”. Its chairman, Ajit Pai, and the corporations that are internet service providers want to sweep away these rules, just like the banking sector got rid of financial regulations so it could inflate our economies into giant ponzi schemes. That could serve as the final blow to the left and its ability to make its voice heard in the public square. The social media giants soon responded. It is becoming ever clearer that Facebook is interfering as a platform for the dissemination of information for progressive activists. It is already shutting down accounts, and limiting their reach. These trends will only accelerate. Google has changed its algorithms in ways that have ensured the search engine rankings of prominent leftwing sites are falling through the floor. It is becoming harder and harder to find alternative sources of news because they are being actively hidden from view.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here
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