Commentary

Freedom of the Press, Trudeau-Freeland Style

- Tony Seed -

Banner drop at illegitimate Lima Group's meeting in Ottawa, February 4, 2019.

As part of the brutal information war on Venezuela and other questions, Global Affairs, the Canadian foreign affairs ministry, denied accreditation to the South American news agency TeleSUR and blocked it from covering the highly irregular meeting of its Lima Group in Ottawa on Monday, February 4. In addition, three Russian news agencies were prohibited from attending the official press conference.

On February 3, TeleSUR, which describes itself as "a news outlet that provides coverage on a historically underreported range of topics with a focus on the Global South," reported that no reasons were given for the denial.[1]

Canada's foreign ministry issued the same terse response to Russian media outlet Sputnik News as it did RIA Novosti's application for press credentials for the meeting: "Thank you for your interest in the 10th ministerial meeting of the Lima Group in Ottawa. This letter is to inform you have not been accredited as media." It leads one to ask what is really on the agenda of the closed door meeting that Global Affairs and the Lima Group have to hide? What is the criteria for this seemingly unprecedented provocation of a Cold War type? What gives this government the right to decide which are the legitimate news agencies and journalists? This act sets an extremely dangerous precedent.

Incoherence

Different reasons for denying credentials are being given by Global Affairs, which are incoherent, inconsistent and contradictory. The CBC reported "A Canadian government official told CBC News that TeleSUR was not granted access because it is a state-sponsored propaganda outlet." The CBC is a state-owned Crown corporation.

TASS, the Russian media agency, whose correspondent is resident in Ottawa, was also denied credentials.[2] President of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery Philippe-Vincent Foisy, a Radio-Canada reporter, told CBC News that ITAR-TASS is an accredited member of the gallery and the failure to accredit the outlet was a source of concern. "The gallery will be seeking explanations from [Global Affairs Canada] to safeguard the access expected for gallery members. If ITAR-TASS was indeed denied accreditation it is problematic," he said. "I would note that Canada could set an example for all by embracing access to reporters even from state press agencies or others they don't necessarily agree with, as long as there are no security concerns."

In addition, Richard Walker, Canadian spokesperson for the Lima Group, according to Sputnik, had responded by saying that the Russian news outlet was rejected for a "lack of respect to the Canadian Foreign Minister." Canada commits despicable acts and then its thin-skinned representatives fear the words that describe them. It would have been odd indeed if the Russian journalists and media had not been disrespectful to a government that is a member of a military bloc that has massed tens of thousands of troops on its borders, and votes against UN resolutions condemning the glorification of Nazis. If "lack of respect" was a crime, few journalists in Canada would survive.

The Lima Group is a self-appointed grouplet of countries cobbled together by Canada and Peru in August 2017 outside the United Nations and outside the Organization of American States. Its sole aim is to unify the external and internal forces aiming for regime change of the constitutional government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in violation of international law and the UN Charter. The U.S. and Canadian governments have launched an international information campaign to champion this objective that utilizes their diplomatic missions, the internet, social media, and the monopoly mainstream media networks. In parallel, U.S.-owned and operated "social media" monopolies, using conspiracy theories and propaganda masked as "intelligence," are intensifying censorship of news and thought about Venezuela.[3]

At the February 4 press conference announcing the illegitimate coup plan of the Lima Group, Freeland self-righteously declared to the Canadian and international media, referencing a protest of two women who had gained access to the press conference, that it showed that "here in Canada we are a democracy. We respect all points of view" -- in contrast to Venezuela, the "dictatorship." She seems to think that Canadians have forgotten the armed force used against Unist'ot'en Indigenous people just last month in British Columbia or the 1,200 people brutally arrested opposing the G-20 Summit in Toronto in 2010.

Liberal Disinformation on "Misinformation"

In its report on the meeting of the Lima Group on February 5, the Globe and Mail reported yet another reason for the censorship: "A senior Canadian government official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said Russian media outlets Sputnik, RIA Novosti and TASS as well as Venezuelan state-owned television station, TeleSUR, were denied access to the Lima Group meeting [February 4] because of concerns they would spread misinformation about the event." So much for "respecting all points of view"!

The accusation of "misinformation" by foreign media aims to divert from the disinformation being carried by the state and the media in its service and its aim to block the empowerment of the people -- in this case how should Canadians discuss and work out solutions to the intervention and aggression by the government in the internal affairs of other peoples and nations. The idea of deception by Russian media in Canada fits perfectly with ongoing government attempts to present public opinion against intervention in Venezuela, U.S. war plans, and NATO as "foreign" and a danger to "national security" on the road to criminalizing it.

Apart from at no time actually explaining just what is meant by its insinuation of "misinformation," the Global Affairs modus operandi is sleazy and the rationale offered by the anonymous and unauthorized "senior Canadian government official" is as unconvincing as the irregular Lima Group; nothing is open and aboveboard.

Liberal Contempt for Journalists

Over the past year, Freeland, an ex-journalist for the financial media (The Financial Times, The Economist, The Washington Post and The Globe and Mail) and hence somewhat experienced in fashioning false narratives, has made headlines speaking out on behalf of the "courageous" Jamal Khashoggi of the Washington Post (previously a censor for the Saudi regime) and a blogger from Saudi Arabia, and two Reuters journalists in Myanmar in South Asia. Why are these journalists more equal than other journalists? It is a matter of concern that the Canadian government has been virtually silent about the scores of murdered, beaten, arrested, disappeared or deported journalists in Ukraine (from Ukrainian, British, Italian and Russian news agencies), Palestine and South America. It does not consider these journalists part of what it decrees to be the "international community" nor working in its service. The official silence speaks volumes about a contempt for democratic freedom of expression, conscience and information. The extrajudicial killing of journalists is a violation of human rights and international law given impunity by the Government of Canada and Global Affairs.

Nevertheless, the question today arises as to whether or not Global Affairs deems TeleSUR and the three Russian media agencies providers of "fake news" and on the basis of what criteria.

While Global Affairs and the Trudeau government fulminate against "dictatorship" in Venezuela and "fake news," the censorship of foreign news agencies and journalists is part of the dictate being wielded by the government according to NATO edict, as well as the private media monopolies, including social media in their service, to disinform and wreck public opinion in Canada and the Americas, and thus disempower people.[4]

Canadian Journalists Should Speak out

The role and responsibility of journalists cannot be understated either. For example, on a CBC panel on the evening of February 4, John Paul Tasker of CBC News, who admitted that the hoped-for defections from the Venezuelan military "are not serious," openly stated that Canada should intensify its sanctions against Venezuela. "We have to tighten the screws on the people, hit them where it hurts, in the pocket books." This propaganda is a crime against humanity.

The response so far to the arbitrary actions of Global Affairs towards media agencies and journalists is lamentable. None of the journalists assembled at the press conference in Ottawa demanded an accounting from Freeland. The Globe and Mail on February 5 falsely described TeleSUR as a "state-owned television station," as if to justify the denial of accreditation by Global Affairs. The monopoly corporation which runs The Globe and Mail, with major business interests well outside the news business, apparently does not censor news, publish disinformation or blacklist journalists. On World Press Freedom Day 2018, the Toronto Globe and Mail devoted its entire front page to memorializing journalists who had been killed in the preceding year. Noticeably absent were journalists of Russian, Ukrainian, Palestinian, Syrian and Latin American origin.

Canadian journalists should reject the official mantra that journalists must be and are "neutral" as if they are deer frozen in the headlights or stenographers of power. They must speak out as well in support of TeleSUR and other news agencies, rather than discrediting them on the basis of the country of their origin or their employer. There is no journalist who has been denied accreditation nor expelled from Venezuela and the Russian Federation on the basis of employment with the "state-owned" Canadian Broadcasting Corporation nor for "lack of respect" of a foreign minister. What's fair is fair, no?

Notes

1. According to Wikipedia, TeleSUR "is a Venezuela-based, multi-state funded, Latin American terrestrial and satellite television network headquartered in Caracas," launched in 2005 as "a socialist answer to CNN."

There have been many cases of media outlets deliberately misreporting what is occurring in Venezuela. One example is the continued misrepresentation of media ownership in Venezuela. More than 70 per cent of the media in Venezuela is privately owned, with 25 per cent being in community hands and only about five per cent being controlled by the state. Forty per cent of households have cable TV -- giving access to Fox and CNN en Espanol. Almost all private media have shown bias in favour of the opposition. A study of the three main private TV stations conducted by the Carter Centre during the 2013 presidential elections, found they dedicated 79 per cent of their election coverage to opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.

In response, TeleSUR pushed back. It pointed out:

"In a recent Supreme Court case from November 2018, Canada's Supreme Court ruled unanimously against a journalist for Vice Canada, Ben Makuch, over his reporting on Islamic State Group terror cell member Farah Shirdon, a Canadian citizen turned Islamist fighter. By court ruling, Makush was required to hand over all documents related to his story which 'sets an extremely worrying precedent and is a blow to press freedom in Canada,' according to Alexandra Ellerbeck, Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) North America program coordinator.

In another case from 2017, TeleSUR notes, "the Canadian police forces were accused of monitoring at least seven journalists, getting access to cellphone records, in a bid by Quebec provincial police to help them solve the case of an informant among their ranks. Canada's denial of press credentials thus follows a pattern of attacks against any journalism that doesn't fall completely in line with government directives."

Along with police spying on journalists, TeleSUR might have added that there is no law guaranteeing freedom of the press in Canada, much less protecting sources.

2. TASS, founded in 1904, is the largest Russian news agency and one of the largest news agencies worldwide, along with Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. TASS is registered as a Federal State Unitary Enterprise, owned by the Government of Russia. Headquartered in Moscow, TASS has 70 offices in Russia and in the Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as 68 bureaus around the world.

The RIA Novosti news service and Sputnik, a multimedia platform, are both owned by Rossiya Sevodnya, a news agency owned and operated by the Russian government, created by an Executive Order of the President of Russia on December 9, 2013. According to the Decree of the President of Russia, the mandate of the new agency is to "provide information on Russian state policy and Russian life and society for audiences abroad." Rossiya Sevodnya was in charge of accreditation of journalists for the 2018 FIFA world championship, a process which went without controversy.

In response to Canada denying credentials to attend the meeting of the Lima Group, Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik, stated:

"In Canada, they have officially said that they [Sputnik journalists] were denied access to the meeting in Venezuela because our correspondent had not been kind enough to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The entire editorial board has tried for a long time to understand and find out what happened, what the incident was -- and we have not found or remembered anything. Perhaps it was because of the critical articles published by us on Canada's foreign policy, which probably offends the minister. The most critical thing we have found was that one of our authors wrote that Canada became a 51st U.S. state, which largely is fair."

3. Just days before the journalists were barred from the Lima Group's press conferences on Venezuela, Twitter confirmed it had deleted thousands of social media users' accounts. A total of 1,196 Twitter accounts based in Venezuela, suspected of attempting to "influence domestic audiences," were purged in January and a further 764 accounts deleted the week before the Lima Group meeting. Twitter claims its mass purge of accounts was for "engaging in a state-backed influence campaign," though as the website venezuelanalysis.com points out it also admits: "We are unable to definitively tie the accounts located in Venezuela to information operations of a foreign government against another country."

This growing pattern of censorship on Venezuela by the U.S. virtual monopolies was most intense in August 2018, in the context of the attempted assassination by armed drones of President Nicolás Maduro and the entire leadership of the Venezuelan state on August 4. The U.S. government and the media in its service promoted conspiracy theory allegations that the assassination was staged. Fox Sunday News declared, in an interview with U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, "Venezuela's government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote decried by dozens of nations."

CBC and CTV National News all but openly declared that the assassination attempt simply did not happen. (For the response of the media and politicians encouraged by the attempted murder of President Maduro, see "Venezuela: Politics of Assassination," by Tony Seed, August 5, 2018.)

On August 9, 2018, Facebook suspended the page for Venezuelanalysis.com without credible explanation, targeting a news site that showcases articles sidelined by the mainstream media about Venezuela, with the intent of challenging the regime change bias in such media. The news site observed it was part of a wider censorship spree in the U.S. that stems from the orchestrated hysteria around Russiagate. It was later restored, after an official appeal, without explanation. Facebook also deleted the page for Venezuela's TeleSUR just a few days later for the second time in 2018, in what began to appear as a concerted campaign of censorship against sites supporting the legitimate government of Venezuela. TeleSUR's page was reinstated a few days later, without an explanation as to why it had been deleted.

The move appeared part of a Facebook purge, advised by the "Digital Forensic Lab," which is associated with the Atlantic Council, a political wing of NATO based in New York City.

In September 2018, U.S.-owned "social media" continued their campaign of censorship against Venezuelan government accounts and those supporting the Venezuelan government. Twitter, without explanation, blocked the account of the Presidential Press of Venezuela. (Thanks to Maximilian Forte, Encircling Empire, for some of the links.)

The implementation of a system of censorship is being placed in the hands of Facebook and Google. The social media mega-giants have been presenting themselves as a legitimate force to police political discourse. This places censorship outside of the public domain, beyond the reach of public mechanisms that are supposed to provide recourse to such an abuse of police powers.

4. For an indepth discussion on the "Weaponization" of social media, see "NATO on Social Media -- The Threat to Liberal Democracy," TML Weekly, February 24, 2018 -- No. 7.

This article was published in

Volume 49 Number 5 - February 16, 2019

Article Link:
Commentary: Freedom of the Press, Trudeau-Freeland Style - Tony Seed

    

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