Russell Brand blasts media and Tony Abbott for linking Sydney siege to terrorism

Jenna Clarke

Russell Brand has criticised the mainstream media and Prime Minister Tony Abbott for referring to Sydney's Lindt cafe siege as an act of terrorism.

The comedian and author, in a nine-minute bulletin of his web series Trew News: News You Can Trust, analysed the local and international coverage of the tragedy while sitting in bed, shirtless and wearing a blanket over his head.

"This guy is clearly a mentally ill criminal with a long history of mental illness, criminal behaviour and lots of evidence of instability," Brand said of Man Haron Monis, the gunman who took 17 people hostage before being shot dead.

"Terrorism is typically conducted in order to meet an objective. This guy, when he was asked what he wanted, he asked for a flag and a chat on the phone with Tony Abbott. No specific agenda, no specific objective.

"By us labelling him a terrorist as opposed to a dangerous mentally ill – not that all mentally ill people are dangerous, I'm mentally ill – and by allowing him to set the agenda of 'I'm doing this on behalf of Islam', it gives a certain grandeur to nihilistic and violent actions but what's more interesting that the actions of a mentally ill person is the response of the political establishment."

Brand, who is renowned for weighing in on political and social issues, also condemned media mogul Rupert Murdoch for praising his Sydney publication via Twitter for featuring the "bloody outcome" on page one on Tuesday.

"Congrats doesn't seem like the right way to comment upon three deaths and a very volatile situation," he said before critiquing other Murdoch owned mastheads' reaction to the siege, including The Wall Street Journal and London's The Sun.

He also pointed out that as hostages fled into a dark street riddled with snipers and loaded guns in the early hours of Tuesday morning, they did so with caution.

"Notice that people who come out of there that are brown make a particular effort to hold their hands up."

Brand then sounded off on the federal government's new anti-terror laws which enhance immunities of ASIO officers and other officials when dealing with suspected terrorists.

"They're using it to spy on people, to control people and to arrest people."

During a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Abbott spoke of the siege inside the popular cafe saying, "There is nothing more Australian than dropping in at a local cafe for a morning coffee". Brand argued, "There's loads of things more Australian. Having a coffee in the morning? You do that, I think, everywhere. You can do that in Tehran, Beirut, London, Auckland."

"These are some objective facts about Australia – it's free and it's safe and it's open – just as long as you're doing roughly what they tell you to do.

"Terrorism is continually used as a tool to control a domestic population. I'm not saying there aren't a lot of dangerous people out there, I'm saying a lot of those people are in government."

The comedian was impressed by local social media users however, suggesting the movement,#illridewithyou, was an "offer of solidarity".

"But again, that comes from outside the main state-sanctioned and media-sanctioned narrative.

"It's really important in this time of division and fear that we embrace one another. Us, the normal people in the middle, embrace one another. Forget the extremists are either end of the social scale, whether they are motivated by religion or money or desire for power, and us, the ordinary people that want to make connections, have a right and a duty, in fact, to define the way we see reality," he said.

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/russell-brand-blasts-media-and-tony-abbott-for-linking-sydney-siege-to-terrorism-20141217-1293lr.html