When Truth Becomes Silence: Glastonbury’s Cancelling Of A Powerful Film About Jeremy Corbyn

Media Lens

(...) In this country, as in other western ‘democracies’, important truths are effectively being silenced. As we have written on many occasions, antisemitism was used as a weapon to destroy the chances of Jeremy Corbyn becoming the British Prime Minister. Labour HQ staffers, and even Labour MPs, actively conspired against him. Al Jazeera’s powerful series, ‘The Labour Files’, which was blatantly blanked by the establishment media, has documented all this in considerable detail.

And now the Glastonbury Film Festival has succumbed to similar pressure and cancelled a screening of a new film, ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie’. (...)

(Text continues underneath the photo.)

Jeremy Corbyn addressing Glastonbury in 2017

The makers of the film, first shown in London in February, describe the film thus:

‘Produced by award-winning radical film-maker Platform Films, with contributions from Jackie Walker, Ken Loach, Andrew Murray, Graham Bash and Moshe Machover, and narrated by Alexei Sayle, this feature-length documentary film explores a dark and murky story of political deceit and outrageous antisemitic smears. It also uncovers the critical role played by current Labour leader, Keir Starmer and asks if the movement which backed Corbyn could rise again.’

Reviewer Diane Datson wrote:

‘The real message conveyed in this film is that the Labour Party is no alternative to the Conservatives – it serves the ruling class and is led by someone every bit as devious as Boris Johnson, if not more so.’

She added:

‘However, I for one felt uplifted, as the film ended optimistically. Many of the interviewees think that all is not lost – those millions of people who were inspired and given hope by the Corbyn project haven’t gone away – they are to be found supporting the picket lines, protesting and fighting for many causes such as public ownership of the NHS and the right to strike and the establishment is STILL petrified.’ (...)

‘The Big Lie’ is, of course, right to address the important part played by the pro-Israel lobby. It includes clips from the Al Jazeera film, ‘The Lobby’, which exposed Israel’s determined attempts to interfere in Britain’s politics. (...)

‘The Big Lie’ also highlights the incessant establishment media attacks on Corbyn, particularly after the 2017 General Election which he came so close to winning. The ‘smear that stuck’ was the myth that antisemitism was supposedly rife in Labour under Corbyn. (...)

Avi Shlaim, an emeritus professor at Oxford University, observed in the foreword of a 2021 report on how the definition of antisemitism has been misrepresented:

‘[A] definition intended to protect Jews against antisemitism was twisted to protect the State of Israel against valid criticisms that have nothing to do with anti-Jewish racism.’ (...)

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, a founding member of Jewish Voice for Labour who was expelled from Starmer’s Labour Party for being the ‘wrong type of Jew’, [said] on Twitter:

‘Unbelievable that @glastonbury has bowed to demands from fans of Starmer’s @uklabour, banning a film exposing demonisation of @jeremycorbyn. The censors say the film conflates Zionists, Jews & Israel. No, actually, that’s what they do. See it & judge for yourself.’

US journalist Glenn Greenwald noted:

‘The @glastonbury Film Festival capitulated to pressure and cancelled the Corbyn documentary.

‘This illustrates the great crisis in the democratic world: an intense fixation on suppressing and silencing, rather than engaging, dissenting views. (...)

There was minimal reporting by the British state-corporate media and, crucially, no uproar about censorship and yet another step being taken towards suppression of free speech. (...)

The single significant piece refuting the specious, cynical charges was an article in the Independent reporting the reaction of Norman Thomas, the film’s producer. He said that the film’s cancellation had been caused by ‘vicious outside pressure’. He added:

‘An outside pressure group [BDBJ] has declared war on our film. They wrote to the festival’s sponsors… and whipped up huge storm of complaints about the film claiming, without any foundation whatsoever, that the film is antisemitic.’

He continued:

‘The claim that the film is antisemitic is a total smear.

‘The festival organisers even had a lawyer examine the film who pronounced it totally devoid of antisemitism. [Our emphasis]’ (...)

It is ironic indeed that Glenn Greenwald, a US journalist, is far more vocal in defending UK freedom of speech than British journalists. A great silence has fallen over the media in this country.

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Tags: #media #mass_media #labour #labour_party #corbyn #jeremy_corbyn #starmer #keir_starmer #journalist #journalism #antisemitism #racism #al_jazeera #forde_report #mainstream_media #msm #propaganda #censorship #defamation #corporate_media #state_media #platform_films

‘Journalisten moeten veel meer ruchtbaarheid geven aan het vermoorden van collega’s’

De Volkskrant

Persvrijheid is ook in Nederland geen vanzelfsprekendheid meer, stelt Ruth Kronenburg van Free Press Unlimited. Het verbaast haar dat media zelf daar weinig aandacht aan schenken. (...)

‘Persvrijheid is de kanarie in de kolenmijn; die wordt als eerste ondergraven als de repressie toeneemt. Kijk maar naar landen als Rusland en Turkije: hoe meer onderdrukking hoe meer journalisten vluchten om met hulp van ons vanuit buurlanden hun werk te doen. Anderen gingen over tot zelfcensuur en wie dat niet deed, werd vervolgd, gemarteld, gevangengenomen of vermoord. In 2022 zaten wereldwijd 533 journalisten opgesloten – dat zijn er volgens Verslaggevers zonder Grenzen meer dan ooit, en 57 werden vermoord – dat zijn er meer dan ooit. Zo ernstig is het hier natuurlijk niet, maar ik hoop wel dat de media zelf ook iets gaan ondernemen.’

(Tekst loopt door onder de foto.)

Ruth Kronenburg

Wat moeten media doen?
‘Er veel meer ruchtbaarheid aan geven. Het voor hun collega’s opnemen, zodat die niet het gevoel hebben alleen te staan. Veel meer uitdragen: een aanval op één is een aanval op allen.’ (...)

Maar ondertussen lakt de overheid hele passages weg van door journalisten opgevraagde documenten. Zou ze niet ook de hand in eigen boezem moeten steken?
‘Zeker, want ook daarmee traineer je de vrije pers natuurlijk.’ (...)

Ook vermoorde journalisten zouden volgens jullie veel meer aandacht moeten krijgen van collega’s. Die was er dit jaar wel voor de Palestijnse Shireen Abu Akleh van Al Jazeera.
‘Dat was een uitzondering – mogelijk omdat ze werkte voor een internationaal opererend tv-station. Maar moorden op lokale journalisten die onderzoek doen naar corruptie en andere wantoestanden, krijgen nauwelijks publiciteit. Neem de moord onlangs op Arshad Sharif, een beroemde Pakistaanse journalist die in Kenia onder verdachte omstandigheden werd omgebracht: nauwelijks over geschreven. Terwijl publieke aandacht essentieel is om druk te creëren op instanties om tot vervolging over te gaan. Dat is ook de reden dat Free Press Unlimited cold cases opent door ter plekke getuigen te interviewen. Voor de familie is dat natuurlijk ook belangrijk, maar ook de wereld moet weten hoe het zit.’

Een relatief nieuw probleem zijn economisch machtige instituten of personen die journalisten dwarsbomen.
‘We zien vaker dat grote bedrijven of economisch machtige personen dure advocaten inhuren en proberen individuele journalisten de mond te snoeren via juridische claims. Dat wordt wel Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation genoemd – afgekort SLAPPs. Het is een nieuwe manier om journalisten te intimideren en tot zelfcensuur te dwingen. Het idee erachter is ze emotioneel, juridisch en financieel zo uit te knijpen dat ze alleen nog maar bezig zijn met zich juridisch te verdedigen en niet meer aan hun journalistieke werk toe komen. Het bekendste voorbeeld is de Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia die onder andere via de Panama Papers corruptieschandalen onthulde en in 2017 vermoord werd. Er liepen toen 47 rechtszaken tegen haar. Het gebeurt op meer plekken maar gelukkig nog niet op die schaal in Nederland.’

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Tags: #nederlands #nederland #journalistiek #journalist #pers #persvrijheid #Strategic_Lawsuits_Against_Public_Participation #slapp #intimidatie #Free_Press_Unlimited #Shireen_Abu_Akleh #Al_Jazeera #palestina #Arshad Sharif #kenia #Daphne_Caruana_Galizia #malta #panam_papers

Mass Media Omertà: Burying Al Jazeera’s ‘The Labour Files’

Media Lens

The damaging revelations about the Labour Party in the recent four-part Al Jazeera series, ‘The Labour Files’, and the almost totalitarian silence in response by British news media, should ram home the illusory nature of ‘democracy’ in the UK.

Based on the largest leak in British political history, Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit has exposed how Labour party officials smeared and intimidated rivals on the left of the party. The leaked data comprises 500 gigabytes of documents, emails, video and audio files from the Labour Party, dating from 1998 to 2021. They reveal:

• The weaponisation of antisemitism by the right-wing of the Labour Party to hinder Jeremy Corbyn’s chances of becoming Prime Minister.
• A ‘hierarchy of racism’ within the Labour Party disciplinary process which prioritises the investigation of alleged antisemitism cases over other forms of racism.
• Shocking examples of Islamophobia and anti-Black racism within Labour.
• The crushing of dissent within Labour under Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership. (...)

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Keir Starmer

The Al Jazeera (AJ) investigation showed that false accusations of abusive behaviour were hurled at Corbyn supporters in order to have them suspended or expelled from the party. At Labour HQ, party officials were tasked with trawling through members’ social media posts to find anything incriminating, particularly any material that could be deemed ‘antisemitic’.

Whistleblower Halima Khan, who worked as a Labour Party investigations officer, told AJ that ‘Palestine’ was one of the search terms used to find incriminating evidence. (...)

Starmer’s support of Israel, and rejection of it being labelled an ‘apartheid state’ by human rights groups including Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and Israel’s own B’Tselem, is well-documented; as is the strength of the Israel lobby within Labour. (...)

Andrew Feinstein, a veteran anti-racist campaigner originally from South Africa who has written and lectured on genocide prevention, is shown in one AJ programme examining Labour’s confidential disciplinary files. Hundreds of party activists had been suspended on the basis of these files. Feinstein pointed to clear examples of real antisemitism. But there were also many examples of cases where ‘there was no antisemitism whatsoever’. These were typically people criticising Israel for its crimes. (...)

After 2018, once Corbyn was in control of the party bureaucracy, the disciplinary process improved dramatically. (...)

Feinstein emphasised that:

‘The key finding, backed up by the evidence, which we can see represented graphically here, is that the key failings of the Labour party on antisemitism took place in the period before April 2018 – before Jeremy Corbyn had control of the party bureaucracy [our emphasis].’

As the AJ narrator noted:

‘Yet Jeremy Corbyn has taken all the blame and his factional opponents within the party none at all.’

This rational honesty was notably lacking when BBC Panorama broadcast a hatchet job in July 2019, pitched as an ‘impartial’ investigation asking the loaded question, ‘Is Labour Anti-Semitic?’ The programme was presented by BBC journalist John Ware who had previously made clear his antagonism towards Corbyn’s politics, not least in an earlier edition of Panorama. (...)

As we noted in a media alert shortly afterwards, Panorama was immediately followed by the flagship BBC News at Ten programme which gave it extensive coverage, pumping up the propaganda value of the fake ‘investigation’. (...)

By contrast, Peter Oborne told AJ in ‘The Labour Files’:

‘The BBC produced a documentary bearing directly on the character and fitness for office of the leader of the Labour Party, the leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition, in a moment of intense constitutional crisis [over Brexit]. Now, that’s a momentous intervention in British politics. So, I do think the BBC have to look really carefully at their record here.’ (...)

One of the most disturbing aspects of the AJ investigation into the Labour Party is further evidence supporting one of the conclusions of the Forde report that:

‘The Labour Party is not a welcoming place for people of colour’.

This was an understatement, as we will see. (...)

In our media alert at the time, we noted that the leaked internal report revealed that senior Labour figures on the right of the party had actively tried to stop Labour winning the general election in order to oust Corbyn as party leader. (...)

Starmer essentially suppressed Labour discussion of the damning leaked document, attempting to defuse the situation by commissioning an independent inquiry. However, the Forde report would have made uncomfortable reading for Starmer and the current Labour management.

As Jonathan Cook summarised:

‘Despite its careful wording and bogus even-handedness, the Forde Inquiry conceded that the Labour right had indeed waged a dirty factional war against Corbyn and the left of the party, weaponizing antisemitism to tar them.’

Moreover, as the Forde report concluded, the leaked WhatsApp messages revealed:

‘overt and underlying racism and sexism’. (...)

The Forde Report even identified a ‘hierarchy of racism’ in which investigations of alleged antisemitism in the Labour Party took precedence over Islamophobia and anti-Black racism. (...)

‘The Labour Files’ revealed the particularly egregious case of Labour HQ targeting Muslim Labour activists in Newham in east London. A dossier on Labour Party Muslim members and their families in Newham, containing private information about their lives and activities, was sent to Labour Party HQ in London. (...)

Oborne, who has recently published a new book, ‘The Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong About Islam’, told AJ:

‘I found this dossier completely unbelievable. Reading this is like reading some far-right tract by some demented American right-winger. And this is published or done inside the Labour Party. It’s terrifying.’ (...)

In March 2021, Newham’s two party branches were suspended. More than 5,000 party members, mostly Muslim**, were thus denied a voice in Labour Party democracy. (...)

And what has the ‘mainstream’ media response been to the damning findings of AJ’s careful, in-depth investigation? An almost complete blanket of silence. It really is a remarkable demonstration of the near-totalitarian behaviour of British ‘journalism’. (...)

In an article titled, ‘Al Jazeera’s Labour Files has blown a hole in the British media’s Corbyn narrative’, for the Middle East Eye website, Oborne observed:

‘The papers that banged on day after day, and month after month, on allegations that Corbyn was a racist have all but ignored the Al Jazeera reports. The same applies to the BBC, which played a major role in framing the understanding of Corbyn and antisemitism in the run-up to the 2019 election.’

He added:

‘it is impossible to justify the media omerta around the Al Jazeera films. It reminds me of the long refusal of the mainstream British media to engage with the phone hacking scandal involving criminality across large sections of the British media more than a decade ago.’ (...)

In our 2018 book, ‘Propaganda Blitz’, we detailed at length the cynical demolition of the prospects for socialism under a Corbyn-led government. There were the usual suspects at the far-right of the media ‘spectrum’ – the Sun, Daily Mail, The Times and Telegraph among them. But, perhaps more insidious – because of their supposed reputation for reliable, even challenging, reporting – BBC News and, especially, the Guardian, were in the vanguard of the attack. It is obvious that they would be reluctant in the extreme to revisit the scene of their crimes – which are ongoing. (...)

Cook summed up the media’s callous behaviour and suppression of any reporting or discussion of the Al Jazeera series:

‘Which BBC program will acknowledge Al Jazeera’s revelations, let alone pursue them further, when the BBC’s flagship news investigation program, Panorama, is deeply implicated in the very smears Al Jazeera exposed. The BBC would in effect be investigating its own malpractice.’

He added:

‘And similarly for the Guardian. To investigate the leaked documents would convict the paper – traditionally seen by many Labour voters as their house journal – of colluding in a bogus antisemitism narrative against the Labour left that it played a central role in building. The Guardian would expose itself not as it wishes to be seen – as a fearless, independent newspaper confronting the British establishment with uncomfortable truths – but as a key pillar of that very establishment.’ (...)

Concluding Note

Al Jazeera’s ‘The Labour Files’ is a must-watch series. For the state-corporate media, it’s a ‘must-ignore’ series.

All four episodes are available on YouTube:

Part 1: The Purge

Part 2: The Crisis

Part 3: The Hierarchy

Part 4: The Spying Game

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Tags: #media #mass_media #labour #labour_party #corbyn #jeremy_corbyn #starmer #keir_starmer #journalist #journalism #antisemitism #racism #al_jazeera #panorama #bbc #news_at_ten #forde_report #the_guardian #Kuenssberg #mainstream_media #msm #propaganda #censorship #defamation