At his Wednesday 20 November 2019 address to the National Press Club, Attorney-General Christian Porter said the federal government is pursuing “immediate” defamation law reform. The announcement seemed a bit odd, as defamation is a subject for state and territory governments to legislate on. A NSW-led law reform process has been ongoing for years. Read the rest of this entry »
UK election 2019: is Brexit dominating the media campaign? – David Deacon, David Smith and Dominic Wring
26 11 2019
Is the UK’s 2019 election a single-issue campaign centered on Brexit? Some newspapers clearly think so, with the Daily Mail and the Sun having already branded it the “Brexmas Election”. These declarations reflect a strong desire to see the Conservatives triumph and for Boris Johnson to enact his core promise to “Get Brexit Done”. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: David Deacon, David Smith and Dominic Wring, Election, The Conversation
Categories : Government and Policy, Journalism
Facebook’s not a threat to the UK election – Anamaria Dutceac Segesten,
22 11 2019
The Cambridge Analytica scandal of March 2018 changed the status of Facebook forever. The revelation that a political consultancy had illicitly gained access to the data of millions of Facebook users forced the company to change its approach to privacy, including its rules and algorithms. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Anamaria Dutceac Segesten, Elections, Facebook, The Conversation
Categories : Government and Policy, Social Media
Free broadband: internet access is now a human right, no matter who pays the bills – Merten Reglitz
19 11 2019
The UK Labour Party is promising to provide free broadband internet to every British household by 2030 if it wins the 2019 election. To do this, the party would nationalise the broadband infrastructure business of BT and tax internet giants like Google and Facebook. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Merten Reglitz, The Conversation
Categories : Government and Policy, Human Rights, Internet
UK election 2019: partisan press is pulling out all the stops against Labour – David Deacon and Dominic Wring
17 11 2019
The idea that there’s no such thing as bad publicity could well be tested in the UK’s 2019 election campaign. So could the proposition that the only worse thing than people talking about you is people not talking about you, if our research into press coverage of the election is any indication. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: David Deacon, Dominic Wring, General Election, The Conversation
Categories : Government and Policy, Journalism
Analysis shows horrifying extent of abuse sent to women MPs via Twitter – Susan Watson
16 11 2019
The approach of a rare December election in the UK has many campaigners feeling chills. What misery awaits them on the dark, cold streets as they try to convince voters to support their party? My preliminary research reveals that the women who bid for political office over the next six weeks have more to worry about than sore feet and aggressive dogs. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Susan Watson, The Conversation, Trolling, Twitter, Women MPs
Categories : Harassment, Social Media
Twitter’s ban on political ads does change the game in one – Liam Mcloughlin
6 11 2019
Twitter has announced that it is banning paid-for political adverts, just as the UK enters a general election, saying that the reach of political messages “should be earned, not bought”. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Liam Mcloughlin, Political Advertising, The Conversation, Twitter
Categories : Social Media
Journalists must not allow themselves to be used by unscrupulous politicians – Steven Barnett
27 10 2019
Here are three questions that anyone interested in the health of UK democracy should be asking. Should reputable political journalists allow themselves to be exploited as conduits for the unfiltered messages of political leaders? Where does accurate reporting end and uncritical stenography begin? Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Steven Barnett, The Conversation
Categories : Journalism, Media
Freedom of thought is under attack: here’s how to save your mind – Simon McCarthy-Jones
22 10 2019
Freedom of thought stands at a critical crossroads. Technological and psychological advances could be used to promote free thought. They could shield our inner worlds, reduce our mental biases, and create new spaces for thought. Yet states and corporations are forging these advances into weapons that restrict what we think. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Freedom of Thought, Simon McCarthy-Jones, The Conversation
Categories : Human Rights, Legal
How freedom of expression in academia is under threat from academics themselves – Steven Greer
20 10 2019
Freedom of expression has long been extolled by those who love freedom generally. As George Orwell once said: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” And, according to the European Court of Human Rights, this includes offending, shocking and disturbing. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Academic Freedom, Steven Greer, The Conversation
Categories : Freedom of expression
