In early November, Canadian media giant Canwest Mediaworks dropped its lawsuit against Mordecai Briemberg, a lawsuit which alleged that he infringed on Canwest's trademark rights. The case pertained to the creation of a parody of one of Canwest's many papers, The Vancouver Sun. The parody satirized what its creators see as Canwest's biased coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict; and while there was no evidence that Mordecai had any role in the creation of the paper, Mordecai posits that it was the building of public pressure that caused Canwest to drop the suit, as they had known about the absence of evidence for months. While Mordecai suit was dropped, Canwest has refused to drop its suit against the two others who have taken responsibility for the creation of the parody. Mordecai contends that parody is a cherished tradition of dissent in the society and that Canwest's lawsuits amount to an attack on freedom of speech. BioMordecai Briemberg is co-host of the public affairs program Redeye on Vancouver's cooperative radio, CFRO. He is a former university professor, Rhodes scholar and a long time activist in peace and social justice causes, including a long history of activism on behalf of Palestinian rights.
Comments from Registered Members | (Register or log in to make your comment.) | Edward Woelke 2008-11-20
If they had called it the Vancouver Fun or some other satirical name, they would have probably avoided the suit. Seems to me they wanted to be sued. They used the real Vancouver Sun masthead! | gloriazb 2008-11-16
Thanks for your information. Can West media is not respecting the freedom of speak in Canada, they as the Israel lobby do not allow to report fairly on the Israel-Palestine problems. I am so disgusted with the media in North America, that I do not read any newspaper here. My options are the internet and theRealNews Network.
Thanks | robsethsmith 2008-11-16
Of course the paper can claim that this parody can hurt their reputation and hence, their sales, due to implying unfair bias... but is it NEWS to anyone that the reporting of Middle East news across the board isn't totally biased towards Israel? Does ANYONE actually think 'the war' is fairly reported? It's like Climate Change and photos of polar bears on broken ice, all we see are photos of Israeli soldiers with small cuts on their faces standing in front of stockpiles of 'recovered' Lebanese rockets and (if it gets into the story at all) 'Oh yes, and 200 Palestinian civilians got killed somewhere today in blah blah blah...' - frankly, the whole situation is a farce and it's an insult to call ANY items about Israel in the mass media 'News'! It is propaganda pure and simple... | odm04w 2008-11-15
This video was really eye-opening, as I live in Vancouver and read CanWest's poor reporting (my roommate has a subscription to The Province, which is the down-market newspaper also owned by CanWest.) First of all, I had no idea that this lawsuit is taking place, but I also had never suspected The Vancouver Sun of a pro-Israel bias beyond that of most North American publications. | jimreed 2008-11-15
Echoing what David has said, I applaud your coverage of this matter which has received little attention in Canada's mainstream media. I'd like you to know that the esteemed Israeli author Ilan Pappe will be visiting Canada soon. Professor Pappe is the author of everal scholarly books and articles, including "Genocide in Gaza". Pappe asserts that Israel was founded not on some universal ideal of Jewish salvation, but rather on a policy of ethnic cleansing.His visit is sponsored by the foundation mentioned by Mr. Briemberg. http://www.necef.org/index_files/page0012.htm
Some of my own writing on the subject can be found here: http://www.reedwrites.ca/middle_east/ and here -
http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_reed/
| DavidV 2008-11-15
Thanks for this Paul. I'm astounded at the level of ignorance here in Canada regarding the Israel/Palestine conflict, speaking as one who lived in the West Bank for more than 2 years. |
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