Tag: information

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Mediawatch Values

The politics behind Snowden

Edward Snowden is on the run. The US government is attempting to get the former CIA employee and contractor for the NSA  extradited after he shared classified material with the international press – namely with the UK’s Guardian. Snowden’s first leak activity took place in Hong Kong, safely wrapped in a series of laws and rules that govern the former UK colony. Even had the Hong Kong courts reached a decision to extradite Snowden (which they did not), the final say would still have lain with the Chinese authorities who have the prerogative of a veto on such decisions.

Snowden has apparently “left the building” this morning and has been tracked on an Aeroflot flight – direction Moscow. The Russian authorities claim to be unaware of the hot potato that is passing through their space but it is rumoured that Snowden has another final destination in mind. In fact Snowden has already mentioned Iceland as the best place to end up given the high level of personal protection that is afforded to individuals in Icelandic law.

Iceland is an interesting choice and model  not just within the context of this case but in a wider political and economic context. The island nation has just come out of its own financial crisis. Although it suffered a severe blow between 2008 and 2012 it seems to have weathered the worst part of the storm and steadied its ship back on a better course. The crisis forced a blanket institutional reform and resulted ironically in a final rebuff of the EU membership that had previously been top of the agenda. In fact elected on the wind of debt disputes with the UK and the Netherlands as well as continuing tension on environmental matters (particularly fishing policy), the newl conservative government of 2013 has opted to freeze the EU membership application.

Why would Snowden go to Iceland then? This Guardian article provides much of the answers to that question. The country’s efforts for protecting freedom of expression and whistleblowers are not token gestures to appease the population in bandwagon riding politics. The Icelandic Pirate Party has lobbied for strengthening of the rights including the protection of asylum seekers. Birgitta Jónsdóttir is chairman of the Icelandic Modern Media Institute and an Icelandic MP for the Pirate Party. The Institute is currently examining the options for Edward Snowden while actively working on multiple fronts to strengthen his right to diplomatic protection.

The politics behind Snowden are the politics of individual freedom and liberty. They are the politics of direct representation and accountability and transparency. They are the politics of the 21st century that may seem to originate in the unfamiliar world of global communication and knowledge management but are just as crucial to social development and constitutional integrity as the period of revolutionary idealism that brought about the birth of consitutional liberal democracies. Parties such as the international phenomenon that is the Pirate Party are a new tool in modern democracies that operates with clear values, clear direction and that do not compromise their values for the sake of power itself.

Think about that.

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Mediawatch

Wikileaks à-la-carte

The Maltese blogging scene is nowadays taken for granted as a major participant in the field of information processing. The Blogosfera is as varied as ever, covering a panoply of interests with the occasional blog or two getting its moment of limelight within a particular sphere. markbiwwa.com recently let out a rant about the dos and donts of blogging (and what’s wrong with the word “blogosphere”). It’s been some time now that conceited bloggers like myself (wankellectuals) have been a proverbial pain in the arse for mainstream media pointing out flaws, errors and journalistic faux pas.

Melahart was at it this week commenting on the selective editing that seems to be the trend in some papers (Media manipulation…) while Rich Muscat Azzopardi also had a good point to make about the Times’ trend to becoming a click-hunting site above all (Rightly So). I’ve got some bad news for Rich. His autopsy on local journalism comes a little too late.. J’accuse had proclaimed it dead a while back after a particularly jarring episode of Bondiplus regarding Plategate.

The role of blogs and bloggers in filling the vacuum of investigative journalism is what triggered off this post in actual fact. Given how most media establishments in the country are agenda-driven or just downright lazy, the levels of investigative journalism have fallen to an all time low. Blogs and bloggers (not Times trolls mind you) might just be in the right place to fill the gap.

Take the Running Commentary. Back after the traditional end of summer pause, Daphne has set her sights on a deal between Polidano and Mintoff’s offspring. In her first post on the subject Daphne called for a Public Inquiry. The facts mentioned in the posts relating to the issue are just that: facts. They are publicly available to anyone wishing to discover them – in the archives of MEPA to begin with.

Now I do not believe that Daphne spent her little sabbatical recovering from the trauma of Mintoff’s passing away looking through random archive of the MEPA records. What probably happened is that somebody (a mole, a snitch, a leaker,… whatever) passed on this information to Daphne with the intention of getting as much public coverage for this bit of news. Used to be such news would go to a media outlet but then again… given the subject matter what better place to go to than Malta’s blog with most hits?

Am I saying it is wrong? Not at all. Expect more of this phenomenon as things get to a head. A while back we had also featured a Polidano related post on J’accuse. In March we were writing “Polidano Can, if he thinks he can” pointing out the rough manners in which Polidano literally bulldozers over our planning laws. In that case too I had received a pointer as to some illicit night time action in which Polidano was engaging in some property close to Zmerc in Balzan – what prompted me to give particular attention to the matter.

The network of blogs – with different affiliations, orientations or independent minded persons – that has developed over time might end up with Malta having its very own unofficial network of Wikileaks. What worries me is that each blogger will have a sieve of their own with regard to what information can or cannot be published. Expect blogs associated to the mainstream parties to be very selective as to when to make a noise about information in their possession. Expect others to proceed cautiously as they are drawn closer and closer to the limelight of lawsuits, libel proceedings and other “democratic” mechanisms of silencing the truth.

Expect, in other words, the development of a network of Wikileaks à-la-carte. Probably not the best of worlds but already going a long way into filling the gap left by a media system that is either dead or in a long coma. Or in the case of the Times… busy chasing the cheap click.

Categories
iTech

As the Mayans Logged Off

To this day, the Guatemalan Mayans remark that outsiders note down things not in order to remember them, but rather so as not to remember them. Today’s world of hyperconnectivity often leads us to wonder whether our reliance on technology for knowledge and time management is beginning to “soften” our brains and make them less sharp. The Mayans might be right after all.

Cutting off from the technology and information highway for three weeks offered a good opportunity to experience full reliance on the cerebellum. It was not just organisational zen but also a break from “information anxiety”. Information anxiety is that feeling that seems to be building up daily as we gain access to more information and begin to choke when we realise that we cannot possibly take it all in at one go.

The feeling begins with a glance at an interesting link or headline on a website. Possibly this comes certified with a hundred “likes” – the modern-day stamp of recommendation. Your mental sieve takes note and the urge to take that particular path on the ether begins to take shape. But there are other links on the page – other bits of news or information that are vying for your attention. What can you possibly do?

There’s different techniques and approaches. You could hoard links on some bookmarking website while convincing yourself that some time in the future a gap in the time-space continuum will allow you to “catch up”. Incidentally the “catch up” business is rather lame. Is it a race? Is there really somebody in the lead who has read tomes upon tomes on all kinds of subjects? Does a modern day walking, talking and web-browsing equivalent of the famed Alexandrian library exist?

You could also skim through summaries or subtitles getting the general gist of the content while being subconsciously painfully aware that you are fast becoming the internet equivalent of a jack of all trades and master of none. That would also mean learning to live with that ghost of a feeling that during your “skimming” you missed out on the really crucial, interesting part that was really worth reading. That’s information anxiety all over again.

Or you could step off the train. Step off and watch the carousel zip before your eyes as statuses are updated in your absence, news items are created, revised and rewritten while you are in a blissful corner of informational oblivion. Peeping in from time to time to assuage the withdrawal symptoms you will connect less and less with the threads and webs that have formed in your absence. You will worry less. Care less even. Anxiety what anxiety?

Before you know it, information gathering might even take its good old familiar linear form. You will have regained your sanity and your calm. It might not last very long and you might soon be wishing to be back sucking at the nipple of information overdose but trust me, the kick you get from that momentary lapse of reason might even get addictive and before you know it you could be stepping off the train.

And this time it will be for good.

Categories
Mediawatch

Information Overload?

The Subtle Roar of Online Whistle-blowing: Jul...
Image by New Media Days via Flickr

Wikileaks. It’s on everyone’s lips and laptops and risks becoming the first real flicker of life in some rudimentary form of global democracy. Or not. Until recently social collaboration and networking had their strongest point in the immediacy of transmission of information. Students rallied in record time and revolutions of the oppressed could be masterminded and managed over twitter and other social networks. Local (and national) scenarios have for some time included information centres that set up as an alternative to the traditional MSM and provide different information to the realities being spun in accordance to tradition (or requirements of the centres of power).

Enter Wikileaks and controversial founder Julian Assange. The man is now the subject of a virtual death warrant. It’s actually an arrest warrant by interpol issued on the basis of an allegation of rape. The timing of the arrest warrant could not have been better fuel for conspiracy theorists – it comes at a moment when Wikileaks is busy embarrassing the world’s largest superpower (at least military). Having said that it is interesting to observe the different stakeholders in the battleground over information sources. Amazon has just dumped Wikileaks from its servers : a clear sign of “go it alone baby”. While the leaking of diplomatic cables and information has been described as life threatening it is also prudent to wonder who or what benefits from these leaks exactly.

In a clearly functioning democracy, of the separation of powers kind, new information thrown into the public domain by third parties can serve to uncover the ruthlessness or corruption that might be setting in at the top. How does that work in a quasi-anarchic global system? Is outing American notions on Berlusconi’s lascivious entertainment preferences of benefit to anyone? I am sure it is but the question is to whom? To the Italian electorate? To the US electorate? And what message does it send to someone in (spin the wheel)… Tajikistan?

The question I am asking here is not so much the black or white “Is the Wikileaks good or bad?” but rather whether such random leakage actually has an effect beyond the sensational. Sure the press will have a free run for a while and the diplomatic centres around the world will have a new topic on their social agenda. Spies have been rendered redundant for a while (a very short while) and so on. But is Assange justified in stating that he has made the US in any way more accountable? On a more local (or national, pace Tonio) scenario you could compare the leaks to the random bandying of information on government contracts: sometimes the bull is hit and things get going. Most times the allegations and hunches serve simply to get the press heated for a little while. My concern is more on how a leak could be channelled to be less of a leak and more of a substantiated form of information that can hit where it hurts if necessary.

Otherwise leaks will just do what leaks always do… create a mess for which nobody is prepared to take responsibility and ones that nobody is prepared to fix. And we’ve got enough of that kind of shit on our hands.

addendum:

From Wikileaks: Lack of Information isn’t the problem (Steve Richards, Independent) :

Their words are reported in the brightest of colours because they were not written for public consumption. A locked door is open. As we look inside we discover that one of the revelations about the Wikileaks publications is that they are not revelatory. They confirm publicly available information and take us behind the scenes, like a tour of a theatre for an audience that has already seen the production. If the stories of recent days are reversed, they would have been mind-blowing exclusives: “Mervyn King called for increases in public spending!”; “Israel relaxed about Iran’s nuclear ambitions!” Instead, the mechanism of a leak generates excitement over predictable and unsurprising information. In this case the leak is on such a gargantuan scale that the intake of breath is even greater. But it is the mechanism that is sensational, not the words that arrive as a result.


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