Snowflakes Hither, Yonder and In the Tropics: Ungentrifying Journalism from Brazil to Ecuador

The mammoth machine of mainstream and western media at-large tells us who is articulate enough, indeed worldly, mindful, and honest enough to saddle the demands required of international journalism.

Julian Cola
By Julian Cola

In October 2019, Ecuador’s president Lenin Moreno announced a new round of austerity measures. As the cost of gasoline, diesel, transport and food skyrocketed in the wake of his announcement, the national strike quickly transformed into mass protests. I was in the heart of Ecuador’s capital, Quito, as riot police, tanks, untold amounts of tear gas,

Read Full Article

Brazil’s Right-Wing Gov’t Charges Journalist Glenn Greenwald with Cybercrimes

The Brazilian government’s actions immediately drew parallels with how Western governments have treated whistleblowers and publishers who have exposed their secrets.

Alan Macleod
By Alan Macleod
Glenn Greenwald Feature photo

The Brazilian government of Jair Bolsonaro has charged investigative reporter Glenn Greenwald with cybercrimes– offenses he allegedly committed while reporting on the government’s own high-level corruption. Prosecutors claim that the American journalist “helped, encouraged and guided” a group of hackers to gain access to cell phone messages between

Read Full Article

Silencing the Whistle: The Intercept Shutters Snowden Archive, Citing Cost

The closing of The Intercept’s Snowden archive will likely mean the end of any future publications, unless Glenn Greenwald’s rather absurd promise of finding “the right partner … that has the funds to robustly publish” is fulfilled.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb

NEW YORK -- On March 13, a report in the Daily Beast revealed that the New York-based outlet The Intercept would be shutting down its archive of the trove of government documents entrusted to a handful of journalists, including Intercept co-founders Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, by whistleblower Edward Snowden. However, that account did not

Read Full Article

The Intercept’s Transition From Guard Dog to Attack Dog for the Establishment

WikiLeaks poses no threat to the public. The only people who stand to suffer any harm from WikiLeaks are the powerful and corrupt, which The Intercept‘s Pierre Omidyar most certainly is.

Caitlin Johnstone
By Caitlin Johnstone
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, top left, appears via video link with Glenn Greenwald, right, during a political forum at a town hall in Auckland, New Zealand, Sept. 15, 2014. (AP/New Zealand Herald, Brett Phibbs)

The Ecuadorian embassy in London cut off Julian Assange’s internet access in October of 2016, but the WikiLeaks Twitter account kept posting about leak drops uninterrupted. The embassy’s action made headlines all across mainstream media. It is common knowledge for anyone who was paying attention to WikiLeaks during that time. The Intercept‘s

Read Full Article

Pulitzer Honoring Snowden’s Leak Validates Whistleblowing

Granting a Pulitzer Prize to reporting based on information leaked by Edward Snowden legitimizes — and may even encourage — whistleblowing.

Frederick Reese
By Frederick Reese
Snowden

On Monday, Columbia University announced that The Washington Post and the United States’ arm of The Guardian have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service for their coverage of the warrantless wiretapping program conducted by the National Security Agency and by a select group of nations known as the “Five Eyes.” This reporting was based

Read Full Article

Court: Obstructing ‘Journalism’ OK… If You Call It ‘Terrorism’

Court ruling related to Snowden documents and journalist Glenn Greenwald says that national security interests trump press freedoms; Miranda vows to appeal

Jon Queally
By Jon Queally

In what defenders of press freedoms have called a "serious blow" to "public interest journalism," a UK court has determined, it was not unlawful for British security agents to invoke a terrorism statute in order to seize and hold someone thought to be involved with a journalistic enterprise. Ruling on the case of David Miranda, a Brazilian

Read Full Article