“We aren’t weak… the correct instinct to have is to not just go after big media, but to create our own media,” ...
The communications age has made disinformation one of the most deadly tools of government and corporate owned media in their battle against the ideals of democracy and freedom around the globe.
Members of the media from around the world gathered at Halifax’s Dalhousie University, from the evening of Wednesday June 30 to Sunday July 4, at the International Symposium on Media and Disinformation, to try to stem the tide of lies and deceit that have become the norm in this war on truth.
Symposium organizer, Tony Seed of Shunpiking publications, issued an international “call” to attend the symposium that drew a wide array of participants.
“We went thru thirteen drafts of the ‘call’ before we were finished,” said Seed.
The Symposium provided a forum for the consolidation of efforts to defeat disinformation and propaganda in mainstream media, by seeking to “…empower journalists and collectives of the people by definitively exposing the modus operandi and extent of disinformation, presenting the experience of journalists and activists across Canada and abroad in tackling it…”
Non-student participants paid a $25 daily fee to attend and students paid $15. The fees went toward the various costs arising from the necessity of flying in speakers from around the globe. However, payments were not mandatory to attend, as the Symposium adopted a “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need,” stance with regards to fees, said Seed.
The Symposium began the evening of June 30 with an impressive, authentic Middle Eastern dinner prepared by the Maritime Arab Students Association. Members of the M.A.S.A. volunteered their time during all aspects of the set-up and break down phases of the Symposium.
At the dinner, about 75 journalists, television and radio broadcasters, doctors, lawyers, political figures and professors mingled and discussed the intricacies of global politics and corporate media with each other, as well as with students and various members of Halifax’s prominent Bohemian movement.
Native American Catherine Martin of the Millbrook band, Truro Nation of Nova Scotia, gathered the group around the beating of her drum, which was the traditional way of her people to begin such an assembly. The beating drum gave coherence to the group, as well as providing recognition of the fact that the forum was taking place on indigenous people’s land, that was stolen by the colonial powers during westward expansion.
Participants were then treated to a traditional Gaelic bagpipe presentation.
This informal setting with entertainment and discussion was an excellent way to allow participants to establish a level of comfort and familiarity with each other that would be invaluable in the days to come. The following days’ proceedings would be held in the much more formal atmosphere of a lecture hall in Dalhousie’s Art and Social Sciences building.
The format for the official proceedings included open microphone time for participants, beginning at 9am, followed by presentations on a slew of topics by experts in their respective fields. Presentations would be followed by question and answer periods, breaks for meals and a public forum every evening with scheduled speakers, and an open public invitation to participate.
Official proceedings began with an entire half-day devoted to a discussion on Symposium goals. A microphone was passed around the large lecture hall and participants stated their credentials as well as what they specifically wanted the Symposium to achieve.
Members of C.K.D.U. radio provided technical sound assistance, and the audio hardware for the Symposium. C.K.D.U. is a campus based community radio station that is the only independent radio station in Halifax.
Once all participants had addressed the group, founding coordinator of Globalization Studies at the University of Lethbridge, Dr. Anthony Hall began the official presentations with a talk on defeating corporate media by creating independent media.
“We aren’t weak… the correct instinct to have is to not just go after big media, but to create our own media,” said Hall.
Several speakers followed Hall including author and Black History instructor Isaac Saney. Saney passionately addressed the Symposium about organized attacks on collective memory, particularly with regard to colonialism, slavery and racism. “If you deny the fact that slavery and colonialism shaped the world today, then you end up blaming the victims for poverty…” said Saney.
Saney went on to discuss the parallels between these organized attacks and the United States, French and Canadian backed coup in Haiti.
Prior to Haiti’s liberation from France, the French government forced Haiti to pay an enormous fee in order to be recognized as a legitimate government. This was due to France’s view that the Haitian people were property and had to therefore purchase their liberty.
Prior to the current coup, Haiti’s President Aristide was demanding the return of this money, adjusted for inflation, from France. This adjustment brought the sum to tens of billions of dollars and this was one of the main motivating factors behind the overthrow of the democratically elected Aristide, according to Saney.
Computer programmer and Palestinian commentator Isra’a Dabbour followed Saney with a stirring PowerPoint presentation, showcasing the horrors of Israel’s apartheid wall. The presentation put a face on the Palestinian struggle and gave a Palestinian perspective of the machine gun topped steel and concrete wall that has become a symbol of the politics of division and repression worldwide.
The National President of the Canadian Islamic Congress, Dr. Mohamed I. El-Masry also addressed the Symposium, about anti-Islamism in the media.
The media has succeeded in linking Islam and terrorism and this negative stereotyping is quickly turning into discrimination because of Muslim people’s status as a minority group in many western communities, according to Masry.
Later in the evening, at the public forum, Splitting the Sky, a leader of the Gustafsen Lake uprising addressed the auditorium.
His moving, militant oratory about mobilizing his people against a repressive Canadian government bellowed off the walls of the hall and out the open windows into the street. The hall, which was about two-thirds full quickly filled to capacity as students and passers by streamed in to here him speak. His oration ended with a standing ovation from the packed room.
Disinformation surrounding the Palestine conflict was the focus of honorary Symposium Chairman and founding President of the Canada-Palestine Association, Dr. Ismail Zayid’s presentation, “Strategy and tactics in Israeli Disinformation.”
Being anti-Zionist is not synonymous with being anti-Jewish, said Zayid. He drew a very distinct difference by defining Zionists as those that believe in the expulsion of Palestinians from their land, by any means necessary, due to the divine right of Israel to claim that land.
Zayid discussed the misuse of language by Zionists and major media alike.
“Refugee expulsion is called transfer… the destruction of villages is called an improvement [referring to Canada Park]… colonies are called settlements… Israel blows up houses and it is called self-defense… Palestinians are called terrorists… this is typical of the Zionist Lexicon,” according to Zayid.
“Israel and the Zionist movement created terrorism in the Middle East”, he said.
He then went on to cite several examples of Israeli terrorism, such as the first act of air piracy in the Middle East in which Israelis hijacked a Syrian Airliner and the shooting down of a civilian Air Libya airliner over Sinai. “The sophistication and immorality of Zionist terrorism is limitless,” said Zayid.
The unique cases of disinformation in Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba were discussed in detail by Canadian journalist Anthony Fenton, radio host Charles Boylan, and writer and educator Karen Wald, respectively.
Fenton, who recently returned from Haiti, discussed the “positive feedback loop” of disinformation there, by which the Haitian local media would spew lies about Aristide; the Associated Press would regurgitate those lies, then the Haitian media would utilize this regurgitation to lend credibility to the lies they actually created.
Boylan discussed the case of profound disinformation surrounding Venezuelan President Chavez. He pointed to the fact that Chavez wants the profits from Venezuela’s 8 million barrel a day oil industry to go back to the people, instead of into the hands of a few wealthy land owners, as a main motivation for the disinformation surrounding his administration.
He also described how the corrupted Venezuelan media aired cartoons while the people’s revolution was taking place.
“The revolution will not be televised!” said Boylan.
Wald described how every piece of information coming out of Cuba is spun into a lie by the U.S. corporate media and how if there are positive things in the media about Cuba, then they need to be “balanced” or followed by “a Cuban official said”. But, if the news is negative, it doesn’t even need to be researched. The stories in the media are usually a mix of “truth, half truths, and outright lies,” according to Wald.
“The reason for this media spin is that countries don’t want the ‘Third World’ to have freedom when it will affect business and they especially don’t want Cuba to be an example… Cuba provides a lot of examples for living the way we want to live but aren’t living,” said Wald.
The Symposium ended with a discussion on the effectiveness of the proceedings, as well as ways to cement changes that are needed if the cancer of disinformation is to be stopped.
Holding the Symposium yearly is one option under review, as well as the creation of a foundation or think tank.
Final decisions and resolutions will be posted on the Symposiums website at http://www.halifaxsymposium.ca , or at http://www.shunpiking.com .
Brian Frank
The communications age has made disinformation one of the most deadly tools of government and corporate owned media in their battle against the ideals of democracy and freedom around the globe.
Members of the media from around the world gathered at Halifax’s Dalhousie University, from the evening of Wednesday June 30 to Sunday July 4, at the International Symposium on Media and Disinformation, to try to stem the tide of lies and deceit that have become the norm in this war on truth.
Symposium organizer, Tony Seed of Shunpiking publications, issued an international “call” to attend the symposium that drew a wide array of participants.
“We went thru thirteen drafts of the ‘call’ before we were finished,” said Seed.
The Symposium provided a forum for the consolidation of efforts to defeat disinformation and propaganda in mainstream media, by seeking to “…empower journalists and collectives of the people by definitively exposing the modus operandi and extent of disinformation, presenting the experience of journalists and activists across Canada and abroad in tackling it…”
Non-student participants paid a $25 daily fee to attend and students paid $15. The fees went toward the various costs arising from the necessity of flying in speakers from around the globe. However, payments were not mandatory to attend, as the Symposium adopted a “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need,” stance with regards to fees, said Seed.
The Symposium began the evening of June 30 with an impressive, authentic Middle Eastern dinner prepared by the Maritime Arab Students Association. Members of the M.A.S.A. volunteered their time during all aspects of the set-up and break down phases of the Symposium.
At the dinner, about 75 journalists, television and radio broadcasters, doctors, lawyers, political figures and professors mingled and discussed the intricacies of global politics and corporate media with each other, as well as with students and various members of Halifax’s prominent Bohemian movement.
Native American Catherine Martin of the Millbrook band, Truro Nation of Nova Scotia, gathered the group around the beating of her drum, which was the traditional way of her people to begin such an assembly. The beating drum gave coherence to the group, as well as providing recognition of the fact that the forum was taking place on indigenous people’s land, that was stolen by the colonial powers during westward expansion.
Participants were then treated to a traditional Gaelic bagpipe presentation.
This informal setting with entertainment and discussion was an excellent way to allow participants to establish a level of comfort and familiarity with each other that would be invaluable in the days to come. The following days’ proceedings would be held in the much more formal atmosphere of a lecture hall in Dalhousie’s Art and Social Sciences building.
The format for the official proceedings included open microphone time for participants, beginning at 9am, followed by presentations on a slew of topics by experts in their respective fields. Presentations would be followed by question and answer periods, breaks for meals and a public forum every evening with scheduled speakers, and an open public invitation to participate.
Official proceedings began with an entire half-day devoted to a discussion on Symposium goals. A microphone was passed around the large lecture hall and participants stated their credentials as well as what they specifically wanted the Symposium to achieve.
Members of C.K.D.U. radio provided technical sound assistance, and the audio hardware for the Symposium. C.K.D.U. is a campus based community radio station that is the only independent radio station in Halifax.
Once all participants had addressed the group, founding coordinator of Globalization Studies at the University of Lethbridge, Dr. Anthony Hall began the official presentations with a talk on defeating corporate media by creating independent media.
“We aren’t weak… the correct instinct to have is to not just go after big media, but to create our own media,” said Hall.
Several speakers followed Hall including author and Black History instructor Isaac Saney. Saney passionately addressed the Symposium about organized attacks on collective memory, particularly with regard to colonialism, slavery and racism. “If you deny the fact that slavery and colonialism shaped the world today, then you end up blaming the victims for poverty…” said Saney.
Saney went on to discuss the parallels between these organized attacks and the United States, French and Canadian backed coup in Haiti.
Prior to Haiti’s liberation from France, the French government forced Haiti to pay an enormous fee in order to be recognized as a legitimate government. This was due to France’s view that the Haitian people were property and had to therefore purchase their liberty.
Prior to the current coup, Haiti’s President Aristide was demanding the return of this money, adjusted for inflation, from France. This adjustment brought the sum to tens of billions of dollars and this was one of the main motivating factors behind the overthrow of the democratically elected Aristide, according to Saney.
Computer programmer and Palestinian commentator Isra’a Dabbour followed Saney with a stirring PowerPoint presentation, showcasing the horrors of Israel’s apartheid wall. The presentation put a face on the Palestinian struggle and gave a Palestinian perspective of the machine gun topped steel and concrete wall that has become a symbol of the politics of division and repression worldwide.
The National President of the Canadian Islamic Congress, Dr. Mohamed I. El-Masry also addressed the Symposium, about anti-Islamism in the media.
The media has succeeded in linking Islam and terrorism and this negative stereotyping is quickly turning into discrimination because of Muslim people’s status as a minority group in many western communities, according to Masry.
Later in the evening, at the public forum, Splitting the Sky, a leader of the Gustafsen Lake uprising addressed the auditorium.
His moving, militant oratory about mobilizing his people against a repressive Canadian government bellowed off the walls of the hall and out the open windows into the street. The hall, which was about two-thirds full quickly filled to capacity as students and passers by streamed in to here him speak. His oration ended with a standing ovation from the packed room.
Disinformation surrounding the Palestine conflict was the focus of honorary Symposium Chairman and founding President of the Canada-Palestine Association, Dr. Ismail Zayid’s presentation, “Strategy and tactics in Israeli Disinformation.”
Being anti-Zionist is not synonymous with being anti-Jewish, said Zayid. He drew a very distinct difference by defining Zionists as those that believe in the expulsion of Palestinians from their land, by any means necessary, due to the divine right of Israel to claim that land.
Zayid discussed the misuse of language by Zionists and major media alike.
“Refugee expulsion is called transfer… the destruction of villages is called an improvement [referring to Canada Park]… colonies are called settlements… Israel blows up houses and it is called self-defense… Palestinians are called terrorists… this is typical of the Zionist Lexicon,” according to Zayid.
“Israel and the Zionist movement created terrorism in the Middle East”, he said.
He then went on to cite several examples of Israeli terrorism, such as the first act of air piracy in the Middle East in which Israelis hijacked a Syrian Airliner and the shooting down of a civilian Air Libya airliner over Sinai. “The sophistication and immorality of Zionist terrorism is limitless,” said Zayid.
The unique cases of disinformation in Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba were discussed in detail by Canadian journalist Anthony Fenton, radio host Charles Boylan, and writer and educator Karen Wald, respectively.
Fenton, who recently returned from Haiti, discussed the “positive feedback loop” of disinformation there, by which the Haitian local media would spew lies about Aristide; the Associated Press would regurgitate those lies, then the Haitian media would utilize this regurgitation to lend credibility to the lies they actually created.
Boylan discussed the case of profound disinformation surrounding Venezuelan President Chavez. He pointed to the fact that Chavez wants the profits from Venezuela’s 8 million barrel a day oil industry to go back to the people, instead of into the hands of a few wealthy land owners, as a main motivation for the disinformation surrounding his administration.
He also described how the corrupted Venezuelan media aired cartoons while the people’s revolution was taking place.
“The revolution will not be televised!” said Boylan.
Wald described how every piece of information coming out of Cuba is spun into a lie by the U.S. corporate media and how if there are positive things in the media about Cuba, then they need to be “balanced” or followed by “a Cuban official said”. But, if the news is negative, it doesn’t even need to be researched. The stories in the media are usually a mix of “truth, half truths, and outright lies,” according to Wald.
“The reason for this media spin is that countries don’t want the ‘Third World’ to have freedom when it will affect business and they especially don’t want Cuba to be an example… Cuba provides a lot of examples for living the way we want to live but aren’t living,” said Wald.
The Symposium ended with a discussion on the effectiveness of the proceedings, as well as ways to cement changes that are needed if the cancer of disinformation is to be stopped.
Holding the Symposium yearly is one option under review, as well as the creation of a foundation or think tank.
Final decisions and resolutions will be posted on the Symposiums website at http://www.halifaxsymposium.ca , or at http://www.shunpiking.com .
Brian Frank