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Personal Reflections on The Old Oak

  Anthony Frajman writing for the BBC quotes Director Ken Loach articulating the themes of Mr. Loach’s film, The Old Oak . Firstly, the importance of setting the film in “…. the area where the old industries have died….” affecting English communities “…. who'd been abandoned” after defeat in the 1984 miner’s strike who, years down the track are still struggling economically. Secondly, the depiction of the “plight of refugees” that “…. had suffered the trauma of war” , taking the form of torture and destruction of homes resulting in these people being housed within the aforementioned deprived English communities . Thirdly, Mr. Frajman, quotes Mr. Loach asking the critical question: “Could these two communities find a way of living side by side, or would the potential that racism could emerge, would that occur, and would that dominate?" In the Film the spectre of racism did emerge, but it did not, for me dominate as a theme. The reason can be found in the power of ...
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Media Spin Versus a Careful Reading of ICJ Orders

  The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday 26 th January 2023 delivered orders related to South Africa’s complaint concerning the ongoing Hamas-Israeli war in Gaza. It is clear from the ICJ orders that the risk of Genocide being committed against Palestinians living in Gaza is a plausible one and merits further investigation. The ICJ consequently ruled that Israel must take action to prevent such an outcome. This is a devasting blow to the Israeli State and no amount of spin can detract from this. We need to carefully read this Order to understand how this is the situation. It is clear from this that the ICJ has ordered the Israeli State to stop killing Palestinians. The need for protection is urgently needed if the serious risk of the Israeli State committing genocide is to be avoided. The ICJ has effectively called for the immediate halting of Israeli military operations. It is these operations that are causing the death and mental trauma of Palestinian civilians in ...
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A Binary Dilemma: Deciding what Online Content to Allow and What to Take Down

 In this post I will have a look at what has been happening in the debate concerning misinformation and disinformation in the web sphere since my last post: Code of Practice on Disinformation. A Comparative Analysis: Methodological Limitations The public debate between Thierry Breton, the Commissioner [Kommissar] for Internal Market of the European Union (EU) and Mr. Musk’s X (formally Twitter) web platform revolves around the degree to which X is fulfilling its obligations under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA). The manner in which the EU and the press has reported this controversy manifests in the narrative that X is not doing enough to combat disinformation and is not meeting these obligations. As a result, the EU has been forced to take further investigative action in this regard. This narrative is misleading in that not much is being said about what X is doing to balance the moral and democratic value of free expression with the need to combat harmful commentary pos...
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Former-PMs Statement Discordant Morality

October 30, 2023, marks the publication of an epistle entitled Statement by Former Prime Ministers of Australia . This document was signed by six former Australian Prime Ministers; henceforth referred to as the former-PMs. Missing from the list of signatories was the name of one other living former-PM, namely Paul Keating who, when approached refused to put his name to this document. In their commendable effort to bolster social harmony within the context of multi-cultural Australia the former-PMs express sentiments that most Australians would agree with. The aspiration that there be “…. no place in our country for racial or religious hatred,” a nd the “…. tenaciously evil race hatred” that is at the root of antisemitism. So, they are correct in their declaration to “…. Speak for the vast majority of Australians, of all faiths and of none, when we say we stand with solidarity with Jewish Australians at this time…. Likewise, we stand too with the Australian Palestinian community wh...
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Code of Practice on Disinformation. A Comparative Analysis: Methodological Limitations

There has been much ado in the press over the last month or so concerning the Twitter platform (Twitter X) and its alleged inadequacy in tackling the phenomena of disinformation/misinformation. As discussed in my previous post Potency of the European Union's Code of Practice on Disinformation the European Commission’s (EC) has put into place the Digital Service Act (DSA) which came into effect on August 25, 2023. On September 26, 2023, Lisa O’Carroll wrote an article published in The Guardian with the following headline: EU warns Elon Musk after Twitter found to have highest rate of disinformation . Ms. O’Carroll reported: “The EU has issued a warning to Elon Musk to comply with sweeping new laws on fake news and Russian propaganda, after X – formerly known as Twitter – was found to have the highest ratio of disinformation posts of all large social media platforms.” The laws Ms. O’Carroll referred to are those enshrined in the DSA. Ms. O’Carroll made reference to a report that und...
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