Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, left, and his brother, former CNN anchor, Chris Cuomo.
(Mike Groll/Office of Governor of Andrew M. Cuomo via AP, left, and Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
A journalist’s role is to serve the public interest. But CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, by helping his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo during a scandal, put personal interests above the public’s.
Though many in the US are disoriented and disheartened by the lack of an effective federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, American thinker John Dewey would not have been surprised.
Ghana is still finding ways of maximising its oil wealth.
Wikimedia Commons
Oversight over how Ghana’s oil wealth is spent has become more important than ever.
To some, White House aide Jennifer Williams and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman are impartial truth-tellers; to others, they are power-hungry bureaucrats.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Public officials are now in the spotlight: Does the public view them as professionals, bound by duty, or as elites who invoke ideals while pursuing their own agendas?
Communities across the U.S. are taking network construction into their own hands.
T.Dallas/Shutterstock.com
A recent federal court ruling lets big telecom companies censor the internet in ways that boost their own profits – but also allows local and state governments to outlaw censorship if they wish.
Witness K’s lawyer Bernard Collaery addresses outside the Supreme Court. Australia’s laws have shown they don’t do much to protect whistleblowers acting in the public interest.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Australian laws make it inevitable for whistleblowers to be charged whenever national security might be involved, even when the information is in the public interest.
More than a third (35.4%) of respondents surveyed by the Australian Leadership Index believe banking and financial institutions show “no leadership for the greater good”.
Attorney-General Christian Porter wants the legislation passed before the “Super Saturday” byelections on July 28.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The government wants to rush through its espionage and foreign interference bills, but more time is needed to make sure these make the country safer without jeopardising freedom.
As the issue of an open and free internet again comes up for public debate, Congress could participate – and help regulators devise a workable set of policies.
What may be deemed in the public interest today may not be so in a decade’s time.
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Despite arguments that it is too loose, ambiguous and easy to hide behind, the ‘public interest’ is an integral part of the discourse, law, regulation and governance of modern democracies.
Are research nonprofits holding up their end of the tax-exempt bargain?
Will Hart
Holding patents can be a lucrative and powerful position to be in. Here’s a proposal for how nonprofit patent holders can do more for the common good – and live up to their end of the tax break bargain.
As the Trump administration settles into office, regulators and lawmakers have big plans for shifting the country’s media landscape, with potentially profound effects on the public.
Virginia Tech students process water samples from homes in Flint.
Flint Water Study/Facebook
Virginia Tech University engineering students blew the whistle on Flint, Michigan’s toxic drinking water. Hailed as heroes, they’ve also learned that it isn’t easy to do science for the public good.
‘What’s in it for me?’ is a common question today, but not one that necessarily produces the best answers for collective wellbeing.
Shutterstock/iQoncept
The concept of the greater good has made a comeback in Europe in an era of budget austerity, but in Australia too few of us are alive to its meaning – and to its vulnerability.
Who’s pulling the strings - the public or the media moguls?
AP Photo/Helen Allman
A few days ago Paul McMullan, former deputy features editor on the News of the World, popped up on a Sunday morning debate programme with his oft-repeated lament that, in the wake of the “chilling effect…