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bat020's profile
bat020
bat020
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@bat020

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bat020

@bat020

coder | activist | writer

London
bat020.com
Joined March 2009

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    bat020‏ @bat020 22 Jul 2020

    I trained as a journalist in the early 1990s at City University and did a bit of media law as part of that, taught by the late great Marcel Berlins. It was mostly about libel law, and how stacked it was against journalists and in favour of the rich and powerful.

    2:32 PM - 22 Jul 2020
    • 200 Retweets
    • 476 Likes
    • Kostas Sideris Luke Jota D. PAIN Alex Harrowell Gareth Doughty Heather Newby🕷🌈 #Johnsonout #FBPA #FBPE #FBPR Mark Law 🌹 Chris Corney Hugh Terry
    12 replies 200 retweets 476 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. bat020‏ @bat020 22 Jul 2020

        Of course things have changed somewhat since then, but the basic contours and dynamics remain intact and unchanged. Libel law is a rich man's game and its primary purpose is repressive, ie to discourage people from writing things that might harm the reputations of the powerful.

        1 reply 35 retweets 170 likes
        Show this thread
      3. bat020‏ @bat020 22 Jul 2020

        Back then journalism was still a profession of sorts, with a certain code (and a certain pomposity). Viewing libel law as the *enemy*, as something that suppressed free speech in the interests of the rich, was part of the professional "line" one would imbibe as a cub hack.

        1 reply 10 retweets 120 likes
        Show this thread
      4. bat020‏ @bat020 22 Jul 2020

        In particular, the notion that a journalist might use libel law sue those who criticised their work was unheard of. It would have been seen as a grotesque violation of the code that bound journalists together against an establishment they were entangled with but set apart from.

        3 replies 44 retweets 204 likes
        Show this thread
      5. bat020‏ @bat020 22 Jul 2020

        I say this because I am puzzled by the lack of condemnation or even criticism of John Ware's legal threats against those who disputed his Panorama documentary. That a journalist of all people would set lawyers on their critics – that would have been anathema not so very long ago.

        5 replies 121 retweets 380 likes
        Show this thread
      6. bat020‏ @bat020 22 Jul 2020

        We live today in a journalistic climate that is wound up into a near permanent hysteria over "cancel culture" and its supposed threat to free speech. But here is a very tangible, in fact indisputable example of a threat to free speech – and it goes unremarked upon.

        1 reply 47 retweets 242 likes
        Show this thread
      7. bat020‏ @bat020 22 Jul 2020

        More than that – it isn't even *seen* as a free speech issue. The very idea that there might be another narrative at play here, and that suppression of that narrative might be problematic in some way, is written out a priori.

        3 replies 19 retweets 154 likes
        Show this thread
      8. bat020‏ @bat020 22 Jul 2020

        Our latter-day wannabe Voltaires lie silent. For them, only certain points of view count as free speech. And anything even tangentially related to acknowledging the Palestinian cause is absolutely not part of that gilded circle.

        2 replies 46 retweets 230 likes
        Show this thread
      9. bat020‏ @bat020 22 Jul 2020

        I won't pretend to know what we can do about this situation. But at the very least we should speak out against it and make clear our contempt for those servile hypoocrites who bleat about their liberty while using the force of the law to shut their critics down.

        10 replies 41 retweets 238 likes
        Show this thread
      10. End of conversation
      1. Nigel Fromage QC™, Interpol, Twit Support Team‏ @GynecologistIm 22 Jul 2020
        Replying to @bat020 @AllyFogg

        Champerty.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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      1. New conversation
      2. ap Gato‏ @cocygath310865 22 Jul 2020
        Replying to @bat020

        @threadreaderapp please unroll

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      3. Thread Reader App‏ @threadreaderapp 22 Jul 2020
        Replying to @cocygath310865

        Halo! the unroll you asked for: @bat020: I trained as a journalist in the early 1990s at City University and did a bit of media law as part of that… https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1286051455405903873.html … Talk to you soon. 🤖

        0 replies 1 retweet 2 likes
      4. End of conversation

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