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Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link The Wholesome Photo of the Month Thu May 09, 2024 11:01 | Anti-Empire

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Human Rights in Ireland
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Julian Assange is finally free ! Tue Jun 25, 2024 21:11 | indy

offsite link Stand With Palestine: Workplace Day of Action on Naksa Day Thu May 30, 2024 21:55 | indy

offsite link It is Chemtrails Month and Time to Visit this Topic Thu May 30, 2024 00:01 | indy

offsite link Hamburg 14.05. "Rote" Flora Reoccupied By Internationalists Wed May 15, 2024 15:49 | Internationalist left

offsite link Eddie Hobbs Breaks the Silence Exposing the Hidden Agenda Behind the WHO Treaty Sat May 11, 2024 22:41 | indy

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link DESNZ Has Net Zero Competence Sun Jul 28, 2024 15:00 | David Turver
David Turver casts a critical eye over the new crop of ministers at the Department of Energy and Net Zero, revealing a batch of public sector lifers with no commercial savvy and zero energy know-how.
The post DESNZ Has Net Zero Competence appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Hate Cleric Raises £3 Million to Create Islamic Homeland on Scottish Island Sun Jul 28, 2024 13:01 | Richard Eldred
A radical cleric has raised over £3 million to transform a remote Scottish island into a self-governing Islamic state with its own army, justice system, school and hospital.
The post Hate Cleric Raises £3 Million to Create Islamic Homeland on Scottish Island appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Why I Fear What Labour Will Do to the Education System Sun Jul 28, 2024 11:00 | Stephen Curran
We are facing a radical agenda set by the progressive wing of the educational establishment, says Dr Stephen Curran. We should build on the past 14 years' foundation, not tear it down.
The post Why I Fear What Labour Will Do to the Education System appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Labour Has Just Betrayed a Generation of Young People Sun Jul 28, 2024 09:00 | Richard Eldred
By dropping the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, the Education Secretary has declared war on the culture of free speech on campus. The fight-back starts here, says Claire Fox in the Telegraph.
The post Labour Has Just Betrayed a Generation of Young People appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Extreme Weather We?re Experiencing Is Not Man Made, According to the IPCC Sun Jul 28, 2024 07:00 | Mark Ellse
Day-to-day weather, with all its extremes, is "just weather", according to the IPCC. With their authority onside, we can shrug off the BBC's melodramatic climate reports and misinformation, says Mark Ellse.
The post The Extreme Weather We?re Experiencing Is Not Man Made, According to the IPCC appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Netanyahu soon to appear before the US Congress? It will be decisive for the suc... Thu Jul 04, 2024 04:44 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N°93 Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:49 | en

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offsite link Will Netanyahu launch tactical nuclear bombs (sic) against Hezbollah, with US su... Thu Jun 27, 2024 12:09 | en

offsite link Will Israel provoke a cataclysm?, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jun 25, 2024 06:59 | en

Voltaire Network >>

British govt to announce overhaul of media machine to shed image of spin

category international | anti-war / imperialism | press release author Sunday September 07, 2003 21:57author by f Report this post to the editors

Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose government has been renowned and reviled for its concentration on its image, planned to announce an overhaul of media operations on Wednesday, government officials said.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose government has been renowned and reviled for its concentration on its image, planned to announce an overhaul of media operations on Wednesday, government officials said.

The announcement comes less than a week after Alastair Campbell, who has directed Blair’s information operation since the government took office in1997 , announced that he was resigning.

Structural changes to the communications unit he headed are viewed as an effort to repair relations with the British media and bolster public confidence in the government.

Officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the government’s plans would be released by the Cabinet Office, and that Blair did not plan an immediate statement.

Campbell will be succeeded by the Labor Party’s press chief, David Hill, who reportedly will not inherit Campbell’s powers to give orders to civil servants.

Blair has frequently faced accusations that his Labor Party government is more concerned with presentation of policies than with substance.

“I think the government absolutely knows that it has to kill off the curse of spin once and for all and it is determined to do it and will set in place structures that are designed to achieve that end,” said Labor lawmaker Tony Wright, chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee which earlier this year called for a radical review of government communications.

Blair’s government has been under pressure for months because coalition forces in Iraq have found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction _ the core of Blair’s case for military intervention.

The government’s claims in an intelligence dossier published in September have been under particular scrutiny at a judicial inquiry into the death of weapons inspector David Kelly.

Kelly had been named as the possible source of a British Broadcasting Corp. report which quoted an unidentified official as saying Blair’s office overruled experts in claiming that Iraq was poised to deploy some chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes.

Campbell was at the heart of that controversy. The BBC said its source held Campbell responsible for including the disputed claim; Campbell and other government officials have disputed that. Kelly had denied accusing Campbell.

Two years ago, the government was embarrassed the disclosure that one press officer had suggested that the terrorist attacks in the United States made Sept. 11 a “good day” to bury bad news.

Government press offices are traditionally staffed by civil servants who are expected to communicate government policy in a politically neutral manner.

Blair’s government increased the number of politically appointed special advisers who are also able to brief on partisan lines.

Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith accused the government of emasculating the civil service and said its “culture of spin and deceit” would only end if Blair resigned.

“Forgive me for being suspicious, but we’ve seen it all before,” Duncan Smith wrote in the Independent on Sunday newspaper.

The overhaul of Blair’s media machine is believed to draw heavily on an independent review of government communications, carried out by senior journalists, media specialists and government advisers, and chaired by Bob Phillis, chief executive of the Guardian Media Group.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2003%20News%20archives/September/4%20n/British%20govt%20to%20announce%20overhaul%20of%20media%20machine%20to%20shed%20image%20of%20spin.htm

author by Precision Manpublication date Sun Sep 07, 2003 23:42author address author phone Report this post to the editors

So, they're putting a new spin on it then?

 
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