Sunday, February 23, 2014

Experts - Indigenous affairs - whose the cool crew, whose not allowed to talk, who decides and why?

I know that a lot of readers who visit this blog are interested in the issues surrounding Aboriginality and human rights - so this clip of Noongar academic and activist, Robert Eggington, will be of interest, as he is one of Australia's foremost speakers on these vital matters.
Interestingly, Mr Eggington, who is a very esteemed expert, raises the issue of censorship, favouritism and conflicts of interest among the WA news outlets, the content of which, generally, can be quite dominated by the state's mining interests. As a bit of background - WA produces about a third of the country's GDP and that hinges mostly on mining.
Incredibly, in WA, (only) one media company owns over 95% of the print media outlets and a television station as well.This renders that particular company's editorial choices about who can express themselves and who cannot be heard or seen, a pervasive, state-wide media industry standard.Indigenous voices are barely heard in the Australian mainstream media, unless it's after a football match, or rubber stamping the opinions of non-indigenous business magnates. Islamic voices, too, rarely feature unless the story strictly relates to a matter of race or religion.

The censorship Robert Eggington alleges, is an undemocratic media process that can be easily overcome through journalists and editors giving all people equal rights & opportunity to express themselves, irrespective of race or religion.




Blogger is having a few formatting probs, will edit that out as soon as blogger rights it. :}}

FoI, Public interest disclosures (whistleblowing), damage control, govt spinners & Edward Snowden

Have I ever mentioned how much I love reading Open & Shut?