Youtube has banned the Brazilian revolutionary newspaper A Nova Democracia’s channel on its platform on January 15, one day after demonetizing the channel, blocking the channel from receiving advertising or other revenue from the views of its videos. The Worker expresses solidarity with A Nova Democracia against this act of censorship by the monopoly media seeking to repress the people’s revolutionary and democratic journalism—of which AND is a shining example.
Though Youtube has not specified what in particular violated their “community guidelines”, it is likely, as AND themselves suggest, that they are facing repression for their excellent coverage of the Palestinian people’s national resistance struggle, and for their coverage of the people’s democratic struggles in Brazil, foremost being the struggle for land and the Agrarian Revolution.
This comes as part of a global effort by the imperialists to repress progressive and revolutionary journalism, particularly around the Palestinian national resistance. In September 2024, the Electronic Intifada newspaper, specializing in coverage of the Palestinian national struggle, had its Youtube channel frozen for 7 days, and one of their journalists, Asa Winstanley, has faced raids and seizure of his journalistic equipment by the British police. In August 2024, photojournalist Samuel Seligson was charged with felony hate crimes for his journalism documenting a pro-Palestine protest in New York City.
AND has overcome repression before, including attacks on its press offices. We salute the AND editorial team for pledging that the censorship “will not prevent or reduce in any way the revolutionary journalistic work” of the newspaper. We reiterate their call to “share as much as possible the complaint about the banning of our channel and to support AND financially as a way of responding to the Zionist action that aims, with demonetization and channel ban, to impede the work of the revolutionary press.”
Read an unofficial translation of the AND statement on the repression below, originally published on January 15, 2025.
by AND Editorial Team
For the Editorial Staff of AND, it is only possible to assume that YouTube considers AND’s courageous revolutionary journalistic coverage, which always denounced the crimes of the old state and closely covered the popular struggle, as a violation of the guidelines.
One day after Youtube demonetized the channel of the newspaper A Nova Democracia, the video platform decided today (1/15), without prior notice, to close the entire channel of our tribune because our courageous revolutionary journalistic coverage had allegedly violated the reactionary platform security guidelines.
The YouTube ban prohibits AND from downloading its own journalistic collection that was on the channel. There are more than 15 years of audiovisual production, including exclusive coverage of crimes of the old Brazilian State against the people and historical moments of the struggle of the popular masses in our country.
According to YouTube, AND violated the “Violent Criminal Organizations policy”, which details that “it is not permitted to publish content on YouTube that supports, promotes or helps violent criminal or extremist organizations. These entities may not use YouTube for any purpose, including recruitment.”
Youtube offers a single chance to contest the decision to close the channel. AND will file the request soon.
Reactionary guidelines
For the Editorial Team of AND, it is only possible to assume that YouTube considers the historic coverage of our platform on the revolutionary peasant war fought in the corners of Brazil, in which peasants, indigenous people and quilombolas boldly confront the crimes of paramilitary bands from the latifundium (such as the coverage of the peasant struggle in the Manoel Ribeiro and Tiago Campin dos Santos Camps, in 2021 and 2022, or the struggle of Guarani-Kaiowá in Douradina, in 2024) as a violation of reactionary guidelines; or, in the same way, that the platform considers the coverage, by AND, of the national liberation war of the Palestinian people as a violation of Zionist guidelines, coverage that has always included the transmission of videos from the Palestinian National Resistance, in which Arab guerrillas sweep away the Zionist occupation of their territories with daring military actions.
On January 14th, Youtube demonetized AND‘s channel with the same justification. According to YouTube, the edition of the Palestine Duty program with the title “BBC editor is a collaborator with Mossad and the CIA/Houthis launch 40 missiles” violated YouTube’s “Policy against extremist or violent criminal organizations”. Demonetization also occurred without prior warning: the team only discovered the penalty because, in the channel monetization area, the video platform informs that “You are not eligible for monetization”. Before the censorship of the video, AND received monetization from AdSense, membership clubs and other sources of income from YouTube.
International recognition
AND’s Youtube channel was internationally recognized for its bold coverage of police massacres in the favelas (recorded side by side with the residents, in the favelas, and not from helicopters, as in the case of the press monopoly) and in the countryside (like the documentary Earth and Blood, about the Massacre of Pau D’Arco, 2017).
AND was also known worldwide for its coverage of the people’s struggles. AND’s videos from the Days [Jornadas] of 2013 and 2014 exclusively recorded unique moments of the protests. Furthermore, AND closely covered several of the favela evictions in Rio de Janeiro that took place in preparation for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. It is still possible to find, on YouTube, reproductions of some of this coverage on other channels:
Since 2023, AND has made a leap in its audiovisual production, with the implementation of daily news programs to address the national and international political situation. In the same year, after the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7th, AND inaugurated, on October 9th, the Palestine Duty program, initially as part of the A Propósito program and later as a separate program. There have been more than 200 editions of the Palestine Duty program since the two programs separated.
Dozens of interviews
AND alsointerviewed dozens of people, including activists involved in popular struggles and important progressive and democratic personalities. Just on the topic of Palestine, AND conducted interviews: with the Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Chronicle website and author of more than 6 books on Palestine, Dr. Ramzy Baroud; with The Cradle’s editor-in-chief, Esteban Carillo; with the important journalist Lucia Helena Issa; with the Palestinian extradited from Brazil, a university professor in Malaysia, Muslim Ajaar (the only audiovisual interview carried out by a Brazilian newspaper with him); with the president of the Brazil-Palestine Institute, Ahmad Shehada; with the president of the Palestinian Arab Federation of Brazil, Ualid Rabah and others.
A series of other interviews were carried out in 2024 to condemn the 60th anniversary of the 1964 military coup. Personalities such as professor Ana Paula Goulart, from the UFRJ School of Communication, professor Joana D’arc, from the Universidade Federal Fluminense, the activist and sister of the Araguaia guerrilla João Carlos Haas Sobrinho, Sonia Haas and the activist and nephew of the revolutionary Mario Alves, Leo Alves were interviewed by AND, in now-lost videos.
Attacks never prevented production
This is not the first time that AND has been the target of attacks. In the more than 20 years of our newspaper’s history, AND has had the electricity network at its main headquarters sabotaged, a Support Committee headquarters burned down and invaded, our newsroom faced attack campaigns and our correspondents were the target of arrests during protests. Even so, the pace of production never slowed down.
The AND editorial team reaffirms that YouTube’s reactionary censorship will not prevent or reduce in any way the revolutionary journalistic work of the newspaper A Nova Democracia. As mentioned in the interview with Esteban Carillo, after asking him about the ban that The Cradle suffered on Instagram, “this is a sign of good journalism, journalism at the service of the people”.
In the same sense, we urge all friends, supporters, readers, spectators and collaborators of AND to share as much as possible the complaint about the banning of our channel and to support AND financially as a way of responding to the Zionist action that aims, with demonetization and channel ban, to impede the work of the revolutionary press. Support can be given from the AND Store, from our Catarse, which can be accessed at this link, or from pix admin@anovademocracia.com.br.
We will soon share more ways to support our platform. The newspaper A Nova Democracia will not rest in the fight to recover more than 15 years of revolutionary journalistic production at the service of the people.
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