Suppression and Information in the Digital Age

Upon learning that courts authorized government seizure of Zaman, Turkey's largest circulation newspaper, editor in chief Abdulhamit Bilici said, "I believe that free media will continue even if we have to write on the walls.  I don't think it is possible to silence media in the digital age."

His statement reflects the reality of the digital age, that people will be able to get information regardless of the attempts by authorities to suppress information they find inconvenient.  On the one hand, we will have access to the raw material of events.  The one element that is lost, however, with the demise or suppression of traditional journalism is the context for that raw material that helps us understand what it means.

Of course,  traditional journalism has often been used to manipulate readers.  There's rarely been a shortage of media that want us to think one way or another but even so, the variety of diverse journalistic sources has allowed those who want to inquire more deeply into a subject to access different takes on events.  At least that's the theory.  With newsrooms shutting down or laying off staff and the concentration of media under a few corporate owners, those diverse sources are disappearing or greatly diminished.  In their place much of what passes for information on-line is simply opinion or superficially sourced, if at all.  

So I admire Mr. Bilici's defiance and wish him much success in whatever form his next efforts take.  But in the meantime, Turks will have one less perspective on their government.

Talk of War

Reports of the latest US drone attack in Pakistan in the Washington Post read considerably more definitively than the at the BBC. Both sources identify the primary target but the BBC is more circumspect on the status of the remaining dead. The WP reports them as extremist fighters, no doubt simply repeating the Pentagon press release.

Of course extremist fighters and enemy dead can often mean civilians. Civilian dead from air strikes has a long and infamous history, of which this war is only the latest episode. For a truly grim account of US attacks on civilians in Vietnam and the subsequent cover-ups, I recommend Nick Turse's article about Operation Speedy Express in The Nation

The drone war on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is the "bloodless war" for the United States. No American human beings are at risk, a luxury not afforded to anyone down range from the drones' gun sights. No pilots will be shot down and subjected to the unspeakable retribution of these primitive people. No, the pilots guide their craft via remote control from Nevada. A while back I read an article about the pilots working in a war zone and living in Nevada that raised questions about the kind of post-traumatic stress reactions likely from this kind of duty.

Which brings me back to my on post traumatic stress, my constant urge to scream at my fellow Americans, "DON'T YOU KNOW THERE'S A FUCKING WAR GOING ON!" The urge seems to be growing these days, probably a combination of the new administration and the likelihood of little real change in American policy. Late November and early December are also the dates that recall my own transition into Vietnam so I'm probably that much more aware of war and its consequences these days.

Of local note, the 81st Brigade of the Washington National Guard is now deployed in Iraq (second tour) and one of the 2nd Infantry's Stryker Brigades is preparing to deploy from Fort Lewis for its second tour.

Yeah, there's a fucking war on. And it's not all bloodless drones.

Repression and Some Good Reporting

Anthony Shadid writes of political freedom and repression in Egypt with words that sound depressingly like CheneyBush's America:

The state has launched its most serious crackdown in a decade on the Muslim Brotherhood, arresting hundreds, sending 40 of its members to military courts, with no right of appeal, and freezing the assets of wealthy patrons. In Alexandria, the government sentenced a blogger, Abdel-Karim Nabil Suleiman, to four years in prison for, among other things, defaming the president.

For my money, Anthony Shadid is the best correspondent and writer reporting on the Middle East. He has the knowledge and language skills to understand all levels of that culture. He describes the feel of people's lives, thier hopes and fears in what is for most Americans, an alien world. The article on Egyptian repression is filled with observations from the people involved.

Any relationship with any foreign power, but especially the Americans, is the kiss of death," he said. "We don't need this kiss."

[...]

"The Arab spring is happening because of Bush's policies," Alaa Seif, a young blogger, said at the time, a cup of coffee next to his computer. "But it's not the way they think about it. It's the other way around. They did mobilize people, and they still are."

[...]

"On first class, they're not looking for suspects."

Shadid's book, Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War, is a highly informative, very readable account of Iraq in the first year of the occupation, a time when there was still hope but also much trepidation.