Mass media security

EVEN THE FBI AGREES: WHEN UNDERCOVER AGENTS POSE AS JOURNALISTS, IT HURTS REAL JOURNALISTS’ WORK

THE FBI DOESN’T want the public to know more about how its agents pose as journalists during undercover investigations.

But, in a federal court case, Justice Department lawyers confirmed the most significant criticism of the controversial practice. The government acknowledged in a court filing that FBI agents who pretend to be journalists create a chilling effect, making it harder for real journalists to gain trust and cooperation from sources.

The astonishing admission came as the FBI attempted to fend off litigation from Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which has filed requests for documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Reporters Committee’s litigation involves documents related to an FBI undercover operation in which agents posed as documentary filmmakers from a fake company called Longbow Productions to investigate Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters. In response to the Reporters Committee’s records request, the FBI issued a Glomar response — in which the agency neither confirms nor denies that it possesses records relevant to the FOIA request.

Mass media security

Death, Diamonds and Russia’s Africa Project

The murder of three Russian journalists last week in a remote area of the Central African Republic, the world’s poorest country according to the World Bank, has turned a spotlight on what looks like a big Kremlin play for influence and resources in Africa. Where China has spent decades and billions of dollars trying to entrench itself there, Russia is offering its brute force and strong appetite for risk. It’s already making headway.

The three journalists, Orkhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguev and Kirill Radchenko, were in the Central African Republic working on an investigative film about the Wagner private military company. That's a secretive Russian contractor linked by news reports to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a St. Petersburg catering entrepreneur close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Mass media security

Russia warns it may restrict US media within its borders

The latest in a string of saber-rattling announcements between the U.S. and Russia saw Moscow claiming it was within its rights to restrict the operations of U.S. media.

Russian officials have accused Washington of unfairly targeting the U.S. operations of RT, a Kremlin-funded broadcaster accused by some critics of interfering in domestic U.S. politics, according to a report from Reuters.

“We have never used Russian law in relation to foreign correspondents as a lever of pressure, or censorship, or some kind of political influence, never,” Maria Zakharova, the Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman said in an interview with Russia’s NTV broadcaster. “But this is a particular case.”

Mass media security

CNN Exposed – Emmy Winning Former CNN Journalist Blows The Whistle: CNN is paid by foreign and domestic Government agencies for specific content...

CNN is paid by the US government for reporting on some events, and not reporting on others.  The Obama Administration pays CNN for content control.

Let that sink in.

Additionally CNN and CNN International are also paid by foreign governments to avoid stories that are damaging, and construct narratives that show them in a better, albeit false, light.

Amber Lyon is a three-time Emmy winning investigative journalist and photographer. She accuses CNN of being “fake news.”

Back in March 2011, CNN sent a four person team to Bahrain to cover the Arab Spring. Once there, the crew was the subject of extreme intimidation amongst other things, but they were able to record some fantastic footage. As Glenn Greenwald of the UK’s Guardian writes in his blockbuster article from September 4th 2012...

Mass media security

Russian Editor Who Reported On Vladimir Putin's Circle To Take Study Leave

The editor-in-chief of Russia's RBC media group, whose outlets published disclosures about the commercial interests of people close to President Vladimir Putin, is to leave her job to start a sabbatical four months earlier than planned.

A source close to the media group said the departure of the editor-in-chief, Elizaveta Osetinskaya, may have been brought forward under pressure from Kremlin officials who were displeased with the publications about Putin's inner circle.

A Kremlin spokesman denied the media group or its owners were being subjected to pressure.

Law enforcement officials last week searched the offices of Mikhail Prokhorov, the tycoon who controls RBC. People close to the media group said the raid was linked, at least in part, to official anger at their reporting.

Mass media security

Beijing is banning all foreign media from publishing online in China

In the latest sign that China’s long-touted “opening up” is reversing into a “closing down,” a Chinese ministry has issued new rules that ban any foreign-invested company from publishing anything online in China, effective next month.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s new rules (link in Chinese) could, if they were enforced as written, essentially shut down China as a market for foreign news outlets, publishers, gaming companies, information providers, and entertainment companies starting on March 10. Issued in conjunction with the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), they set strict new guidelines for what can be published online, and how that publisher should conduct business in China.

Mass media security

Turkish Author Elif Shafak: 'We've Forgotten How to Laugh'

Words are heavy in Turkey, and every writer, every poet and every journalist knows that, because of a word, because of a sentence, because of a tweet or even a retweet, you can be sued, you can be demonized by the media and you can even land in prison. So when we write, we write with this knowledge in the back of our minds. And if someone says: I am not affected by this, I would not believe that person. The truth is: nobody can escape this pressure. And as a result, there is a lot of self-censorship. When I am writing political op-eds, yes I do think carefully about the impact of my words. When I am writing fiction, it's a different story. In my fiction I am more reckless. I don't care about the real world until I am done with the book.

Mass media security

Pro-Russian, Putinist, go to Moscow, traitor, soldier of Medvedev

No matter whether you graduated from the best universities in the U.S., no matter what degrees you hold, no matter how competent an expert you are, no matter how good a career you have, no matter how suitable you are for the position even if you weren’t the son-in-law, you are still the son-in-law… 

Even if you are the most deserving person for this cabinet post with your career, with the schools you graduated from, with your expertise, you are, nevertheless, irredeemable of becoming the most debatable name in the government. 

Take-home message: Being the son-in-law is, contrary to what is believed, a disadvantage instead of an advantage.