Rebel News Podcast - SPECIAL! “Fake news,” “feelings” more important than freedom at government media conference

00:00:00.540 You're listening to a Rebel Media Podcast.

00:00:03.880 Day two in the Potemkin village of free speech.

00:00:07.600 It's July 11th and this is the Ezra Levant Show.

00:00:12.600 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:16.400 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.

00:00:20.460 The only thing I have to say to the government of a wire publisher

00:00:23.820 is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:00:30.000 You know what a Potemkin village is, don't you?

00:00:35.040 It's a fake. It's something to show off to foreign media to, well, to lie about the way things really are.

00:00:41.260 And that's what this so-called Media Freedom Conference,

00:00:45.300 co-sponsored by the governments of Canada and the UK, has been.

00:00:49.040 This is the second day of the conference and I am convinced that the purpose of the conference

00:00:54.620 is to further the globalist agenda that Justin Trudeau is definitely part of.

00:01:00.000 And I'm afraid the United Kingdom must be too, but many others,

00:01:03.440 which is to divide the world's media into two parts.

00:01:07.220 Those that are controlled and subsidized by government

00:01:10.320 and those that are marginalized, demonized and banned by government

00:01:15.140 with nothing left in between.

00:01:17.300 No independent media, no free media, no dissident media,

00:01:20.840 just approved media and banned media.

00:01:24.000 Now you might think that sounds astonishing.

00:01:26.540 How could the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom abide that?

00:01:30.280 Well, I'm telling you that for the last 48 hours I've observed it with my own eyes.

00:01:34.740 I've listened to dozens, probably two dozen hours of conversations,

00:01:39.340 or maybe not quite that much.

00:01:40.540 And the ideas of freedom, what it means to be free, have been incidental.

00:01:47.260 Maybe 20 minutes out of all the talk I've heard,

00:01:51.700 much more common is the talk of banning fake news and disinformation.

00:01:58.460 But what is fake news or disinformation other than something someone disagrees with?

00:02:03.100 I think the theory of man-made global warming is fake news and disinformation.

00:02:07.260 I think the theory of Trump-Russia collusion is fake news,

00:02:11.320 and I think it was proven that way.

00:02:12.820 But for the official narrative media, that was the truth.

00:02:16.780 So what we have here is a media censorship commission

00:02:20.340 that calls itself a free speech conference.

00:02:25.580 It's a wolf in sheep's clothing.

00:02:27.300 It's a censor in free speech clothing.

00:02:29.860 I want to tell you about one particular moment when I knew this was coming true.

00:02:34.140 I actually wasn't there myself, but Sheila Gunn-Reed, our chief reporter,

00:02:37.860 and Andrew Lawton from TNC.news were there.

00:02:40.800 As you know, Canada's foreign minister, Christy Freeland,

00:02:43.380 was one of the co-sponsors of this event.

00:02:45.220 And she was having a press scrum. 0.99

00:02:48.320 And there was a gaggle of reporters, including from CTV and Global News

00:02:55.000 and other mainstream media who frankly don't have a lot of time for us here at The Rebel.

00:02:58.780 Well, feelings mutual, that's fine.

00:03:00.620 So this whole gaggle of Canadian reporters was going in,

00:03:05.140 and Sheila and Andrew were there, and they said,

00:03:07.960 Oh, oh, oh, oh, stop, you guys, stop, stop.

00:03:11.140 It's too crowded in here, so two journalists can't make it,

00:03:15.880 and those two are you, Sheila, and you, Andrew.

00:03:21.200 Oh, my God, it couldn't have been more transparent.

00:03:23.560 And in that moment, Christy Freeland showed her true colors at a free speech conference.

00:03:32.560 She censored Sheila and Andrew.

00:03:36.780 At the conference, moments after giving a lecture to everyone

00:03:41.740 about how politicians must respect journalists even if they ask tough questions.

00:03:46.200 If that story isn't incredible enough, what happened next was even more amazing.

00:03:52.280 Those other mainstream media journalists I just referred to,

00:03:56.020 they actually stood up for a moment.

00:03:59.560 For us, maybe, but for free speech, for sure.

00:04:03.140 And they all said,

00:04:04.640 If Sheila and Andrew aren't going in, we aren't going in.

00:04:09.480 And not just that, it wasn't just the Canadians.

00:04:11.480 An Al Jazeera reporter said that.

00:04:13.520 Stop and think about that for one second.

00:04:16.720 A government broadcaster, a government journalist from the state broadcaster of Qatar,

00:04:22.980 an odious dictatorship, had more free speech in his blood

00:04:27.480 than Christy Freeland, the co-chair of this conference.

00:04:31.800 Here, our friend Sheila Gunn-Reed was right there with her camera. 0.99

00:04:34.740 Take a look at how that went down.

00:04:36.080 So, um, Rubber Mail, um, Wobble, um, CTD, Al Jazeera, CBC, and the National Economic Team.

00:04:47.480 What about the rest?

00:04:48.440 The rest of us?

00:04:49.460 The rest will have to stay back.

00:04:50.680 No, I don't think we all go.

00:04:51.960 No, that's nonsense.

00:04:52.880 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:04:54.940 That's, let's take us to the room, and we can see if we can...

00:04:57.700 No, we're not going, Brittany, we're just not.

00:04:59.200 We're all going to the room.

00:04:59.720 This is a media freedom conference.

00:05:01.020 Yeah, this is ridiculous.

00:05:01.860 We just don't do that.

00:05:02.500 So, that was the highlight.

00:05:06.500 The worst censor at the conference was Chrystia Freeland, the co-chair. 0.97

00:05:10.600 The best moment was Canadian journalists who discovered the...

00:05:14.480 Maybe they always had it.

00:05:15.600 It was latent.

00:05:16.540 They stood up for the rebel.

00:05:18.140 It was sort of amazing.

00:05:19.780 Anyways, there was a lot of interesting...

00:05:21.180 There's a lot of depressing things.

00:05:22.440 I was actually invited to be on a panel, sort of a youth journalism panel.

00:05:26.240 I don't like when things are artificially divided up at the kids' table and the grown-ups' table,

00:05:30.840 but, hey, take it where you can get it, right?

00:05:32.400 And I was invited on a panel at this conference.

00:05:35.580 Obviously, they didn't run that by Chrystia Freeland. 0.99

00:05:37.760 So, I was on it, and I was disappointed at how little, how shallow the roots of free speech are in the millennial generation.

00:05:45.800 I was very depressed by it.

00:05:47.300 And I think that the idea of hurt feelings that counterfeit human right not to be offended,

00:05:54.200 I'm afraid that's taken deep root even at this conference.

00:05:57.800 But I want to tell you a story today that I thought was rather incredible.

00:06:03.580 As I mentioned, this was co-sponsored by Canada and the United Kingdom.

00:06:08.860 There's about 1,000 delegates here.

00:06:10.780 I was told by a staffer there are 900 people working at this conference of 1,000.

00:06:15.900 And, you know, there was Brits and there's Americans here and Canadians and other Europeans,

00:06:20.940 and it was interesting.

00:06:22.480 And I just sat down in a session, and I couldn't even find it on my agenda.

00:06:28.000 It wasn't an official part of the agenda.

00:06:29.980 And I sat down, and I wasn't really paying much attention because I didn't know who I was listening to.

00:06:33.320 And I heard him talking about how free the country of Pakistan was.

00:06:41.860 Pakistan? Free? 0.96

00:06:43.480 Pakistan is a racist, Islamic supremacist country in their constitution. 1.00

00:06:50.380 Their bigotry is hardwired in there.

00:06:52.320 They're extremely censorious.

00:06:54.260 Let me just give you one example.

00:06:55.460 I'm sure I could give you a dozen.

00:06:57.260 You know the case of Asia Bibi, the Christian woman who was sentenced to death for blasphemy against Islam,

00:07:07.700 finally freed and actually came to Canada, if you can believe it.

00:07:11.520 The Pakistani foreign minister was a guest of honor speaking on the main stage.

00:07:20.100 That thug, and I call him a thug because he's part of the regime.

00:07:24.060 It would be like having Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela or Vladimir Putin.

00:07:28.640 I mean, they're not completely irredeemable, but to invite the foreign minister of Pakistan as an honored guest,

00:07:35.420 and I couldn't even believe he was there.

00:07:37.640 And I was listening to him lie about free speech when I knew about Asia Bibi. 1.00

00:07:43.060 And surely Chrystia Freeland, the foreign minister who welcomed and took a photo op with these people coming from Pakistan,

00:07:51.120 surely she would object.

00:07:52.340 No.

00:07:52.660 Well, I have a little censorship story involving Pakistan.

00:07:57.120 You see, I like to tweet on Twitter.

00:07:58.880 It's what I do, and I tweet about many subjects.

00:08:01.180 And one day I got an email from Twitter saying the government of Pakistan objected to a tweet I published.

00:08:10.040 And so they demanded it be deleted, and Twitter complied.

00:08:13.180 And so you've got some thuggish Sharia supremacist in Pakistan telling a company in San Francisco,

00:08:23.060 First Amendment free speech jurisdiction, to censor me, a Canadian journalist, in Toronto.

00:08:28.600 And they did it.

00:08:30.340 And that thuggish foreign minister of Pakistan was sitting right on the stage.

00:08:36.460 Well, you know me.

00:08:38.580 I'm very diplomatic.

00:08:39.620 And when you have a careful, nuanced point you want to make, send in Ezra Levant.

00:08:44.840 And here's how that looked.

00:08:46.560 Thanks.

00:08:47.120 Actually, I'm not going to be directed by you.

00:08:48.900 I'm going to ask a question to the Pakistani gentleman.

00:08:51.460 No, you're not.

00:08:52.000 Yes, I am.

00:08:52.780 Because it's the Media Freedom Conference, and you're not going to shut down questions about a censor.

00:08:57.260 You censored me, sir.

00:08:58.440 I have a Twitter account in Canada, and because I wrote something that produced some Pakistani blasphemy law, 0.98

00:09:06.500 you complained to Twitter, which took down my tweet in Canada.

00:09:11.100 So can you explain why your Islamic supremacy in Pakistan is silencing my personal and journalistic freedom in Canada? 0.63

00:09:20.680 And I know it happens in the United States, too.

00:09:22.740 And frankly, you sure should be embarrassed to invite a censor like this.

00:09:25.960 But back to the thought, who the hell are you to censor me in Canada?

00:09:29.840 Answer.

00:09:30.420 Now, I don't like...

00:09:32.020 I know you don't, because you don't like free speech.

00:09:34.660 I don't like...

00:09:35.420 You don't like free speech.

00:09:37.180 Okay, would you like to not censor me?

00:09:38.660 I'll just respond to you, sir.

00:09:40.860 First of all, you want your sentiments with a perspective.

00:09:45.960 Just look at the tone of the talent you've adopted.

00:09:50.140 Is that the correct way?

00:09:52.060 You have a right last question, sir.

00:09:53.680 Well, then why did you censor me?

00:09:54.980 Did I censor you?

00:09:56.160 You shut down my Twitter tweet.

00:09:57.740 I did not.

00:09:58.200 Don't lie.

00:09:59.720 How can I...

00:10:00.780 How am I censor you for that?

00:10:02.280 Because the government of Pakistan did.

00:10:04.500 The government of Pakistan.

00:10:05.820 I didn't respect you to you.

00:10:07.020 No, you were not.

00:10:07.780 You censored me.

00:10:09.000 I did not censor you.

00:10:09.940 Don't lie.

00:10:10.560 All right.

00:10:10.940 Why would I lie?

00:10:11.840 Because that's what you do.

00:10:12.880 Okay, me?

00:10:13.400 No, we don't.

00:10:14.440 I'm sorry.

00:10:15.160 I'm sorry.

00:10:16.140 Shame on you and shame on you. 0.72

00:10:17.700 You have...

00:10:18.240 You have double standards.

00:10:19.440 Shame on you and shame on you for inviting you.

00:10:20.980 You have double standards.

00:10:21.460 Shame on you.

00:10:22.780 You censorious bug.

00:10:24.860 You have double standards.

00:10:25.960 I'm sorry as a thug.

00:10:27.200 And what you call freedom at times you are projecting certain sectoral agenda.

00:10:33.420 Well, what do you think?

00:10:34.520 Did the shoe fit?

00:10:35.400 Was he a thug?

00:10:36.380 I enjoyed saying it.

00:10:37.780 I bet you 200 million Pakistanis wanted to say that to him.

00:10:41.820 But alas, they can't because it's not free.

00:10:44.660 There were a number of speakers from unfree countries.

00:10:47.380 Anyways, as I was walking out, a young Pakistani man came right up to me and wanted to talk to me.

00:10:53.520 And I was worried.

00:10:54.520 It was part of the foreign minister's thuggish entourage.

00:10:57.580 It wasn't.

00:10:58.580 It was a young reporter who himself had been blackballed by that same foreign minister.

00:11:05.460 In fact, he was a TV journalist whose network was taken off the air.

00:11:10.720 I couldn't believe that.

00:11:12.700 Here, take a look.

00:11:13.780 He was so excited that someone finally held the foreign minister's account.

00:11:17.080 Here's his story.

00:11:17.880 Take a look.

00:11:18.640 Irfan, after I asked the foreign minister a tough question, you came up to me.

00:11:22.200 At first, I thought you were maybe an enforcer of his, but the opposite.

00:11:25.980 The Pakistani government has censored you too, haven't they?

00:11:29.140 Thank you very much for your time.

00:11:31.540 You know, the first question which I asked you, the minister, I'm really shocked when coming to this world organization,

00:11:36.520 like the conference where the whole world is watching you and putting a show to the world,

00:11:40.920 that in Pakistan the media is free, which is not.

00:11:44.380 The three channels have been taken off the air, right?

00:11:47.040 And this is something really disturbing for all the journalists

00:11:51.260 because we don't know where we stand as a free journalist and what we have to do.

00:11:54.480 Because the reason was during the time when the PTI government in Pakistan, right,

00:11:59.860 they were campaigning for the election.

00:12:01.560 The channels in Pakistan were actually showing the street power of PTI without any discrimination

00:12:08.000 because everybody has a right to come in the street and talk about this is what happens in democracies.

00:12:13.480 But recently, since this government came into power, right,

00:12:18.260 most of the media houses in Pakistan are actually controlled in their own way,

00:12:23.040 that you cannot show this, you cannot show this.

00:12:25.120 There's a lot of censorship going on, right?

00:12:27.040 The question was, during the press conference of the political rival of the foreign ministers,

00:12:33.060 Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Maryam Namaz, who is the daughter of the ex-prime minister in Pakistan, right?

00:12:38.620 And during her press conference, these channels have been taken off the air

00:12:42.100 because what she was actually coming up with the evidence,

00:12:44.580 what exactly happened with that particular judge,

00:12:47.620 who actually admitting the fact that the whole deceit in the case of the prime minister of Pakistan

00:12:55.980 was influenced by some power corridors, right?

00:12:59.340 And tell me, you mentioned just before we turn the camera on that you yourself,

00:13:03.120 your media outlet has been censored.

00:13:05.020 Tell me a little bit more about that.

00:13:06.180 You said you were taken off the air?

00:13:07.360 Yeah, in the most part of the country, 24 News is not live.

00:13:11.420 And the message came on the screen.

00:13:13.060 There's a technical error.

00:13:14.520 But it wasn't a technical error, was it?

00:13:15.700 Technical error.

00:13:16.160 Everybody knows where the error was.

00:13:17.460 And, you know, it's just more like a censorship which the Pakistan media is actually facing right now.

00:13:21.400 Let me ask you one last question.

00:13:22.440 I know you're very busy.

00:13:23.300 Thanks for talking with me.

00:13:24.760 How did you feel as a journalist who's been censored by the government of Pakistan

00:13:28.820 to see the foreign minister of Pakistan on stage being given the red carpet treatment?

00:13:35.160 Well, you know what?

00:13:35.620 That's the thing.

00:13:36.920 When you come to a world platform like this,

00:13:39.320 and if you have to put the ball in somebody else's court, right?

00:13:42.120 Oh, this is not my job.

00:13:43.120 I'm the foreign minister.

00:13:44.000 This is a PEMRA who is doing in Pakistan, the regulatory body in Pakistan.

00:13:47.340 Then why are you here?

00:13:48.140 Send somebody who is the representative of the PEMRA 0.99

00:13:50.120 so we can actually address to the people, the right people, the right question,

00:13:53.300 if you believe that.

00:13:54.000 I think this absolutely defines the values of the journalism in Pakistan.

00:13:58.580 If someone of that level coming to media conferences like this,

00:14:02.060 I think they're just filling the blanks.

00:14:04.820 And it's nothing more than that.

00:14:06.840 Irfan, thanks very much for talking with us.

00:14:08.440 And good luck.

00:14:09.020 You are on the front lines of free speech, and I hope you stay strong.

00:14:12.140 Thank you very much.

00:14:12.940 Thank you very much.

00:14:13.600 Nice to meet you.

00:14:14.340 Isn't that strange?

00:14:15.980 He was outraged too.

00:14:18.000 A Pakistani journalist who's looking to the United Kingdom and Canada,

00:14:21.180 perhaps for hope, for inspiration as a role model.

00:14:24.720 He's invited to this conference where he's told it'll be about media freedom.

00:14:30.480 He's a hopeful young Pakistani man who wants our Western values of liberty.

00:14:33.860 And what does he see on the stage?

00:14:38.340 His jailer, his warden, his punisher, his censor, his bully, his boss, his tyrant, his dictator, his authoritarian.

00:14:45.060 Imagine how crestfallen he would have been.

00:14:48.040 He's invited to this fancy pants conference.

00:14:51.400 Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary of the UK.

00:14:54.120 Chrystia Freeland, Foreign Minister of Canada.

00:14:57.100 No expense spared.

00:14:58.420 This is going to be amazing.

00:14:59.300 We're going to talk about media freedom.

00:15:00.300 And he's a young Pakistani man.

00:15:01.760 He wants freedom there.

00:15:02.820 And he looks on the stage and he sees the tyrant.

00:15:07.280 That's the kind of conference this has been.

00:15:09.960 Well, folks, I was here for two days.

00:15:12.060 I'll have one more report on this tomorrow.

00:15:14.080 I think it's important because the kind of camouflage and misdirection and sleight of hand here

00:15:20.400 on freedom of speech is exactly what you can expect to be pushed all around the world,

00:15:26.120 especially in Canada in this election year.

00:15:28.640 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us at The Rebel, including over here in London, UK,

00:15:35.540 to you at home, good night.

00:15:38.500 And keep fighting for freedom while you still can.

00:15:40.460 Bye.

00:15:46.580 Bye.

00:15:48.520 Bye.

00:15:49.120 Bye.

00:15:49.360 Bye.

00:15:50.020 Bye.

00:15:50.340 Bye.

00:15:51.020 Bye.

00:15:51.120 Bye.

00:15:52.260 Bye.

00:15:53.800 Bye.

00:15:54.340 Bye.

00:15:54.900 Bye.

00:15:56.320 Bye.

00:15:59.040 Bye.

00:15:59.160 Bye.

00:15:59.560 Bye.

00:16:01.500 Bye.

00:16:01.620 Bye.

00:16:02.080 Bye.

00:16:02.700 Bye.

00:16:03.040 Bye.

00:16:03.320 Bye.

00:16:03.720 Bye.

00:16:04.700 Bye.

00:16:05.860 Bye.

00:16:06.600 Bye.

00:16:06.720 Bye.

00:16:08.840 Bye.

00:16:09.560 Bye.

Rebel News Podcast - July 12, 2019

SPECIAL! “Fake news,” “feelings” more important than freedom at government media conference

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript