Thursday 4 October 2018

Media Quotes of the Week: From Canary accused over deportation of journalist to Labour drops press complaints over Corbyn wreath-laying stories




Mark Di Stefano on BuzzFeed: "The Committee to Protect Journalists says a freelance journalist writing for the Guardian and Washington Post has been arrested and deported from Nicaragua after a 'targeted online harassment campaign'. Last week, Carl David Goette-Luciak's reporting on anti-government protests in Nicaragua was attacked by US journalist Max Blumenthal in an article published on an American website called Mint Press and British left-wing site the Canary.The Mint Press article was titled "How an American Anthropologist Tied to US Regime-Change Proxies Became the MSM's Man in Nicaragua", while the Canary ran the headline, "Investigation slams Guardian cooperation with novice reporter linked to US regime-change machine."


The NUJ in a statement: "Carl David Goette-Luciak, who has been reporting from the country [Nicaragua] for The Guardian and The Washington Post, was seized from his home in Managua on Monday, held in detention for five hours at the airport and then deported to San Salvador in El Salvador. During his detention and interrogation he was accused of attending illegal protests, disseminating false information, threatened with torture and accused of being a CIA agent. His arrest came in the wake of online reports, smears and personal information, including his home address, being widely circulated."
  • Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary:“Unfounded accusations against journalists of being spies, agents and terrorists are tactics used by repressive regimes throughout the world. Online smear campaigns designed to add to that pressure clearly serve to increase the risk and danger to all journalists working in already difficult environments."

The Canary encouraging a Twitterstorm against the Guardian for its coverage of Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism: "On 27 September, Media Reform UK released a report that said the media wrongly reported on antisemitism in the Labour Party. And the Guardian is named as one such culprit. But it’s not just media analysts that have questioned the Guardian‘s stance. Plenty of readers, including those on the left, have started to wonder what role the newspaper really plays. That’s why the #BoycottTheGuardian Twitterstorm will be an important moment. It will display, in public, a growing suspicion of the newspaper’s relationship with the powerful. And it’s something we can all take part in."



Canary editor-in-chief Kerry-Anne Mendoza  @TheMendozaWoman on Twitter: "You did it! #BoycottTheGuardian is trending! Well done everyone for making a stand for quality, diverse and honest journalism. Together we're going to rebuild the media. And everyone but the establishment will benefit from it."


Financial Times editor Lionel Barber @lionelbarber on Twitter: "So we now have Corbynistas #BoycottTheGuardian on top of promised press regulation from official Labour. What exactly are they afraid of?"


Jim Waterson and Peter Walker in the Guardian: "The Labour leader also showed his attitude to the media by simply skipping much of the press round, which usually accompanied a party conference speech, such as a traditional interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Newspaper reporters learned the hard way about how they were now perceived by the party – their desks at the conference were situated outside the main building, in a tent in a car park accessed by following signs for a 'dog exercise area'."


Julia Hartley-Brewer @JuliaHB1 on Twitter: "I have now been BANNED from Labour Party conference for making THIS Twitter joke about their absurd #SafeSpace. It seems we now have to get all jokes pre-approved by @jeremycorbyn. Ridiculous & sinister to ban a journalist from doing her job cos you don’t like her joke."



Donald Trump mocking reporter Cecilia Vega of ABC at press conference, as reported by Business Insider: "I know you're not thinking. You never do."


Owen Jones in the Guardian on the Sky News interview with Tommy Robinson: "The British media are not going to defeat the far right. They will continue to give a platform to them and legitimise their leading figures. The press, in particular, will keep feeding them by spreading hatred and lies about Muslims, migrants and refugees. The far right will not be debated out of existence. It will be defeated, not by the media’s clever bastards, but by a left that offers hope and combats racism and bigotry without apology."


Simon Jenkins in the Guardian on party conferences: "Don’t go to party conferences. Ignore them. They should be banned. When blind loyalty meets crazed dissent fuelled by personal ambition, the result is a disease, a ghastly rash on the body politic. The overheated, hysterical, alcoholic, distorting atmosphere of these events leads to misjudgment – not least by journalists disoriented by being corralled for weeks far from London."


Jim Waterson in the Guardian: "Labour’s mass complaint to the press regulator Ipso over this summer’s press coverage of Jeremy Corbyn’s visit to a Tunisian cemetery in 2014 has been dropped, according to individuals at the newspapers involved. The party made the unprecedented decision to complain against most national newspapers, complaining that the Sun, the Times, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Express and Metro had misrepresented the event, which saw the Labour leader attend a ceremony commemorating Palestinians who died in the country. The party had complained that the articles suggested he was commemorating members of the Black September terrorist group or those who carried out the 1972 Munich massacre, which Corbyn denied."

Dan Hodges @DPJHodges on Twitter: "Corbyn’s decision to drop his complaint over the wreath laying confirms what we always knew. The press told the truth. He didn’t....Corbyn’s decision also confirms something else we’ve always known. His definition of a ‘media smear’ is in reality a factual news report that paints him in a negative light."

  • The Guardian has further reported: "It can now be revealed that the complaint was shelved after the party missed a deadline to tell Ipso that it still wanted to push ahead with the challenge to newspapers. Labour is now asking the press regulator to make an exception to its rules and reopen the case despite missing the deadline, on the basis of the “extenuating circumstances” that officials were too busy dealing with party conference preparations and a staff member had been ill for several days."


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