Slashdot Mirror

The same story, direct from Reuters: Crackdown on Internet Journalists. More detail: New arrest of a journalist contributing to reformist websites. More about Iranian "religious" extremism: Iran cancels music concerts under hard-line pressure. There is political turmoil inside Iran: Iranian vice president quits. More about the social breakdown in Iran: Rights Group: Human Rights Violations on the Rise in Iran.

Don't expect leadership from the U.S. government. Members of the Bush administration can't even say Iran. It's not I-ran. It's I-rahn. During the vice-presidential debate, Cheney said I-ran, showing how little he knows about the topic. President Bush said "Moo-lah", instead of mullah, the Farsi name for religious leader. Don't underestimate their lack of interest in things that don't make money.

More Bush administration mis-pronunciation from Cheney: "Tolleybon", intead of Taliban, and "Internets".

More about U.S. government corruption: The Bush administration borrows money to give to its friends, you pay it back. Government data shows Republicans are corrupt.

Yep, Reporters Without Borders has condemned the seizures and has a story about their letter to Mr. Blunkett too.

Yep, Reporters Without Borders has condemned the seizures and has a story about their letter to Mr. Blunkett too.

A) Freedom of the press is a more predominant issue in the US than in Europe.

The Press Freedom Barometer is a good source of information on this topic, and press freedom in general. Note that many countries in Europe has a "good situation" whereas the US has just a "satisfactory situation".

Wish I had mod points. All the more impressive considering the rather snarky comment it was replying to.

A few random observations:

- I don't think the "treatment of fame" issue is unique to politicians in the US; it seems to apply to business and media celebrities as well. I suspect it's a side-effect of the "Land of Opportunity" myth that's so pervasive in the US; if success is achieved (only) through talent and hard work, anybody with wealth/influence must automatically deserve it. (And, conversely, anybody without wealth or influence is either stupid or lazy and hence not worth bothering about.)

- I *do* worry that the problems seen in the US are at least partly a result of the concentration of power there relative to the size of the economy. Assuming for the sake of argument that all politicians everywhere are equally corrupt, a dollar spent bribing a US Congressman to pass a pro-corporate law will have a far greater payoff than the same dollar spent bribing a Dutch representative, so it stands to reason that corporations would invest a lot more time and money on manipulating the US. I'm generally in favour of European integration, but this issue does bother me. The EC's combined economy is bigger than the USA's; if policymaking becomes similarly concentrated, we can expect to see similar levels of lobbying. Look at the recent pressure on software patents, for example.

- I think you could have made more of the freedom of the press. The Reporters Without Borders 2003 report makes for interesting reading. The Netherlands are joint first for press freedom; the USA is at 31.

Incidentally, I live in the United Kingdom. Politically and socially we're somewhere in between the US and the Netherlands, but from here the Dutch extreme looks vastly more appealing.

This story has nothing to do whether the guy is a martyr or not. It's very simple: he owns a blog. someone comments in his blog. someone else thinks that comment is against "national security" interests. and so that someone else wants the blogger (and not the commenter) punished. for more on this, do read this article from the Reporters Sans Frontiers group: Authorities harass a blogger. It should also be pointed out now that the newspapers and govt officials have gone silent over this issue. I'm sure that this story being featured in slashdot has something to do with that ;)

Few countries have true free press ? You might want to revise your judgement a bit.

According to the RSF organization, France is ranking 26th on the world's classment of freedom of press, while the US are 31st.

Besides, you also show your absolute lack of understanding of British history - Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, Roundheads and Cavaliers, civil war? Mean anything to you?

That is actually an older article (2002). Here is a link to a newer report, dated 2003. Interestingly enough, the US slipped from 17th place in 2002 to 31st place, tied with Greece, in 2003...

Free, huh?

This is the same country where a NYT reporter was threatened with deportation after he said (backed by sources) that President Lula da Silva was an alcoholic? link

Another report from Reporters without Borders: Second world press freedom ranking

Lots of European countries, including Germany at rank 8, France at 26, USA is 31st.

Second world press freedom ranking

Germany ranked 8th, USA 31st.

You should better take a look at this and see where the 'free' United States are ranked and where Germany is ranked.
Germany is rank 8 in free press..

US is (oh.. dont they have free speech?) rank 30!

So please don't spread bullshit like that and stay with the facts.

Another one to check would be Reporters Without Borders/Reporters Sans Frontieres:

Global Competitiveness Report (World Economic Forum), World Competitiveness Yearbook (Institute for Management Development), Survey of Middle Eastern Businesspeople (Information International), World Business Environment Survey (World Bank), Country Risk Service and Country Forecast (Economist Intelligence Unit), Nations in Transit (Freedom House), Risk Ratings (World Markets Research Centre), State Capacity Survey (Columbia University), Asian Intelligence Issue (Political and Economic Risk Consultancy), Opacity Index (Price WaterhouseCoopers), Survey (unnamed multilateral development bank), Corruption Survey (Gallop International on behalf of Transparency International), and Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (World Bank and the EBRD).

So that's the international community.

Oh, and in terms of press freedom, yes Hong Kong's press (ranked 56th) isn't as free as that in the US (31st), but it's in a hell of a lot better state than China (165 of 166).

Any documentation to support these statements?

Most free? US is ranked 31st

• in freedom by the world press
• in freedom here

Most law-abiding? US is ranked

• 40th in per capita murders,
• 15th in embezzlements (per capita),
• 57th in rapes (per capita),
• 53rd in total crimes (per capita)
• 61st in Prisoners (per capita)

The Soviet Union broke up without its citizens using the internet, China has embraced capitalism not due to the internet, the Berlin Wall fell in no part due to the internet. Infact as the internet has become so wide spread it has had little value-added effect other communication didn't already have in developing countries.

Just because certain events occurred without certain "amenities" in the past does not mean that those "amenities" would not have helped.
Just because some people cannot find a better use for the interned than looking at pr0n does not mean that others cannot use the internet to better their societies. While some people spend their time on Slashdot posting about what other people could live without, greater people are using the internet to attempt to bring about social change, and are getting arrested for it. If oppressive governments fear that the Internet could weaken their grip on their population enough that they are taking steps to restrict, who are you to say differently. Sure, social change can occur without the Internet, but it can occur much faster and better with it.
By the way, China has far from "embraced" capitalism.

I already detailed some problems of solving the situation in ceuta & melilla, that is, we in Spain talk about what to do there. Do you think it would be fair for the spanish people there to say "Hey, now you live in Morocco, be happy with your new king and don't forget to shut up or you might be imprisioned". Is not that simple. But still, as I already said, they are in Morocco's territory.
And for gibraltar is the same case. It is in spanish territory, yet people is not very interested or worried about it. But in gibraltar spanish and english is spoken, and UK and Spain are in the UE, so ... we really don't care very much about it. Our government can say whatever they like (it's a colony in the 21st century, blah blah blah) but it's not that the people in spain want gibraltar back from england more than, say, peace in the vasque country or a better job.

Thats only true in some of the corporate press. There *still is* a vein of honest journalism in the world, quality journalism, investigative journalism. CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX(HAHA) *cant* be honest journalists by definition. They MUST tow the corporate line. It goes so far that nothing that upsets the corporate status-quo is allowed in American Public Discourse -- thats unsettling.

Reporters sans Frontiers publishes a ranking of nations w/r/t Freedom of The Press -- though it dosnt directly deal with corporate-self-censorship, it does speak to concerns of press freedom.

See that map? Do a little digging on that site to learn that A) Canada has the #1 Most-Free Press on the Planet && B) Equal access of opinion to the CBC is a main reason.

Jeeze Louise - Get a clue pal.