Too often govt ministers & MP are allowed to get away with the absurd claim that - on #COVID19 & #Brexit - the govt/#BorisJohnson “got all the big calls right”

Here @skysarahjane gives a masterclass in challenging this narrative (with MP @PeterBoneUK)
And this by @vicderbyshire

Another masterclass showing journalists how to hold the powerful to account

MPs are trained on ways not to answer uncomfortable questions

One method loved by many is to keep talking

A mute button is very useful here
“This will also do great damage to organisations like the BBC!”

In response to journalistic scrutiny, the govt often accuse the journalist, programme or even channel of bias

As we’ve seen with the sell off of @Channel4, these are not just hollow threats
During the #COVID19 pandemic the govt spent £35m on placing “positive” articles in mainstream newspapers

You probably read lots of them without ever realising they were advertorials

What are the implications of these “information campaign” payments on editorial independence?
Two hundred years ago, a slab of Purbeck stone - the Stone of Free Speech - was set deep into a hillside overlooking London

For centuries, it was a place where people gathered whenever their rights were under threat

Is it time to gather there again?

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More from @StefSimanowitz

Jun 7
1/. For too long, homelessness has been explained as the failure of the individual to cope with the stresses & strains of life

We see it for what it is: a failure of the state to guarantee equality of opportunity, equal access to essential services to all amnesty.org.uk/resources/amne…
2/. "England’s housing and homelessness system is effectively a gruelling obstacle course

Many fail to get past the first barrier because they are not considered eligible for homelessness support

Others fall through trap doors along the way"
@AmnestyUK
amnesty.org.uk/files/2022-06/…
3/. Three in 10 fear homelessness within five years due to housing costs, according to an @AmnestyUK survey.

Unless housing is rightfully recognised as a basic legal human right, there is no way to hold the Government to account for its woeful failings.
standard.co.uk/news/uk/englan…
Read 4 tweets
Jun 6
Journalist Dom Phillips, a regular contributor to @guardian, has been missing in the Javari Valley in the #Brazilian Amazon for more than 30 hours after death threats to his indigenista companion, Bruno Pereira, who is also missing #IndigenousHistoryMonth theguardian.com/media/2022/jun…
'We knew it was a dangerous place but Dom really believed it’s possible to safeguard the nature & the livelihood of the Indigenous people. We urge Brazilian authorities to do all they can to help”

Appeal by the sister of missing journalist Dom Phillips
theguardian.com/world/video/20…
A record number of activists working to protect the environment & land rights were murdered in 2020 & 2019 according to @Global_Witness

Almost a third of the murders were reportedly linked to resource exploitation

Indigenous populations bear the brunt of the deadly violence ImageImageImageImage
Read 4 tweets
Jun 2
1/. #DidITellYouAboutTheTime I became Al Jazeera's Royal correspondent?

It was 2011 & I was scraping by as a freelance journalist

As preparations were underway for William & Kate's Royal Wedding, I got a call from @AJEnglish's interview producer

Would I be free on 29 April?
2/. "Absolutely! But why me?"

The producer explained how she'd spotted an article I'd done for @NewStatesman where I argued that the fawning media coverage & the "Cinderella story" framing was rife with negative gender stereotyping & ugly class prejudice. newstatesman.com/politics/2010/…
3/. I'd been drafted in to help decode some of the more curious aspects of our royal family to @AJEnglish's l audience

But surely, with the wedding coinciding with the Arab Spring & being on a Friday – the peak day for protests - I wouldn't be on for long
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Read 6 tweets
May 26
“Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” said Javier Cazares, whose daughter was killed in the 40-minute #RobbElementary school massacre in #Uvalde

This footage shows armed police pinning one man to the ground
The @nytimes reports that the gunman who killed 19 children & 2 teachers at #RobbElementary was rptdly inside the school for “ROUGHLY AN HOUR” hour before police shot him

The real outrage though, is the failure of successive US govts to introduce #GunReform.
#GunControlNow #guns
N.B. - I chose to post this video only after careful deliberation

Posting videos of families in such horrific circumstances should be avoided wherever possible

However, since no faces are clearly visible & since what the footage reveals is important, I took the decision to post
Read 5 tweets
May 19
Children from Goede Hoop primary school in Boksburg, South Africa play a bit of Vivaldi on the marimba (via @AlisonKriel)
In nearby Soweto, the @BuskaidSA String Academy teaches children classical music

Here is their orchestra playing a piece by Joseph Bologne (1745-1799), a black composer & violinist from Guadeloupe who conducted the leading symphony orchestra in Paris.
Diepkloof, Soweto isn't the most likely of places to find a classical music school, but at the end of a dusty road in the grounds of a church in the shadow of a huge slag heap, the haunting strains Dvořák hang above the corrugated iron roof-tops

My piece👇theartsdesk.com/node/30167/view ImageImageImageImage
Read 4 tweets
May 3
1/. In 2018, Zak Kostopoulos - a queer activist & human rights defender - was brutally beaten up by 2 men in central Athens

Footage shows 4 policemen violently attempting to arrest Zak while he lay dying on the ground

Today is the last day of the trial
amnesty.org/en/latest/camp…
2/. More than three years after #ZakKostopoulos was kicked to death in broad daylight in the middle of Athens, today’s decision will have widespread implications which go far beyond the #LGBTIQ community.

@AmnestyGreece are in court ahead of the verdict. theguardian.com/world/2020/dec…
3/, "Justice in Greece isn't blind. But they must think that we are" (Zak Kostopoulos)

“There's a picture of Zak with open arms & a sign in front of his chest that read 'free hugs'. That’s who Zak was. He had a big heart, a big embrace that fit everyone & everything” (Zak's mum)
Read 5 tweets

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