Mainstream media coverage of TISA

"It is distressing to see how the media is pointedly ignoring this damning Wikileaks revelation. As of this hour, my Google News search does not show a single mainstream media outlet reporting on this story. The usual left-leaning stalwarts like Huffington Post, TruthOut, Firedoglake, and CommonDreams have articles up, along with Business Insider and RT. The only country where major news organizations have taken the story up are in Australia, and that appears to be due to the fact that approval of this deal would end Australia’s restrictions on foreign ownership of banks." says Yves Smith.

In Australia Fairfax media are covering it. From Peter Martin "The most shocking thing about the leaked draft of the Trade in Services Agreement is the innocuously named ''dispute settlement'' provision.

The authors, the European Union and the US, want Australia to let an outside arbitrator re-adjudicate decisions made by government ministers and the High Court.

So-called investor-state dispute settlement procedures are common in international agreements. Australia has one in a treaty with Hong Kong. Tobacco giant Philip Morris fought Australia's health minister all the way to the High Court over plain packaging and lost in 2012. It is trying again under the provisions of the Australia-Hong Kong treaty. The specially-constituted tribunal sitting in Singapore has become a sort-of super High Court, on this one issue higher than Australia's highest."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/banking-agreement-leak-giant-risk-to-financial-stability-buried-in-the-small-print-20140619-3ah2o.html#ixzz35Eu00xer