It's extremely weird to end up as a case study in a UNESCO report. But I'm grateful to @ICFJ for doing this work. This is a huge study involving 901 journalists from 125 countries. With deeply depressing conclusions.
'These attacks have a chilling effect on women's journalism'
So many women’s experiences - esp women of colour - are so much worse than mine. Just look at @mariaressa. I am immensely privileged in comparison. And yet. @julieposetti & team analysed a massive data set of my tweets. This is my word cloud.
Excellent summary by @Freedland of Johnson’s scandals upon scandals. With one omission. Vote Leave’s illegal donation in crucial 48 hours before Brexit is the ur-scandal. The scandal that paved way for Johnson to become PM. And for 127k to lose their lives theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
#CashForCurtains is almost exact same scheme. The failure to hold Johnson, Gove & Cummings accountable is what emboldened them to believe that they are above the law. Because they are. They proved to be untouchable: from Electoral Commission, Met police & parliament
I believe the failure to hold them to account is fundamental to why 127k people died. They rigged an election. And got away with it. We can argue about whether they succeeded or what difference it made. But the Electoral Commission’s funding was that they broke the law.
The big news in US is FBI raid on Giuliani. Also targeted: lawyer who represents Ukrainian oligarch, Firtash.
In UK, Johnson will continue to ignore entire Russian scandal not least cos one of his ministers received £ from Firtash & his own g/f involved in subsequent cover up
This is our minister for culture. He has received donations & hospitality from Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian with links to organised crime wanted by FBI. This story broke when Carrie Symonds worked for Whittingdale. It was her job to cover it up
Whittingdale is back in post & Johnson has successfully quashed any investigation into Russian interference. But there’s plenty of people in Britain with links to Firtash & reason to fear. Let’s see
Scandal after scandal collided today. Truly this is a govt like no other. But giving thanks to amazing work on Greensill by @FT & @guardian. Revelations from @openDemocracy & @bylinetimes. And new legal challenges by @foxgovelegal @allthecitizens & the great @GoodLawProject 🙌
Yikes. @foxglovelegal not @foxgovelegal..that's something else entirely.
Here's the case. Please support if you can. Transparency is the basis for democracy. And without it we are truly fecked...
I don’t know if this is true, but if it is, I truly despair.
Sunday Times reporting Cummings had long been ‘haunted by fear he could end up in prison: either over irregular spending during Brexit referendum or his conduct in govt’
Why despair? Because @shahmiruk did forensic capture witnessed by lawyers of Vote Leave’s Google drive. That showed apparent deletion of key evidence by Vote Leave after Electoral Commission launched an investigation.
That’s not an electoral offence. It’s a serious crime. 2/
That evidence was passed to NCA. That’s separate agency than Met which investigates electoral offences - the old Special Branch dept that investigates politically sensitive crimes.
The Met shut down all investigations into Brexit-related crimes. The NCA never reported back
3/
I might just spend today repeatedly pointing out that the illegal campaign donations Cummings, Gove & Johnson were involved in were also 'very serious'.
But they weren't 'allegations'. They were findings in law. Which not a single journalist has ever asked them a single q about
This is how the BBC reported the story. It allowed @matthew_elliott to leak the findings ahead of the official regulators’ report & falsely frame its findings
The BBC & specifically @bbclaurak is at centre of this spat about who leaked what to whom. And given possible illegal campaign donations are under scrutiny again, it’s surely, finally, time to interview @shahmiruk?
2 years ago today. My view waiting to go on stage at TED. Minutes later, a full-blown panic attack.
Speaking out has been both blessing & curse. Forever grateful to @TEDTalks for the platform. But I also live with the shadow. Banks’s lawsuit. Still ongoing. Shit goes on
To those who of you terrified of public speaking, let me tell you: overcoming it is like..well, taking heroin? Crack cocaine? I was stone cold sober here (with @Moonalice the first person to greet me off stage & TED’s @CyndiStivers). And totally off my tits on utter sheer relief
Anyway apologies for the self-indulgence but it’s amazing to remember how ‘out there’ it was in 2018 to warn that Facebook was destroying democracy when that is literally now the entire mainstream press. Welcome to my TED talk. (Lol)