r. carey gersten » censorship http://www.rcareygersten.com active consulting participant in adventure + communication + ecohumanitarian + technology projects Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:07:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Those Bricks Barrick Gold Dropped on Publishers http://www.rcareygersten.com/those-bricks-barrick-gold-dropped-on-publishers/ http://www.rcareygersten.com/those-bricks-barrick-gold-dropped-on-publishers/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:53:11 +0000 Carey http://www.rcareygersten.com/?p=1255 The huge mining corporation’s legal actions against two small book presses — what do they say about our democracy?

By Philip Resnick | TheTyee.ca | April 21, 2010

The gold goliath demanded to see manuscript before printing.

Barrick Gold is a giant in the world of Canadian mining corporations, and its founder and chair, Peter Munk, has revelled in media attention for his philanthropy. For example, on April 13, the Globe and Mail reported a $35 million contribution from the gold magnate (with a matching $25 million from the Ontario government) for a new Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, “to join an elite cadre of international academic institutions such as the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the London School of Economics and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.”

How could one look such a gift horse in the mouth, or quarrel with Peter Munk’s professed beliefs? According to him, “Canada has a unique opportunity to step into the shoes that America has vacated, and I think that requires an elite group of highly educated, globalized Canadians who can be the spokespersons of every aspect of globalization. I don’t mean just trade, or democracy, or multiculturalism. . . but all the things Canada stands for, from health care down to the fundamental rejection of any kind of corruption.”

Perhaps the portrait is a little too perfect. How many readers of The Tyee or Canadians outside Quebec are aware that the same Barrick Corp., on whose board sit such eminences as Brian Mulroney, has been engaged in using SLAPPs — Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation — against two small presses, one in Quebec, one based in Vancouver, that have published or announced an intention to publish books that this august corporation finds offensive to its image? It took a March 25 op-ed article in Le Devoir, the independent Montreal daily (not beholden to the powerful media interests that control so many of Canada’s leading newspapers) to alert me to the situation.

Read on: http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2010/04/21/BarrickBricks/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=210410

]]> http://www.rcareygersten.com/those-bricks-barrick-gold-dropped-on-publishers/feed/ 0 Google to end censorship in China over cyber attacks http://www.rcareygersten.com/google-to-end-censorship-in-china-over-cyber-attacks/ http://www.rcareygersten.com/google-to-end-censorship-in-china-over-cyber-attacks/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:32:09 +0000 Carey http://www.rcareygersten.com/?p=985 Decision from world’s leading search engine comes amid a clampdown on the internet in China over the last year Google challenge to China over censorship

A Chinese Internet user browses for information on the popular search engine Google. Photograph: Reuters/Corbis

by Tania Branigan in Beijing | The Guardian |  Wednesday 13 January 2010

Google, the world’s leading search engine, has thrown down the gauntlet to China by saying it is no longer willing to censor search results on its Chinese service.

The internet giant said the decision followed a cyber attack it believes was aimed at gathering information on Chinese human rights activists.

Read on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/12/google-china-ends-censorship

]]> http://www.rcareygersten.com/google-to-end-censorship-in-china-over-cyber-attacks/feed/ 0