Showing posts with label Media Bias. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Media Bias. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Colonial media practices: The blatant double standards will mark the fall of the "free world" discourse on previously-universalized values

    Wednesday, July 26, 2023   No comments

Western governments have used the pillars of their modern civilization to shame and intimidate other communities to submit their systems of dominance. Human rights, free press, free speech, individual rights were all used as universal values that legitimized western interventionism. It worked because many thinkers and leaders in the Global south communities actually bought into this discourse. However, with new technologies that enabled impoverished communities to build their own institutions, and enjoy a degree of autonomy, the Western discourse revealed its superficial commitment to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Sanctions and bans became a favorite instrument in the hands of Western states to punish speech they did not like. Suddenly freedom of speech became limited; they just needed to find the context for banning it. That is now creating a problem for the so-called free world.


Foreign Policy: The US obsession with sanctions will be the cause of its downfall



In an article published in Foreign Policy, Christopher Sabatini, a senior Latin America researcher at Chatham House, addressed the failure of US sanctions imposed by Washington on countries around the world.


This issue was covered by several American newspapers, especially after the success of Russia, China and Iran in bypassing these sanctions.


"Sanctions have become, in the past two decades, the foreign policy tool of Western governments, led by the United States," he said.


The Foreign Policy article stated, according to a database maintained by Columbia University, that "six countries, namely Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela, were subject to comprehensive US sanctions, which means that the majority of commercial and financial transactions with entities and individuals in those countries are prohibited by US law."


However, according to the article, "17 other countries are subject to various sanctions, while seven other countries are subject to export controls," according to the Princeton University database.


"This already long list does not even include targeted sanctions imposed on individuals and companies in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Paraguay, or sanctions imposed on regions such as Hong Kong, the Balkans, Crimea, and Donetsk and Lugansk in Ukraine," the Foreign Policy article noted.


The article stated, "By 2021, the United States had imposed sanctions on more than 9,000 individuals, companies, and sectors of the economies of the targeted countries. In 2021, President Joe Biden's first year in office, his administration added 765 new names to sanctions, worldwide, including 173 human rights-related decisions."


Taken together, countries subject to some form of US sanctions account for just over a fifth of global GDP, and China accounts for 80% of that group.


The article concluded, "As in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela, sanctions do not lead to the desired quick result of regime change, but instead strengthen alliances among the regimes targeted by sanctions over time."


And he believed that "US policy makers must understand that sanctions do not work in some cases, and that they undermine US interests, in many cases."


Banning Yemeni media in the context of US sanctions... flagrant double standards


“Measures aimed at punishing autocrats are eroding the Western system that they were supposed to maintain,” said Christopher Sabatini, a senior Latin America researcher at Chatham House, in an article in Foreign Policy yesterday, titled “America’s love for sanctions will be the cause of its downfall.”


In the past two decades, sanctions have become the foreign policy tool of choice for Western governments, particularly the United States. In addition, any serious disagreement of any government in the world with Washington's policies towards a certain issue puts it in the black lists that Washington is keen to revise and update on an almost weekly basis.


While some consider economic sanctions to be the most prominent weapon in the list of new US tools of war, media sanctions, bans and access restrictions are among the harshest types of punishment. Not only because it attempts to erase the point of view of the punished from existence, but also because it infringes on freedom of opinion and expression, which is supposed to be safeguarded in all human rights legislation and decisions, especially those approved by the United Nations and approved by "Western democracies".


According to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”


For Western "democracies", this issue historically acquires a very sensitive dimension, as "freedom of expression" is considered a pivotal issue that is almost tantamount to "the sacred", because it is linked to the liberal state's identity, its social contract and its political system.


However, the title of "freedom of expression" in the West has collided in recent years, and increasingly, with major problems that have emerged in terms of double standards in the actual application of these principles, which have raised levels of doubt about the credibility of the democratic basis of Western political systems to record levels.


The last repercussions of this duplicity were the closure of the American "YouTube" platform, of several channels affiliated with the Sana'a government and the Yemeni army forces, including the Yemeni war media channels, the "Ansar Allah" band, the artistic and documentary production unit, and others.


colonial media practices

Daniel Yagic, a researcher in media issues and university professor, confirms, in an interview with Al-Mayadeen Net, that research on politically biased Western media sanctions should not be isolated from a long historical context of media colonial practices.


Yagic recalled the Western media coverage of the military operations carried out by the United States and European countries in the "southern countries".


He pointed to the media justification for "occupation, targeting, killing, kidnapping and repeated arrest operations, which were carried out by Western military forces, in Iraq, Syria, Mali, Libya, Yemen and even Lebanon, under pretexts related to the security of the United States and Europe, and in the face of what the West calls terrorism."


However, he commented by saying that the West "has never defined clear rules for who is qualified as a terrorist," which has become a liquid concept attached to whom the West wants to demonize because of its failure to comply with its political agendas.


Yagic adds that the West "always uses a language of justification for Western actions, and always presents its actions in a humanitarian context, while the same logic is not used when dealing with other parties, such as the Russian military operation in Ukraine, or armed resistance against America's allies in the world, most notably, of course, the resistance movements against "Israel" and its proxies, in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, Iraq and Syria."


The fall of the "free world" discourse: the blatant double standards

On World Press Freedom Day, May 3, the US President issued a statement titled "Journalism Is Not a Crime," in which he affirmed that journalism is "essential to a free society."


In it, he declared honoring "all journalists, reporters, and media workers who bravely pursue the truth," and said he renewed his pledge to "hold accountable" all those who seek to "silence these voices essential to transparent and trustworthy governance."


The US President was not satisfied with that, but continued that "a free press is the pillar of democracy because it allows our government and society to self-criticize and correct itself," stressing that "the First Amendment to our Constitution does not allow Congress to pass any law that limits freedom of expression or freedom of the press."


Of course, this talk is considered discredited, by many observers, regarding the status of media freedoms in the world, and the relationship of the United States to the extent to which the press enjoys strength, protection, and independence.


US government requests to ban and block accounts

Early this year, the new CEO of Twitter (newly X), Elon Musk, announced that the US administration itself "demanded the company to suspend hundreds of thousands of Twitter accounts, including press accounts and others belonging to Canadian and Chinese officials."


And the US administration has already blocked the “TikTok” application, owned by a Chinese company, in more than 30 states, since last June, under the pretext that its use may involve leaking sensitive information related to US citizens to foreign governments.


This, of course, is happening in the opposite direction continuously and without any fuss, as hundreds of millions of users use American applications.


US military and security practices against journalists and the press

The United States, through its judicial institutions or even its military forces, has previously practiced violent practices against journalists, against the background of their journalistic work, most notably the famous journalist Julian Assange, who revealed the American targeting of a group of journalists in Iraq in July 2007, with an air raid on the National Press Club in Baghdad, and he was tried under the pretext of espionage, through a law dating back to the First World War.


It also prosecuted others because of their work in revealing information to the press, most notably Edward Snowden, the informatics expert contracting with the US National Security Agency, and Chelsea Manning, the former contractor with the Pentagon in Iraq, who leaked information about crimes committed by US forces, and they were prosecuted and prosecuted for that.


The American judicial institutions also ignored the crimes of its close ally, the Israeli occupation, documented in Palestine against the press and journalists, which, since 2001, have claimed the lives of at least 20 journalists at the hands of Israeli forces, 18 of whom are Palestinians, and 2 of them are European foreign correspondents, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.


The Khashoggi case exposes Biden

In parallel, Washington presented itself on several occasions as a sponsor of freedom of expression in the world, as current President Joe Biden relied in his election campaign against his predecessor Donald Trump on the issue of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and the former president's insistence on good relations with Saudi Arabia, whose Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was accused of being involved in the assassination of the famous opposition journalist.


Biden presented himself as a president who could not accept normal relations with the Saudi regime, which is known for suppressing media freedoms in his country, and is the main suspect of responsibility for the killing of the Saudi journalist in Turkey.>


In the 2019 debate, he said, "In fact, we will make them (Saudi Arabia) pay the price for what they did (the killing of Khashoggi), and we will, in fact, make them pariahs."


However, Biden returned to opening a new page with Saudi Arabia, under the title "The Supreme American Interest", and visited Saudi Arabia last year, which made many American parties accuse him of using the discourse of freedoms for a misleading purpose, aimed at mobilizing popular support only.


The US administration continues to block the Russian media, and the West follows suit

Immediately after the launch of the Russian military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, the US administration blocked websites and accounts linked to the Russian media.


It also cracked down on accounts that are not officially linked to the Russian media, and that adopt the Russian point of view regarding the battle, its causes and facts, and it continues to do so in a large and increasing manner to this day.


This shocked some international circles, which clearly witnessed one of the fiercest repressive campaigns against freedom of expression in modern history, prompting many American researchers and writers themselves to declare the end of the era of "United States leadership in the free world." And that what Washington is prosecuting the world on the basis of restricting freedoms and censoring political discourse, it is committing it publicly and flagrantly.


The fierce censorship and ban campaign against Russia came after a similar campaign against Iranian media and websites and accounts linked to resistance movements in Arab countries over the past decade, which included blocking channels from using satellite broadcasting, blocking their broadcasts from the Internet, and closing their offices in Western countries.


It seems, by following Western criticism of government censorship, that the Western public is becoming more aware, day after day, of the seriousness of the danger that threatens it by suppressing its right to access information, and seeing different angles of approach to facts and events.


Especially since this suppression of views related to foreign policy has recently and blatantly entered American domestic politics, after Donald Trump's account was banned based on government recommendations, which prompted him to launch his own platform.


What is the size of the Yemeni media threat to Riyadh and Washington?

The US administration is entering the harbingers of the last year of Biden's term, ahead of presidential elections that are still unclear to this day. The accumulated problems of the Biden administration at the level of foreign policies raise great concern among them, which is not hidden by the statements of its officials and the results of the poll centers.


The most prominent of these problems is the crisis of the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Ukraine crisis, which has turned into a drain on potentials and bets, and crises related to the tense relationship with China, and its internal and external repercussions.


Likewise, the Yemeni crisis, with its political and humanitarian parts, comes to add to the record of American failure in foreign policies, which is naturally expected to invest in the campaign against Biden internally, and increase pressure on him, in terms of the aggression’s failure to achieve its goals in Yemen, despite the massive American support at the level of weapons, ammunition, information, and political cover.


Of course, the fingers of accusation reach the Saudi regime, which is most affected by the content published by these channels and accounts, which is likely to be largely involved in the restrictions, bans and blocking operations that the Yemeni media was subjected to throughout the period of aggression, due to the great embarrassment that was created by the published scenes of its captured and killed soldiers in the qualitative operations of the Yemeni forces, as well as the scenes of the humanitarian crisis caused by its siege and aggression on Yemen.


It can be said that the Western propaganda machine and its media tools were built on being an essential arm of the foreign policy of states, and a main supporter of the Western war machine, wherever it is heavy in the world, and it continues to perform its function.


Victory and defeat, in any war or battle that bears cultural and civilizational connotations, most notably the Yemen war, ultimately belong to the one who writes and narrates history.


The media today is the history book that future generations will inherit in order to understand the foundations of their reality. Experience indicates that the Yemenis, who turned the aggression against them into an opportunity for steadfastness, building, strengthening capabilities and accumulating strength cards, will not find it difficult for them to convey the image of the Yemeni reality, using innovative methods and alternatives, no matter how severe the restrictions imposed by their enemies.


A "weapon loses its effectiveness".. Are we witnessing the end of the era of US sanctions?


The American magazine "Foreign Affairs" published an article that spoke at length about "the end of the era of sanctions, how did the enemies of the United States protect themselves from it?", and discusses the "excessive use of sanctions" by the United States, and explains how this led to the loss of this weapon of its value and effectiveness on the international level, expecting that "the golden days of American sanctions may end soon."


With Washington increasingly reliant on sanctions, a number of countries violating its policies have begun to immunize their economies against these measures, and three events in the past decade have convinced these countries of the need to act against any possible US sanctions.


Iran, Russia and China

Writer Agathe Damaris enumerates the three most prominent stations that proved the importance of having plans to confront Washington's sanctions. In 2012, the United States cut Iran off from the global "Swift" monetary system, in an attempt to isolate the country financially, and the enemies of the United States and its other adversaries noticed this, wondering if their turn would come later.


And in 2014, Western countries imposed sanctions on Russia after it annexed Crimea, prompting Moscow to make economic independence a priority.


In 2017, Washington started a trade war with Beijing, which quickly spread to the technology sector, by restricting the export of US technology related to the manufacture and development of semiconductors to China, which constituted a warning to Washington's opponents of the possibility of blocking their access to important technology technologies.


These three episodes led to the emergence of a new phenomenon, which Foreign Affairs called "resistance to sanctions."


  The authority of the United States to impose sanctions on other countries stems from the primacy of the US dollar on the one hand, and the extent of US control over global financial channels on the other.


It is logical then that the enemies of the United States would seek financial innovations that would reduce the benefits of US sanctions if they occurred, and these countries have increasingly found the solution in currency swap agreements, in alternatives to SWIFT, and in digital currencies.


Bilateral currency swaps and linking central banks

One way countries have made themselves more resistant to sanctions is through bilateral currency swaps, which allow them to bypass the US dollar by linking central banks' deals directly to each other, eliminating the need to use a third currency for trading.


China has enthusiastically embraced this tool, signing currency swap agreements with more than 60 countries, including Argentina, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, totaling nearly $500 billion, with the clear goal: to enable Chinese companies to circumvent American financial channels when they need to.


And in 2020, for the first time, China settled more than half of its trade with Russia in a currency other than the US dollar, making the majority of these trade exchanges immune from US sanctions.


Washington's allies are turning towards alternatives

The article indicated that China's increasing desire to abandon the US dollar is understandable, given the poor state of relations between Washington and Beijing, but the problem has become that US allies are also entering into currency swap deals.


In 2019, India bought S-400 air defense missiles from Russia. The $5 billion deal was supposed to trigger US sanctions, but India and Russia revived a Soviet-era currency swap agreement. India bought the Russian missiles using a mixture of rubles and Indian rupees, avoiding US sanctions that could have been used to stop the sale.


In addition to bartering, some countries have developed parallel payment systems, to avoid relying entirely on the SWIFT system, and to provide an existing alternative in the event of economic sanctions being imposed on them.


Countries such as China also tended to adopt a digital currency directly linked to its central bank, and it can be used inside the country, as well as Chinese companies can be paid by it from buyers from outside the country, which eliminated dependence on the dollar or the “Swift” system.


end of the road?

The magazine believes that at the individual level, currency exchange agreements, alternative payment systems, and digital currencies will not have a definitive effect on the effectiveness of US sanctions, but together these innovations increasingly give countries the ability to conduct transactions through sanctions-resistant and secure channels.


This trend seems irreversible, as there is no reason to believe that relations between Washington and Beijing or Washington and Moscow will improve anytime soon, and the most likely scenario is that things are getting worse day by day, which will push Beijing and Moscow to redouble their efforts to circumvent sanctions and minimize their effects.


Of course, the worsening fragmentation of the global financial system and its transformation into separate islands poses a threat to US diplomacy and national security.


In addition to undermining the effectiveness of sanctions, the emergence of sanction-resistant financial channels will have an impact on the ability of the United States, which will increasingly have a blind spot when it comes to detecting global activities that it deems "illicit." Tracking suspicious financial transactions or those that originate from specific countries is vital to Washington.


All this means that within a decade, unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States may have little effect, and multilateral measures are likely to be the best alternative for it, but formulating these sanctions will be more difficult, as it will require consensus and diplomatic efforts.






Monday, May 29, 2023

Foreign Policy asks: "What drives the Western media to filter out a lot of international news or to neglect it completely?"

    Monday, May 29, 2023   No comments

The American magazine "Foreign Policy" revealed the role of the media in concealing massacres around the world, especially those that are bloody and are more deadly than others.


As an example, the newspaper said that in the year 2013, in the Central African Republic, a massacre took place in which hundreds of civilians were killed, but the surprise is that even in the neighboring regions, the population did not know about it, because the media was purged of its news, and the survivors did not dare to speak about it.


And the newspaper added that so far the press is unable to cover many events in the world, and while the media is preoccupied with the Ukrainian war, the deaths in the conflict in the Central African Republic have not been counted, even the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the bloodiest in the world since World War II, It did not appear on news sites.


The newspaper attributed the reasons to a lack of interest in places that are considered remote, and violence against people who are seen as different from others, as it put it.


Another problem, she said, is that news from places like the Central African Republic and Congo often needs to travel to London or New York before it reaches countries like Nigeria and India.


This means that so much international news is filtered through a Western lens or left out altogether, that the lack of international news outlets in the Global South leaves huge gaps in coverage even when millions of people die in the world's deadliest wars.


Monday, March 27, 2023

UNSC failed to get Nord Stream blast international independent investigative commission

    Monday, March 27, 2023   No comments

The UNSC, which literally stands for the United Nations Security Council, and whose mission “is to maintain international peace and security;” failed to adopt a resolution that “would have established an international independent investigative commission into the September 2022 “acts of sabotage” committed on the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.”

The vote, or lack thereof as was the case this time, shows how politicized this UN body has become. If the attack on an asset established to transact trade between a number of nation-states is not of concern to the UN body charged with maintaining peace and security, then what is?

The politics of power and control are not limited to the halls of the UN. The media, too, is deep in the business of writing narratives that are highly political and less informative. This screen capture shows how some of these media outlets reported about the vote: “Russia fails at UN to get Nord Stream blast inquiry” when the fact is clear: the UNSC failed to get Nord Stream blast inquiry.

It is because of media bias and the ineptitude of the UNSC that countries are invaded, peoples exploited, and resources and pillaged by the rich and powerful.

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Comparing Scenes from the Protests in the Garden of Prosperity and the Celebration of Nowruz in "Women-Oppressor" Iran

    Thursday, March 23, 2023   No comments

In this week’s media review report, we would like to highlight the disparity in media coverage of social events when they happen in the West versus when the happen in Muslim-majority countries. We propose this media review because the constant and consistent negative coverage of protests in Muslim-majority countries and radio-silence when violent protests and brutal police handling of protesters in the Garden of Prosperity must be challenged as a matter of equity and as a matter of freeing the human rights discourse from political manipulation.


When protests in Iran were instrumentalized to portray yet another government in yet another Muslim-majority country as authoritarian regime ruling over an Islamic society still in need of the paternal protection of the civilized world, the progressives and liberals in the West jumped on the bandwagon. How could they be wrong if someone from somewhere stated in some social media platform that Iran executed 14,000 protesters? Reflexively, even politicians joined in. The Canada’s prime minister amplified the post and condemned Iran for not respecting the rights of peaceful protests.

Here we are weeks deep into the many “peaceful” protests across Europe, and in France, especially, with scenes of heavily armed police violently clashing with unarmed protesters. Yet, not a single Western government called for an end to the violence and the use of force against peaceful protesters.

This is not about using one case of protesters and counter-protesters’ measures to legitimize police brutality against civilians in any country or in all country. It is about the incessant, constant, consistent, and overwhelming media stream portraying violence happening in a Muslim-majority country as a normal event suggesting that Muslims are of violent nature, and the total blackout and abysmal coverage of protests in the West and the violent handling of protests in the West. It is the overwhelming negative coverage of Muslim-majority countries, the absence of any images or stories that depict positive aspects in Muslim-majority countries, and the lack of coverage of the violence that happens in the West that provide a bigoted narrative, and it is this negative narrative that produce a draft of history that is deeply flawed and cruel to people of the Global South.

Here is a glimpse of the deliberate selective coverage: during the same time when Iranian men and women, yes women, were celebrating the new Persian; the streets of Paris and other major French cities were literally on fire. The police were beating, dragging, and arresting protesters. No word of concern for the use of excessive force was uttered by any Western leaders.

When Iranians protested the death of an Iranian woman, all Western leaders reacted; they introduced resolution of condemnation in world organizations, and they imposed sanctions on Iranian individuals and institutions. The world was told that Iran is no place for women to walk the streets without head coverings, and those who do risk arrest and death at the hand of the police. That is a damning narrative not just for Iran, but for Muslims in general.


But when there is evidence of Muslim women in Iran and elsewhere in Muslim-majority countries walking the streets, and celebrating holidays in public spaces wearing or not wearing a range of head coverings, such scenes are suppressed, because they provide a counter narrative to the one that has been portraying Muslims as "woman-oppressing" peoples.

Friday, March 10, 2023

Media Review: The New York Times: The Tehran-Riyadh agreement in Beijing is a great loss for Washington's interests

    Friday, March 10, 2023   No comments

 A report in the American New York Times spoke about the issue of the Iranian-Saudi rapprochement, which came after Chinese mediation, on the basis of which the first meeting between the two parties was held in Beijing today, Friday.

And the American report considered that "the restoration of Iranian-Saudi relations, as a result of Chinese mediation, is a great loss and doubles the interests of the United States."

The New York Times report added, "The announcement by Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore diplomatic relations between them could lead to a major restoration of order in the Middle East."

It also considered that this rapprochement "represents a geopolitical challenge to the United States and a victory for China, which mediated the talks between the two historical rivals."

The newspaper stated, "It was not immediately clear how the breach announced today, Friday, would affect Saudi Arabia's participation in Israeli and American efforts to confront Iran," but it pointed out that "the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two regional powers represents at least a partial melting of the ice of the Cold War." that shaped the Middle East for a long time.


News of the deal, particularly Beijing's role in mediating it, worried foreign policy hawks in Washington, the report confirms, as Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said, "The renewal of Iranian-Saudi relations as a result of Chinese mediation is a loss, loss, and loss for American interests."

He said it showed that Saudi Arabia "lacks confidence in Washington" and that Iran could isolate US allies "to ease its isolation." It also indicated that China "has become the main sponsor of power politics in the Middle East."

The report concludes that this rapprochement in relations is supposed to affect Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon mainly, and these are the files that witnessed a major conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia regarding the political approach towards them.

Several Arab parties, most notably Egypt, the UAE and Qatar, welcomed the Iranian-Saudi rapprochement, stressing that it would contribute to creating a positive climate in the region and contribute to its stability and security.


Wednesday, March 08, 2023

Is the West losing the propaganda war to China? "Is the [pro-Ukraine group] named Biden Administration?"

    Wednesday, March 08, 2023   No comments

Researchers who monitor the global media will not miss the fact that Chinese media has been more focused these days on analyzing Western media reports than on pumping their own stories. The war in Ukraine and the pressure on China to take side have increased the Chinese media output of stories that depicts Western media and western governments as inconsistent, and biased. This social media post by a Chines official tells the story; the story of how western governments’ action have made it easy for Chinese media and Chinese officials to do their work and appear cool at the same time.

 "Is the [pro-Ukraine group] named Biden Administration?"

The editorials in China’s global media, GT, tell the rest of the story.

The performance of the US and Western media once again illustrates that their so-called independence and professionalism are selective. It's not just the US and Western media, but almost the entire Western world is very passive in seeking the truth behind the Nord Stream bombing. At a recent related UN meeting, the UK showed "tolerance," holding that more investigations are unnecessary and claiming it was unclear why the Russian Federation is suddenly pursuing the issue with such urgency. Many countries including Germany, one of the biggest victims of this incident, has yet to make a public statement. 

 

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

The "double standard" of the British media... This is how London's lies were promoted before the invasion of Iraq

    Wednesday, January 18, 2023   No comments

The British "Declassified" website talked about the role of the British media in promoting the lies of the British government before the invasion of Iraq.

The site said that the British media repeated the government's lies and fabrications without scrutiny, and became part of the government's propaganda machine, before the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

He pointed out that the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, provided the British public with false information twenty years ago about the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction, in order to prove the case of the illegal invasion of Iraq.

He added that Blair was not tried yet, but was honored and given the "Rabat" medal, which is the highest honor in the British Kingdom, pointing out that the journalists who repeated his lies were not tried either, but rather climbed the ladder of the profession to its highest levels.



On the other hand, those who dared to expose the lies of the war, such as the Australian journalist Julian Assange, are now in prison.


According to the site, there were serious investigations into false reports about Iraq in the United States, while this was not the case in Britain, where the press and broadcast media became an advanced part of the government propaganda machine.


Likewise, senior British journalists reported uncritical lies about the British government, often adding new fabrications of their own, according to the site.


He added that the Guardian newspaper, for example, "swallowed" the Blair government's bogus claim that Saddam Hussein's agents were looking for uranium in Africa to buy a nuclear bomb.



Under the headline: "Iraq file: African gangs offer a path to uranium - the nuclear suspicion lies with the Congo and South Africa," the newspaper claimed that it had seen secret documents proving contacts between African militias and Baghdad.


The Observer was "more intelligent and creative on the pro-war case," looking for more interesting angles to prove actual or alleged Saddam Hussein's malevolence, such as a 1,560-word interview with a woman claiming to be a former lover of Saddam Hussein, whom she claimed was With Osama bin Laden as a guest in one of Saddam's palaces, and that Saddam was financing Osama.


In turn, the "Sunday Telegraph" newspaper pumped a huge amount of government propaganda, as it published sensational reports that fueled public anxiety on the eve of the war, according to the site.


On January 19, 2003, the newspaper claimed that UN weapons inspectors "discovered evidence that Saddam Hussein is trying to develop an arsenal of nuclear weapons." Indeed, when the weapons inspectors issued their verdict a few days later, they concluded no such thing.


Meanwhile, critics of the war were marginalized or vilified. The site pointed out that Scott Ritter, the United Nations weapons inspector, has repeatedly questioned the allegations of Britain and the United States about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, stressing that the importance of his words were downplayed, while the narratives of the attack were reinforced.


Sunday, January 08, 2023

Iran: Paris must observe the basic principles of international relations, such as respect, non-interference, and respect for the national and religious sanctities of others

    Sunday, January 08, 2023   No comments

Paris must observe the basic principles of international relations, such as respect, non-interference, and respect for the national and religious sanctities of others

The Iranian embassy in Paris responded to the recent abuse of the French newspaper "Charlie Hebdo". Stressing that this behavior contradicts the standards and controls of international law, and contradicts the principle of freedom of expression, and constitutes a violation of the sanctity of personalities and peoples, launching a campaign to spread lies, disgraceful expressions and hate speech, and is a clear example of the violation of human rights.


The embassy added, in a statement, that this measure indicates the selective and deceitful attitude in using the principle of freedom of expression, which this newspaper, which is proud of its disgraceful behavior and its hostility to religion and religious values, has been using since ancient times to justify its disgraceful behavior and its obscene expressions against peoples, their beliefs and sanctities.


The statement stressed that Charlie Hebdo, which falsely claims to defend women's rights, and by publishing very obscene and disgraceful pictures in its latest issue, as it committed the most heinous abuses against women, revealed its truth based on the use of women as a tool.


In its statement, the Iranian embassy also called on the concerned French authorities to take the necessary measures, as a matter of urgency, to prevent this newspaper from continuing its abuses and to stop spreading lies and hatred resulting from it, as this will definitely lead to bad and destructive results in terms of relations between the two peoples and the two countries.

Last month, the French magazine "Charlie Hebdo" launched an international competition for the best cartoon of the Iranian guide, with the aim of mocking him, saying, "We wanted to support the struggle of Iranians for their freedom by ridiculing this religious leader and returning him to the dustbin of history."

The magazine announced that it had received more than 300 cartoons and published a large group of them. As a result, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it had summoned the French ambassador to Tehran, against the background of the publication of “Charlie Hebdo” cartoons insulting to the Iranian leadership.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said: “The Islamic Republic of Iran does not accept insulting its Islamic and religious sanctities and national values in any way, and France has no right to justify insulting the sanctities of other Islamic countries and peoples under the pretext of freedom of expression.”


Kanani referred to “the black record of the French magazine in attacking the Prophet of Islam, the Holy Qur’an, and the religion of Islam,” stressing that “this hateful, insulting, and unjustified act is borne by the French government.”


Friday, December 30, 2022

The correspondent of the Danish public service station, Mathilde Kimer, reveals that the Ukrainian intelligence services asked her to carry out propaganda work for Ukraine, in order to prove that she is not pro-Russian

    Friday, December 30, 2022   No comments

Denmark's leading historian of the war in Ukraine, Matilde Kimer, revealed last week that "the Ukrainian secret service has revoked her permission to work in Ukraine and will not return it, unless she agrees to let the spy agency direct its reporting."

“The proposal was made to her by an officer of the Ukrainian Security Service, the intelligence agency known as the SBU, during a meeting this month in Kyiv, which was also attended by two diplomats from the embassy,” Kimer, the award-winning Moscow correspondent, told Danish public service broadcaster DR. Danish".

Kimer added that Cavalli had told her, by phone from Copenhagen, that "a lot of multiple accusations had been made against her, and there was a lot of talk about random photos from her Facebook profile, primarily the photos taken in Donetsk in 2017."

According to Kimer's Facebook account, "an intelligence officer named Oleg told her that the photos she posted on the social network from the Victory Day parade on May 9 in Donetsk were suspicious, because they showed decorated people and vehicles, which the Ukrainians are preparing." Illegal Soviet propaganda.


Kimer said that when she asked the Danish diplomats how to convince the Ukrainian intelligence service that she was not working on Russian propaganda, the Ukrainian official suggested that Kimer agree to produce a series of "good stories" about the war, based entirely on the video and photos he provides her. State Security Apparatus, and published it on its Facebook page, in order to prove that it was not pro-Russian.



Friday, December 02, 2022

Times: Banning alcohol gave women the chance to enjoy the World Cup without hassle

    Friday, December 02, 2022   No comments

There is no questions that explicit and implicit bias against Arabic and Islamic societies and their values systems were present during this FIFA World Cup hosted by Qatar. In addition to the bigotry expressed by German politicians and players, mainstream western media focused on promoting their own rights agenda without respect for the laws and cultures of host nations. 

To put things in perspective, imagine yourself going to person who is hosting you in their home, and instead of enjoying their company and hospitality, you decide to protest, while in their home, the fact that they are running a dry home require you to take your shoes before you step in their living room. Yet, that is exactly how some Western leaders and players behaved while in Qatar.

However, it seems that if they listen to some members of their social groups, especially those historically marginalized, they might end up see some of the benefits of creating an inclusive space that is not built on propaganda and identity politics.


A report by the British newspaper The Times quoted testimonies of a group of English cheerleaders who accompanied their country's national team to Doha in order to encourage the "Three Lions", confirming that they were not subjected to any harassment, and they also considered that the decision of the Qatari authorities to prevent alcoholic beverages during the matches contributed to a certain extent. Great in that, and they described the Qatar World Cup stadiums as more suitable for women to watch the matches compared to what is happening in their country.

Between truth and deception

British young woman Ellie Moloson, 19, is leading a wide campaign in her country, calling her the slogan "It's her game too" in order to make football stadiums more welcoming to women, because of the harassment they are exposed to during matches, and before she came to Qatar to support her country's national team, she felt a lot. She was so worried that she asked her father to accompany her to Doha for their protection.


However, Moloson admitted in a statement to the British newspaper that she discovered that she "did not need to disturb her father, because the World Cup stadiums in Qatar are different from what they are in her country."


"I must say that coming here was a real shock for me," she said in the report prepared by journalist Davey Brown.


The report considered that the Qatar stadiums provided a more suitable atmosphere for women than those in England, and the young Moloson - a student from Nottingham - admitted that she also had preconceived notions before going to Qatar, "but the reality was nothing like this, I did not suffer from any One of the inconveniences I experienced in England," she said, adding, "I don't know how they achieved it, but it's a great environment to experience."


For his part, Moloson's 49-year-old father, who works as a teacher, explained that he came to Qatar with the aim of taking care of his daughter, but he admitted that he discovered that he did not need to do so because of what he discovered in her.


Thursday, November 03, 2022

The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly, 185 to 2, Thursday to condemn the American economic embargo of Cuba

    Thursday, November 03, 2022   No comments

The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Thursday to condemn the American economic embargo of Cuba for the 30th year, with the Biden administration continuing former President Donald Trump’s opposition and refusing to return to the Obama administration’s 2016 abstention.

For the second year in a row, the vote in the 193-member General Assembly overwhelming--185 countries supporting the condemnation, the United States and Israel opposing it, and Brazil and Ukraine abstaining.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said before the vote that since 2019, the U.S. government “has escalated the siege around our country, taking it to an even crueler and more humane dimension, with the purpose of deliberately inflicting the biggest possible damage on Cuban families.” 

US disregard to the will of the global community was mirrored by the absence, bias, or blunt Western press coverage of the event. 

Here is a sample, for reference purposes.





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