Will K.

Wilkins, Executive Director of Real

Art Way

s talks about the controversy surrounding the Smithsonian’s removal of David Wojnarowicz’s A Fire in My Belly from the National Portrait Gallery. Real Art Ways is showing this piece as

a response to the censorship.

Click here to download the MP3

There’s been a flutter of media-related discussions about the Wikileaks saga in the pas

t week. Ultimately, the fate of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange may rest in the determination of whether his site constitutes “journalism.” But what’s not being discussed as much is that Wikileaks has been modeling its habits off of tried and true methods used for decades by the more traditional media outlets. For instance, one of the myths is that WL is indiscriminately “dumping” documents onto the web with no regard for consequence, doing such things as including names of civilians, or deceased, or other information that could result in direct harm to someone. On the contrary, WL has followed the lead of most major media in redacting such information. In fact, there are reports that WL has even contacted the US government to help determine what information should be redacted. Check out this week’s Counterspin for an interview with Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com.

(Greenwald interview begins at around the 10 minute mark of the show).

Greenwald also tracks some of the major inaccuracies in the press about WikiLeaks, noting the similarities between it and the lead-up to the Iraq war. Check it out here.

More myths about the WL situation can be found online here, OpEdNews.com.

(EFF) Secrecy surrounds law enforcement’s communications surveillance practices like a dense fog. Particularly shrouded in secrecy are government demands issued under 18 U.S.C. § 2703 of the Stored Communications Act or “SCA” that seek subscriber information or other user records from communications service providers. When the government wants such data from a phone company or online service provider, it can obtain a court order under the SCA demanding the information from the provider, along with a gag order preventing the provider from disclosing the existence of the government’s demand. More often, companies are simply served with subpoenas issued directly by prosecutors without any court involvement; these demands, too, are rarely made public. (For more background on how the SCA works, see this section of EFF’s Surveillance Self-Defense manual.)

Continued…

After a series of crackdowns by Middletown officials against Middletown Food Not Bombs, the food activists are going on the offensive.  Today, FNB filed a federal injunction that would halt a cease and desist order which bars the group from meal-sharing activities unless food is prepared in a Health Department registered kitchen.   The target of the injunction is both the city of Middletown and the state of Connecticut.   According to the FNB press release, the cease and desist order also applies to “political” activities as well.  And, in a lawsuit filed on Friday, FNB argues that attempts to stop FNB’s public meals infringe on the group’s constitutional rights and has a chilling effect on such activities elsewhere.  Read the full story

RadioActive presents an exclusive interview with Marissa Blazsko, former Opinions Editor for The Recorder, CCSU’s student newspaper.  Blazsko was fired from her position after participating in political activism on campus and in the community.  On RadioActive, Blazsko discusses the implications of The Recorder’s actions on current and future journalists, as well as the selective application of rights to “free speech.”  Read the full story

Marissa Blazsko was fired by the CCSU newspaper for her political beliefs.  Hear what she has to say about it, and about objectivity, journalism and free speech.

Click here to download the MP3