We all know what these words mean, what I mean to do in this blog is to provide a detailed analysis showing the relationship between them with some context.

The word ‘propaganda’ is derived from a new administrative body (of the Catholic Church created in 1622 called the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for Propagating the Faith). In its modern secular usage its communication by a political party, primarily the government, used to influence and further their own agenda. They’ll use truth if it suits their purposes, with some embellishments and evasions to put themselves in a good light with their constituents, but they’ll resort to lies if necessary – it doesn’t even need to be a plausible lie these days. One thing to remember is that ministers never, ever lie in parliament – they may “inadvertently mislead the house” but an MP who calls them out on a blatant lie and refuses to retract will be expelled from the chamber for the remainder of the day’s sitting. Two MPs who have stood there ground are Dennis Skinner and Dawn Butler.

If propaganda is tell us what the government wishes to know, real journalism is quite the opposite – as George Orwell told us.

Most of the mainstream media is public relations now, journalists with integrity have sacrificed their careers to continue to telling the unadulterated truth. John Pilger passed away recently but we still have Peter Oborne, Jonathan Cook, Chris Hedges and the team at Declassified. Julian Assange remains incarcerated in Belmarsh, an extreme form of censorship intended to intimidate other journalists into remaining silent

Censorship can take many forms – some quite innocent, others more pernicious – and it’s not easy to decide what counts as censorship. The right to free speech does not impose upon anyone else the obligation to listen to what we have to say, so I’m not censoring anyone by blocking them on Twitter/X. If someone wants to buy a copy of The S*n they’ll be invited to go elsewhere even if it’s on display in the shop. I’m not a scouser but my understanding is that shops are contractually bound to stock it but can refuse to sell it to anyone stupid enough to ask.

No-platforming is a more contentious matter. It’s one thing for an organisation to decide by a vote of their members to deny a platform to a speaker with whom they fundamentally disagree. I think it was Oxford Union who went to a step further, allowing the speaker to appear on stage before walking out to express their disapproval. It’s quite another matter for the film “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” to be banned from being shown at Glastonbury, where he had been invited to speak 1-2 years before, or from being shown in Unite the Union venues. I resigned from Unite Community over this matter, I don’t accept Sharon Graham’s right to dictate what I may watch 😠

The Freedom of Information Act, which gives us the right to know what our government is doing, is frequently bypassed while new legislation gives police increased powers to spy on ordinary citizens – the most abhorrent misuse of these powers has been exposed but not adequately addressed 😠

I suppose I could be called a propagandist, using a secular version of the original definition, I am indeed a propagator of the belief in socialism. But I trust in facts and logic to support my cause, not some blind ideology. Above all, compassion to all our fellow beings, human and non-human.

One form of censorship that’s in the news lately is that MPs feel they’re being being harassed by groups of their constituents coming to address their grievances. Some MPs are being harassed, but not by their constituents. I don’t need to name them, but black female MPs get more harassment and make less fuss about it than anyone other! Any comments made about a politician, unless they’re blatantly racist or misogynistic, should be accepted as part of the job.

The only form of censorship that could affect me is if I say something that “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk doesn’t like, several comrades have had their accounts suspended for various periods and I refuse to remain silent. That’s why I ask, if you like what I have to say, that you subscribe to my blog and get a notification whenever I post. It costs nothing and makes sure you don’t miss anything, especially now that I’m writing more than one blog a week. If my main account is blocked, my secondary account @mikesherburn48 is currently open for new followers.

It has just come to my attention that Facebook users are being banned, or having their posts censored, after sharing an investigation by The Grayzone’s Kit Klarenberg. Here is his own report on the matter.

Facebook designates Grayzone journalist Kit Klarenberg a ‘dangerous individual’ https://thegrayzone.com/2024/04/17/facebook-kit-klarenberg-dangerous/

Klarenberg was previously banned from Twitter/X for offending the sensibilities of Zionist users.