It’s been a turbulent Easter.
“There can be no peace without freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and respect for the views of others.”
These were the words of Pope Francis on Easter Sunday.
The next day a billion Catholics were joined by millions from a diversity of religions and philosophies who mourned his death and eulogised the pontiff’s humanitarian works.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin mouthed predictably obsequious responses.
“Happy Easter, from death comes life and from the entwined global political and media crises will come new journalistic innovation, new ways of confronting power. I believe the darkening storm in the US will create an equal and opposite force that will push back against it.“
This was a different Easter message, but also focussed on the individual freedoms integral to democracy.
These are so often taken for granted, and are being killed-off at a frightening pace around the world.
The quote is from journalist Carole Cadwalladr, writing about her last day working for the British tabloid The Observer, which changed owners this week.
Considered the oldest Sunday newspaper – first published in 1791- it was ‘transferred’ by the Guardian Media Group, according to long-serving Cadwalladr, to a 2019 start-up – Tortoise Media.
The Guardian, run as a not-for-profit entity by a trust, is regarded world-wide as a reputable and honest source of information. When accessed online there are repeated statements that it is not run by billionaires, and needs continual reader subscription to finance its journalism.
Dumping The Observer and 100 staff in a secret deal could mar its reputation. Forcing staff to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements as part of their severance packages has cast a shadow on The Guardian’s transparency, and raised questions about the money behind Tortoise Media.
Cadwalladr did not sign an NDA and her 20-year career with The Observer was terminated.
Read her article: https://broligarchy.substack.com/p/fuckity-bye
For a journalist whose focus was on the rise of social media and Artificial Intelligence, and whose fear of media control by those who own this rapacious technology was borne out by a brutal four-year trial, her second appearance on the TED Talk platform was a brave walk into the lions’ den.
TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is the home turf and trumpet of Silicon Valley innovators. The most powerful of these men are now part of Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy and they facilitate his global reach.
For Tasmanians who shrug off opinions fearful of Trump’s dismantling of democratic process and his attack on eight decades of relative order in global trade, financial and law, spending 18 minutes watching her latest TED Talk: ‘This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like’ should be an eye-opener.
Because of her intensive investigations, this woman has been vilified, both within and outside the law, by the tech barons and their political confederates, plus an army delivering vitriolic social media pile-ons.
It was Carole Cadwalladr who in 2018 exposed the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal, which saw data-miners collude to manipulate the outcome of the 2016 U.S. election and the Brexit referendum.
With the control of personal data now yielding unprecedented influence without deference to national borders, the right of the individual in a democratic society is being subverted by autocrats like Trump and his ‘broligarchy’.
This isn’t some futuristic fiction. It is the world we live in now – even in remote Tasmania.
Watch her compelling video: https://broligarchy.substack.com/p/speaking-truth-to-tech-gods-i-return
In the context of our own Federal election – which daily emulates the American two-person, presidential contest – it’s worth considering that your social media news feed and political advertising may be tailored by algorithms which play to your preferences and vulnerabilities – and that those algorithms are often manipulated by moneyed actors to achieve their desired result at the polls.
It takes little imagination (or research on fact-checking sites) to learn that their ultimate goals are rarely aligned with yours as they garner your all-important vote.
No longer do we all gaze at or gloss over the same political splashes in our daily papers, or watch together repeat ads on the evening news. These organisations know so much about us that their approaches are personalised, and delivered (literally) right into our hands.
We have witnessed the total suppression of a free press by political authority in various countries – those with regimes from the extremes of both left and right.
Recalling Hong Kong‘s bid for democracy, it seemed a decade ago that the worst violations were being perpetrated by communist regimes. The evolution of Putin’s Russia needs no explanation.
However, there’s plenty of evidence that the subversion of peoples’ rights is under way in Britain and America, with Carole Cadwalladr’s persecution a case in point.
Likewise, we should not forget Julian Assange’s 12-year stint in the Ecuadorian Embassy and Britain’s Belmarsh Prison as he fought off deportation to America to face a hostile trial for publishing damaging files which highlighted U.S. military crimes.
It’s folly to believe that without personal vigilance the same won’t happen here. The closed court hearings in the Witness K/Bernard Collaery matter just five years ago should serve to keep us alert for cover-ups of political skullduggery, carried out secretly in our name by Australian governments keen to undertake ‘the-end-justifies-the-means’ espionage.
The concentration of print and television media to produce king-makers (think Rupert Murdoch and News Ltd) at least made biased reporting accountable as the evidence remained to be examined after the event.
As Carole Cadwalladr maintains, the digital evidence of manipulation disappears from public view immediately an election campaign ends. However, it still exists as stored data within the depths of Facebook, X, Instagram and the like. The fact that the companies will not reveal the information – not even to government committees – says much about the absolute power these dark actors wield, and the billions of dollars of future income that it represents.
In her last Observer article, Cadwalladr laments the hijacking of the internet by the new tech giants, accelerated by ever-encroaching AI.
“It’s going to blast away whole industries, concentrate even greater power in an even smaller group of men, deplete the planet’s resources even further, and it’s in the hands of reckless, careless people who seem to have no understanding of society. To them, it’s just a race; a winner-takes-all competition.”
She says there’s still a chance for the citizens of the world to wrest control from these oligarchs, but the time for action is now.
“… in the darkness that’s falling, I believe that rebuilding our information system – together – is the first step to getting out of this mess.”
Holding power to account and reporting the reaction in a free press is a critical pillar of a functioning democracy. While not an international masthead, the Tasmanian Times is a vital piece in Australia’s vanguard against autocracy. It should be valued.
Today we are witnessing the attempted demolition of democracy in America. Given our history of partnership with the USA, why should we expect to be immune from a digital coup in Australia?
Greg Pullen is an active member of the Central Highlands No Turbine Action Group (NTAG) and has a keen interest in renewable energy transformation, in particular its benefits for Tasmania. He is a firm believer in the KISS Principle.
Ben Marshall
April 25, 2025 at 10:48
Thanks, Greg.
That’s terrifying, and highly relevant.
Local independent newsrooms need to support each other to support our failing democracy.