Day: October 3, 2023

Open Source Investigation Comes Of Age: Eliot Higgins Of Bellingcat

Post author By Mike Nova
Post date October 3, 2023

The inaugural Centre for Media, Politics and Communication Research Annual Public Lecture on Media and Citizenship.

“Open Source Investigation Comes of Age: Ukraine 2022” – a public lecture by Eliot Higgins, CEO of Bellingcat

Nottingham Contemporary, Weekday Cross, Nottingham. September 20th, 6.30pm.

How do we know which claims to believe, which sources are credible? Can we trust the “news”?In an age of disinformation, how can we hope to discover the truth?

Eliot Higgins’ citizen collective Bellingcat – an ‘intelligence agency for the people’ – gives us hope and practical tools to interrogate the evidence.

“Scattered across the globe, we are an online collective, investigating war crimes and picking apart disinformation, basing our findings on clues that are openly available on the Internet – in social media postings, in leaked databases, in free satellite maps. […] We have no agenda but we do have a credo: evidence exists and falsehoods exist, and people still care about the difference.” (Eliot Higgins, We Are Bellingcat, Bloomsbury)

Using this “OSINT” (open source intelligence) Higgins and the Bellingcat collective have pioneered techniques to verify information and establish what is real and what is not. It has led to ground breaking investigations on issues such as the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 and the poisoning of Sergey and Julia Skripal in Salisbury UK in 2018. One of their most recent investigations is into the “revolt” by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group in June this year. Find out more about Bellingcat – and its methods – here

This public lecture is free of charge, and open to all, and will be a refreshing antidote to ‘post-truth politics’ despair and will offer an insight into how we navigate the claims and counterclaims related to the current war in Ukraine.

The lecture will last approx 45 minutes and there will be a Q&A session followed by a drinks reception.

It marks the launch of the Centre for Media, Politics and Communication Research co-directed by Dr Jen Birks and Dr Natalie Martin.

The Nottingham Contemporary Art Gallery is in Nottingham city centre and is easily accessible by public transport.

This lecture is supported by the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies, and the School of Politics and International Relations, at the University of Nottingham where Eliot Higgins is an Honorary Fellow.

Tickets are free and can be booked through this Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/690771525227?aff=oddtdtcreator

Selected Articles

Forget Bellingcat — Meet a Real “Open Source” Watchdog – Scheerpost.com

Post author By Mike Nova
Post date October 3, 2023

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Scheerpost.com

South Caucasus News

Constitutional Court of Georgia starts consideration of impeachment of the president

Post author By Mike Nova
Post date October 3, 2023

Impeachment of the President is being discussed in Georgia

Today, October 3, the Constitutional Court of Georgia is considering the ruling party’s request to impeach the President at an oral hearing. Media called the process historic.

The President herself will not attend the hearing. A few hours before the start of the court session, President Salome Zurabishvili wrote that she will be represented by presidential office staff Tamar Chugoshvili and Maia Kopaleishvili.

“Let it be what it will be, but everything will be fine,” President Zurabishvili told TV Pirveli.

The substantive discussion of the case began at 12:00. Earlier, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Georgia Merab Turava suggested in a conversation with the TV channel “Formula” that the hearing might last more than one day.

On September 1, 2023, it became known that the ruling Georgian Dream party started impeachment proceedings against the president. It was stated that the president had grossly violated the constitution when she made several visits to foreign countries without the consent of the government.

In particular, we are talking about three working meetings: August 31 with the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, September 1 with the President of the European Council and September 6 with the President of France.

Zurabishvili stated that she makes foreign visits on her own funds and lobbies abroad to grant Georgia the status of a candidate for EU membership.

Constitutional Court Chairman Merab Turava told reporters that “the Georgian president’s presence at the Constitutional Court session was expected.”

“The participation of representatives instead of her may prevent a perfect decision from being made. The president’s representatives will not be able to give details about the president’s visits and will only have answers to legal questions,” Turava said.

In addition, Turava told reporters, if the Constitutional Court is dissatisfied with the outcome of today’s case, then the president will be invited to personally attend the hearing tomorrow, October 4.

If the Constitutional Court agrees with the ruling party’s statement, the impeachment issue will go to parliament for a vote. It needs 100 votes for approval, and the ruling party needs to be able to get opposition MPs on its side if it is to succeed.

Inside the opposition, it is not ruled out that the Georgian Dream will manage to recruit some opposition representatives and get the 100 votes needed for impeachment.