FREEZE SPEECH BYJASUIS

Last night there was a big Ecumenical bonfire, lit on the border of Tyrone, in Ireland, with coal from Coalisland, astroturf from the Omagh and Cookstown 1916 societies, which was further fuelled by diesel from south Armagh, and wooden pallets from east Belfast, There was a couple of stolen sheep from the mountains of Mourne and a goat from Ballymena brought along, with some spuds from Carrickmore, to provide sustenance for the revellers. Some of the people's whiskey of Fermanagh and some dope from Derry were also brought over. The occasion was called to celebrate the Declaration of War on Free Speech by Obama and Cameron in Washington the previous day, after the Charlie Hebdo operation in Paris.






The enclave was attended well enough, with a couple of Papal Nuncios, representatives of the Free Presbyterian Church, the Orange Order, the Blueshirts and the Fleggers, all in attendance. There was a multitude of dissident women there too, from numerous paramilitary groups also there, all wearing balaclavas, so they couldn't be identified. The Apprentice bhoys and the Altar bhoys were also in attendance. Dirty Marty and the informer Kelly from Belfast were also in attendance, along with some of the Murphys from South Armagh and old IRA bouncers from Belfast. Iris was also there with her latest toy boy. Anyway, the convention started off civil enough, but as the night wore on and with the effects of the people's whiskey and the dope, voices began to rise among the various enclaves, gathered around the bonfire. Eventually the Xpensive Quill was called on, to deliver a speech, and was aided by one of his adjutants from Tyrone, to stagger on top of a few Shankill pallets, while supported as best as possible for his cupla focal, which went something along the following lines.


"Kamerads, we are gather to celebrate this wunderbar occasion, to Freeze Speech and I have brought along Irish literature, that I want you all to burn here tonight with me, as a token of your commitment to Censorship in Ireland. Included are the Irish Times, the Journal, the Irish News, the Belfast Newsletter, the Bible and a print out edition of Irish Blog" At which point he was interrupted by Iris, who stood up and screamed blasphemy of her Holy Bible, who shouted, "Let’s stop this, can you think of anything more vile than man and man or woman and woman and sexually abusing children? What I say I base on biblical pronouncements, based on God’s word. I am amazed that people are surprised when I quote from scriptures. It shows the churches either aren’t preaching God’s word or are watering it down. Now the Xpensive wants to censor it. I cannot think of anything more sickening than a child being abuse, as she ordered her toy boy to hit him a slap, which he duly did and flattened him. The Apprentice Bhoys then demanded that south Armagh Willie, make a speech, who appeared a little dopey from inhaling the smoke around the bonfire. Anyway Willie got up on top of the Shankill pallets, trampling on the Xpensive in the process. Willie's rant went along the following lines.


"Brethren, this indeed is as glorious as any twelfth of July bonfire. I have brought along my darling goat, which is of the same bloodline, that my father's, father's, father's, father wore out, for entertainment for my Flegger bhoys, an effigy of the Pope, a tricolour and photos of these murdering scum from over there, pointing towards, Crossmaglen, at which point the Murphys and a dozen of their cult members, battered poor Willie, with their hurleys, until the dissident women pulled them off him and fought off the fleggers, which eventually became woman to woman and man to man stuff, while poor Willie moaned, 'No Surender.' It was then proposed by the 1916 societies, to censor all further speeches or debate and that everyone was ordered to throw a sod of astroturf on the fire instead, as a token of their solidarity with Freeeze Speech. The Girr and Geogh, ordered every Irish book, since the foundation of the Freeze State, be burned immediately. The Papal nuncio nodded his head in approval, as several large crates of censored Irish literature were produced, which included the publications, still censored. These included Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Baise-moi, A Clockwork Orange, Ulysses by James Joyce, Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan, George Orwell, Edna O'Brien, ad infinitum...mostly all from the Freeze State, with some more from the Orange Scum state, both created after the 1916 rising, by Sinn Fein, along with the Blueshirts  and the help of the British thereafter.


Well after the book burning, the Apprentice Bhoys gave a rousing rendition of Croppies Lie Down, Kick the Pope, while they battered their big Lambeg Drums, as the took turns to ride Willie's goat around the bonfire.The conclaves of the astroturf 1916 rising, kept piling on the astroturf, as they sang seven drunken nights, while the liberated, dissident women, sneaked into the darkness in pairs, with their arms wrapped around each other, from which could be heard moans, groans and screams of Tiocfaidh Ar Oiche. The Murphy's started another row with the Fleggers and battered them with their hurleys. Willie kept on muttering about diesel and cigarettes, while yelling, 'mind me goat', until he was censored by Dirty Marty, who then had to rush off, to catch a plane to London to lick the Queen, while Kelly was on the phone to MI5, MI6, the PSNI, the Guards, Dads Army, the British Army and anyone who would listen to him, who had set up a buffer zone around the bonfire, to protect it from any Irish Freedom Fighters, who did not approve of censorship. The old IRA were also on the phone in large numbers, complaining to Facebook, to censor Irish Blog and in particular the Petition on the Care2 News Network, to bring Britain to the International Criminal Court, for the genocide of six million Irish in the Holocaust.


Well as the night wore on, the Papal Nuncios and the Altar bhoys, drifted into the darkness too, where cries of pain and pleasure now filled the air, as the Orange Order along with their Apprentice bhoys and the goat joined them. Eventually everyone left was drunk, except the remaining dissident women, who were looking at the stars, through the smoke filled air, with only their balaclavas on, as Iris and her toy boy joined them, for a truly ecumenical conclave of orgiastic, feminine delight, something along the lines of the liberated Sile na Gigs, undercover in Irish museums. Eventually the 1916 societies, ran out of astroturf and whiskey, deciding to have a final session, with a Clar, in which the first item on the agenda, was another split, followed by the second item, which included, the burning and censoring of the Proclamation, to be replaced by a revised document, that included devomax, a welfare state, their election manifesto and the stoning of Irish Blog, for being a blasphemer, all of which, was to be expedited, when everyone sobered up and were detoxed.

YO MAMA OBAMA !

One World of Nations 



This has gone out to all key US Government and Intel Agencies. Furthermore it has gone out to all key countries Leaders, and their Intel Agencies.

It names, shames and shows conclusively the vast thefts and scandal American Shadow Government control has become, as it has destroyed Democracy in America, and feeds like a Leech off the blood of the country. The Shadow Government and Cabal are a DISGRACE. History will judge them so badly, as deserved. TRAITORS, THIEVES, CON MEN AND PARASITES.

These disgusting men have denied America and the world a peaceful future. They, and their Zionist CRIMINAL BANKERS, are bloodsuckers. Parasites.

Industry and Commerce needs this money. The world is changing fast. Revolution is coming and when so, this vacuous scum will be tried and dealt with. 

America can not afford the Military Industrial Cabal.

It never could.

A bloated Military causes chaos and cripples the economy. Mass reduction is needed, and vast Budget Cuts. 50% of all Military Spending has to stop now.

1,500 Pointless Agencies now feed off the country and world. 50,000 useless reports a year issued.

THEY ALL NEED TO BE CLOSED DOWN! 

Zionist control of the US Treasury, Wall Street Banks and Fed needs to end. Forcefully!

This Usurper needs to be impeached as deserved. The Charade has gone on way too long. It makes a mockery of America.

This JOKE of a SPEAKER needs to speak up for America. Speak up for the people. For Democracy, for rights. GO BACK AND READ THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS SO GREAT ETHOS DUMMY!

Remember, you poorly educated and Illiterate bunch of Clowns passing as Leaders, you Mediocrities of Power, how the French Revolution ended after the storming of the Bastille? 

 

Putin's mom was a good Christian lady. Maria was totally devoted to her son Vladimir.		Obama's teen-mom was promiscuous and did soft porn.            *That's really her! Slutty Feminist Stanley Ann Dunham divorced twice and abandoned little Barry when he was 10.

Young Putin was serious.		Young Obama was a pot-smoking clown. A self described "lazy student", Obama has a passion for smoking marijuana. (later on used cocaine)

Shining a Light on Black Operations

This 5-part documentary is a great expose on the national surveillance state that has arisen over the last 50-100 years. Manipulating elections, overthrowing foreign governments, and secret assassinations are just a few of the heinous acts committed in the name of national security. Now that Edward Snowden has blown the lid off of the NSA's Prism snooping program, this film series is even more important and relevant.

Part 2: The Deep State
For the first time during the Iran-Contra scandal, Americans get a look at the secret programs and operations of their government. Other topics include Watergate and the War on Drugs. The War on Drugs is essentially a massive coverup that allows criminal syndicates to generate massive profits and commit acts of murder and bribery with impunity throughout the United States and South America.


Part 3: The Strategy of Tension
The Strategy of Tension examines the history of false flag operations used for war, propaganda and psychological operations--or 'psy-ops.' Operation Northwoods and Operation Gladio are examples used to illustrate the nature of clandestine operation planning and execution; as well as shedding light on the intent and extent to which the National Security apparatus manipulates events and manufactures outcomes to suit its goals. This programme also looks at the issues that spin off from the history of false flag operations--such as how conspiracy theories are used to discredit inquiry and investigative journalism; and also how the cultural preconditions around dismissing false flag operations serve to protect their continuation and 'plausible deniability.'

The Deep State explained on Huffington Post as Conspiracy goes Mainstream

huffingtonpost.com/john-tirman/nsa-deep-state_b_3569316.html
...........So we have had now for at least a dozen years the growth of a parallel state that operates by its own rules, in secret, and in ways that would be considered unconstitutional. (I know we needn't remind our readers of what the Fourth Amendment guarantees, but just to refresh your memories: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.") Again, what's important here is not the mere incidence of the government violating the Constitution, but the creation, nurturing, shielding, and rapid growth of structures that institutionalize an alternative authority, set of rules, and permissible action.

When, years ago, I was researching a book on Turkey, then under the sway of its military, observers would often speak darkly of "the deep state" -- those hidden, powerful, extralegal agencies and cadres that would act on their own authority. Other countries would have them too, usually enabled by police ministries or intelligence agencies. Dissidents, out-of-line newspaper editors, priests and nuns speaking truth to power, union organizers -- these types would come under the scrutiny and often the harsh reprisals of the deep state.

Now we know: the United States of America is partially governed by a deep state, undemocratic, secret, aligned with intelligence agencies, spying on friend and foe, lawless in almost every respect.

If this doesn't constitute a coup d'etat, it's hard to imagine what would. People we barely know of -- the director of NSA, the eleven judges on FISC, who knows who else -- are running the deep state. The actual president seems just fine with everything it's doing, or is so weak-kneed he can't see fit to put an end to it. I'm not sure which is worse.

We have known for many years that corporate money in politics had essentially bought Congress at the expense of the middle class, the environment, and other popular causes. The Israel Lobby owns U.S. policy in the Middle East. Other lobbies -- Big Pharma, military contractors, agribusiness -- have corrupted policy for profiteering through campaign spending and other old tricks of the Washington trade. But the deep state is a different phenomenon -- less about money or corporate privilege, far more about a security pathology that has become embedded, empowered, and rogue, constitutional governance be damned. The seduction of policymakers by corporate money is sad. The psychotic, parallel state is terrifying.
image from ejkred.blogspot.com

BRITISH MILITARY INTELLIGENCE CONTROL POLITICAL POLICING OF BRITISH OCCUPIED IRELAND

The 1916 Societies held a well attended and highly successful discussion in the Ashgrove Centre in Portadown on Saturday past, March 1st, to highlight the ongoing issue of political policing and the continued presence of British Military Intelligence at the heart of the policing process in the occupied six-counties. Darragh Mackin from KRW Law was joined on the panel by eirigi's Breandan MacCionnaith and Stephen Geraghty from recently formed human rights group, Justice Watch Ireland.

Much of the discussion focused on the use of a 'stop and search' policy on behalf of the PSNI as a tool of political harassment as well as continuing attempts by both the PSNI and MI5 to coerce young people in the six-counties into working as state-paid informers and how such attempts constitute a severe infringement of the right to life guaranteed under the European Convention.

Following a contribution from the floor by Dungannon republican Packy Carty it also became evident that efforts to tackle this issue of informer recruitment through the office of the Police Ombudsman, in relation to a recent attempt by uniformed PSNI Officers to recruit a young man in Dungannon in broad daylight in a crowded street, had revealed the accountability mechanisms supposedly contained in the Patten reforms to deal with such infringements were in effect non-existent and in their own words 'not the business of the Ombudsman's office'.

This is a startling contradiction of the propaganda which tells us the PSNI is now accountable locally, nothing could be further from the truth. An estimated 40 percent of the force has ties to MI5 structures and often such ties - due to the the fact MI5 is beyond the reach of the Patten reforms - effectively means the accountability structures supposedly put in place to prevent the type of abuses witnessed when the PSNI was known by its old title - the RUC - in many instance are effectively compromised.

That MI5 should have no role in policing given its sordid history - much of which has yet to be fully exposed - should be self-evident but the reality is they occupy a central role within the prism of policing in the north of Ireland today despite assurances to the contrary. This has severe implications for the political position of those apologists of the PSNI who maintain we have been in a new policing dispensation since 2007. Given the unaccountable role British Military Intelligence plays in policing then any such notion has been well and truly put to bed. It has been categorically shown to have no basis under the current policing reality.

All in all the days events demonstrated to those in attendance that policing in the north of Ireland has failed to make the promised strides forward in terms of local accountability those still condemned to live under Britain's authority in the six-counties were promised under the banner of the 'new dispensation'. Quite simply this has never materialised.

Alongside the all-pervasive role of MI5, within both policing structures and wider society itself, it goes to show that we are not as far removed from the conditions that gave rise to the myriad human rights abuses attributed to the British state during the recent armed conflict in this part of Ireland as some would have us believe. This should be a cause of concern for us all.

1916 Society Press Statement

REAL NEWS : Chris Hedges on Obama's Syria Address

GESTAPO COURTS OXYMORON PEACE PROCESS WITHOUT DUE PROCESS BRITISH OCCUPIED IRELAND

Annie Machon

Director, LEAP, formerly MI5

Gestapo Courts

A lot of sound and fury has been expended in the British media over the last few months about the Coalition government's proposal to enact secret courts via the proposed Justice and Security Bill - purely for terrorist cases, you understand. Which, of course, is OK as we all know terrorists are by definition the Baddies.

Except we need to drill down into the detail of the proposals, have a look at some history, and think through the future implications.

The concept of secret courts emerged from the official UK spook sector - MI5 and MI6 have been lobbying hard for such protection over recent years. Their argument revolves around a number of civil cases, where British victims of extraordinary rendition and subsequent torture have sued the pants off the spies through civil courts and received some recompense for their years of suffering.

The most notorious case was that of Binyam Mohamed, who was repeatedly tortured in a black prison in Morocco, with British spies allegedly contributing to his questioning. And we're not talking about a few stress positions, awful as they are. Mohamed was strung up and had his penis repeatedly slashed with a razor.

MI5 and MI6 are aggrieved because they could not defend themselves in the resultant civil actions brought against them, and they (and their former political master Jack Straw) are particularly worried about future cases around the MI6-organised Libyan renditionsexposed last year. The spies' argument is that having to produce evidence in their own defence would damage that ever-flexible but curiously vague concept of "national security".

Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?

The spooks have traditionally used the "national security" argument as the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card. It has never been legally defined, but it is unfailingly effective with judges and politicians.

We saw similar arguments during the post-9/11 security flap, when many terrorist suspects were scooped up and interned in high security British prisons such as Belmarsh on the say-so of faceless intelligence officers. No evidence needed to be adduced, nor could it be challenged. The subsequent control order system was equally Kafkaesque.

That's not to say that certain interned individuals might not have been an active threat to the UK. However, in the "good" old days (god, I sound ancient), suspects would have had evidence gathered against them, been tried by a jury, convicted and imprisoned. The system was never perfect and evidence could be egregiously withheld, but at least appeals were possible, most notably in the case of the Birmingham Six.

Since 9/11 even breathing the word "terrorist" has meant that all these historic common law principles seem to have been jettisoned. Even before the proposed enshrinement of "secret courts" in the new Bill, they are already being used in the UK - the Special Immigration Appeal Commission (SIAC) tribunals hear secret evidence and the defendant's chosen lawyer is not allowed to attend. Instead a special, government-approved advocate is appointed to "represent the interests" of the defendant who is not allowed to know what his accusers have to say. And there was no appeal.

But all this is so unnecessary. The powers are already in place to be used (and abused) to shroud our notionally open court process in secrecy. Judges can exclude the press and the public from court rooms by declaring the session in camera for all or part of the proceedings. Plus, in national security cases, government ministers can also issue Public Interest Immunity Certificates (PIIs) that not only bar the press from reporting the proceedings, but can also ban them from reporting they are gagged - the governmental super-injunction.

So the powers already exist to protect "national security". No, the real point of the new secret courts is to ensure that the defendant and, particularly in my view, their chosen lawyers cannot hear the allegations if based on intelligence of any kind. Yet even the spies themselves agree that the only type of intelligence that really needs to be kept secret involves ongoing operations, agent names, and sensitive operational techniques.

And as for the right to be tried by a jury of your peers - forget it. Of course juries will have no place in such secret courts. The only time we have seen such draconian judicial measures in the UK outside a time of official war was during the Troubles in Northern Ireland - the infamous Diplock Courts - beginning in the 1970s and which incredibly were still in use this year.

As a former MI5 intelligence officer, I am not an apologist of terrorism although I can understand the social injustice that can lead to it. However, I'm also very aware that the threat can be artificially ramped up and manipulated to achieve preconceived political goals.

I would suggest that the concept of secret courts will prove fatally dangerous to our democracy. It may start with the concept of getting the Big Bad Terrorist, but in more politically unstable or stringent economic times this concept is wide open to mission creep.

We are already seeing a slide towards expanding the definition of "terrorist" to include "domestic extremists", activists, single issue campaigners et al, as I have written before. And just recently information was leaked about a new public-private EU initiative, Clean IT, that proposes ever more invasive and draconian policing powers to hunt down "terrorists" on the internet. This proposal fails to define terrorism, but does provide for endemic electronic surveillance of the EU. Pure corporatism.

Allowing secret courts to try people on the say-so of a shadowy, unaccountable and burgeoning spy community lands us straight back in the pages of history: La Terreur of revolutionary France, the creepy surveillance of the Stasi, or the disappearances and torture of the Gestapo.

Have we learned nothing?

Follow Annie Machon on

 Twitter: www.twitter.com/anniemachon

IRISH BLOG REAL NEWS CHRIS HEDGES SYRIA OBAMA

People of the World are Fighting Back

What the deluded Americans do not seem to realize is that they are on their own. The only entities willing to support their aggression on Syria is Saudi Arabia and Israel.

By Finian CunninghamAugust 31, 2013 "Information Clearing House -  The United States of America stands exposed in the eyes of the entire world as the number-one terrorist threat to the future of humanity. Many have known this fact already, but now it is universally clear.

As the US prepares to launch an overt war on Syria (the covert war has been raging for 30 months), the vast majority of humanity can finally see through all its decades of pretense and conceit as the world’s model of democracy and international law. And what they see is the ugly opposite. The US is a terrorist state that holds international law, democracy and human rights in utter contempt. It is ready, as it always has been, to kill countless civilians for its selfish political ambitions. That is the conventional definition of “terrorism”.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad made a profound point recently when he said that his country has faced aggression for more than two years, but only now is the real enemy revealing itself - the US and its minions. But the US terrorist state is not just being called out over Syria. It is being revealed as the enemy to the entire world.

From past wars in the Caribbean, Central America, Philippines, Vietnam and Indochina, through coups and covert ops in Iran, Iraq, Africa, to recent killing fields in Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia, the historical picture is now complete. All these conflicts and many more - too many to mention here - integrate into one indisputable truth. The US is the world’s biggest terror state. If it is not dealt with definitely, then the future of the world is in peril more than ever.

In previous crimes of aggression, the US ruling elite could invoke the spurious cover of “a coalition of the willing”, or the abused authority of the United Nations or NATO. It was able to do that through deployment of lies, fabrications and a supine mass media that would lend credibility to the mendacity. Now, thanks to alternative, critical media and instant global communications, the American lies don’t work any longer. In an instant, they are exposed; just like the attempt in the last few hours of US Secretary of State John to frame up Syria over alleged chemical weapons use.

The New York Times, BBC and the usual Western media mouthpieces for imperialist propaganda dutifully facilitated Kerry and his US state terrorism with bombastic, important-sounding headlines: “Kerry lays out evidence against Syria”. There was hardly a critical question raised, even though there are grounds for dozens such questions. Years ago, that kind of herd-think might have been enough to buy the US warmongers enough time to launch a war - but not any more. Within minutes of Kerry’s supposedly definitive condemnation, statements, articles, tweets and blogs were pulling the charade asunder, showing that apart from Western-media-amplified bombast, Kerry was not saying anything of value. It was just another risible repetition of earlier hyperbole and empty rhetoric. Or in short, lies.

The people of the world have reached a critical mass of intolerance towards the rogue terror states of the US, Britain, France, Israel and a few other accomplices. We have watched their relentless mass murder and exploitation of fellow humans in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. We have witnessed how this tiny group of state terrorists imposes on the vast majority of humanity their vile criminality and in the process then insult us with grotesque lies and justifications. We have seen how these rogue states have stolen land, poisoned people’s water, burnt their crops, dispossessed their homes, assassinated families with aerial drones and ground drones in the form of death squads. They have committed all these shocking crimes with lies and impunity to the point where now these state terrorists are operating in more than one country simultaneously in a permanent state of relentless war, pushing the very future of humanity to the brink.

However, despite this lawlessness and gangsterism, the people of the world are fighting back.

This week the British parliament voted against the London government’s arrogance to provide its usual criminal special relationship to the Americans. In the execution of past war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya - to mention a few - Washington could rely on the trusty British imperialists to give a veneer of “coalition of the willing”. British premier David Cameron’s plans to repeat the criminality by backing Washington’s plans to bomb Syria were dealt a crushing blow by the British parliament voting against any such military action. Cameron was forced to withdraw. The vote in the British parliament is not so much a sign of ethics among Britain’s political class. It is
more a reflection of the global awakening among ordinary citizens that this insane state terrorism must stop.

The French government has also backed off earlier bellicose bravado, with French President Francois Hollande belatedly calling for a “peaceful, political solution” over the Syrian crisis. Even Washington’s reliable Canadian puppet Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said that his country will not be getting involved military in Syria. It is also reported that 10 members of the NATO alliance - one-third of the total - are not willing to support American strikes. This latter grouping comprises the usual minions of the US. And we haven’t even yet acknowledged the more strident opponents, such as Russia, China, Iran and the majority of nations elsewhere in Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The people of the world have had it with elite Western rulers acting as terrorists who are holding humanity to ransom. The rulers are presiding not only over military terrorism. They are inflicting economic, social and ecological terrorism with their bankrupt capitalist smash-and-grab system. That system has reached the point of meltdown and that is why we are being pushed into relentless wars - in order for the rulers and their politician puppets to corner the remaining resources. The ultimate solution to end the wars is for the people to overthrow the economic system that US and Western elite rulers preside over. The insane criminality of the US rulers over Syria is exposing this historic challenge facing humanity.

After the British parliamentary setback the US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said: “Our approach is to continue to find an international coalition that will act together. It is the goal of President Obama and our government... whatever decision is taken, that it be an international collaboration and effort.”

Can you believe how ridiculous these American puppets sound? What the deluded Americans do not seem to realize is that they are on their own. The only entities willing to support their aggression on Syria is Saudi Arabia and Israel. So, how’s that for credibility? The only support Washington can muster is from a feudal, sword-wielding, head-chopping regime and a criminal pariah genocidal state. Coalition of the Willing? More like Coalition of the Killing.

NSA BLACKMAIL OBAMA MI5 GERRY ADAMS PARTY ??

ulick Mikkeline Peter Robinson shared a flat with William McGrath while all this was happening.


   LINK: NSA Blackmailing Obama?

http://pbepr.wordpress.com/


Link to Article on British Establishment Paedophiles


http://www.missingpersons-ireland.freepress-freespeech.com/lindsayBrownpaedophile.htm


Dunblane

PRESIDENT GIVES PRESSTITUTES A TONGUE LASHING RT

President Michael D Higgins: “Even in those parts of the world where citizens are no longer misinformed by an ideological state media control, the risk of censorship can still present itself in the form of monopolies and oligarchy.” Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

Mary Minihan

• Topics:
• News

Wed, Jun 5, 2013, 01:00

First published:Wed, Jun 5, 2013, 01:00

   

Censorship has many forms, President tells journalists’ congress

Media ownership, structure and technology all exert editorial influence, journalists hear

President Michael D Higgins has warned the International Federation of Journalists’ world congress meeting in Dublin that the risk of censorship can present itself in the form of “monopolies and oligarchy”.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the conference that continues until Friday, Mr Higgins said the threat to impartial and free journalism could flow from within the media sector as well as from without. “It can flow from the concentration of power of owners, cross-ownership, advertisers’ pressure or even from the reticence of journalists to challenge received wisdom,” he said.

Mr Higgins said the media “landscape” had changed considerably in recent decades and journalism would be practised in changed circumstances in future, thanks to the concentration of ownership, the fragmentation of audiences and the convergence of technologies.

Monopoly and oligarchy
“Even in those parts of the world where citizens are no longer misinformed by an ideological state media control, the risk of censorship can still present itself in the form of monopolies and oligarchy.”

A mass media characterised by the rise of large transnational media players brought new challenges for journalists, the President said. A less diverse media would be less willing to challenge received wisdom or the interests of those in power.

“Journalists attempting to investigate and provide information on political and corporate corruption can often be hindered and intimidated by those with vested interests.”

Mr Higgins said the principles of diversity and pluralism must be protected to promote a free flow of ideas and information and strengthen the exercise of freedom of expression around the world.

He said mass media appeared to be converging on a set of online technologies to deliver content. He said this had some very profound opportunities for journalism, because it opened up a potentially global audience by rendering national borders redundant.

The possibilities for citizen journalists, civic groups and “dispossessed” people to “take control of their own narratives” were also immense, he said. However, he said the consequences must not be ignored.

Search engines
“The tools by which people seek to order and parse this flow are potentially hugely powerful. Already we can see the editorial power being granted to search engines,” he said.

These technologies could exercise an increasingly powerful role in how people access media.

“Similarly it is easy to see how this globalisation of content might allow popular commercial material to become the exclusive preserve of large multinational content-providers.”

Mr Higgins said the “commercial middle ground” and the platforms people used to view content might come under the control of what he described as “vertically integrated media companies”.

He added physical attacks on individual journalists were attacks on the very foundations of human rights.