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Foreign E3 Journalists Body Searched, Deported
Thanks to Janko for pointing out a press release at Reporters Without Borders denouncing the US authorities for deporting French games journalists sent to cover E3. The complaint alleges that "..these journalists were treated like criminals - subjected to several body searches, handcuffed, locked up and fingerprinted", after arriving in Los Angeles on (arguably misleading) tourist visas to cover the E3 trade show. It doesn't seem to have been just the French, either - messageboard reports indicate at least 5 British journalists from a variety of publications had a similar treatment. Who'd have thought attending E3 could be so.. dangerous?
6 body searchs? That seems just a tad bit in excess, don't you think?
Surely you mean Freedom journalists?
Well, we all know that games cause violence, and foreigners are terrorists (especially when our alert is on HIGH!). So if you have people coming overseas coming to a large game conference....
:D
Sorry. I just couldn't resist.
Okay, two groups of french journalists, both covering the same event, but arriving on different days, get treated like this. Might it be retribution against the French for not doing what the U.S. ordered them to do (Iraq)? It does seem like the French are being singled out.
Samsung took back my unlocked bootloader because Google wants me to rent movies. They're both evil.
This is about rights that are no longer protected or respected by our government. Many people say in response to criticism of the patriot act and the atrophy of civil rights long before that "How are you less free now? What can't you do now because of xxx" - Well here it is. The bill of rights and could dissappear tomorrow, and america would be little different, except for the unlucky. You could be an unlucky one today.
Some of you may cite the fact that they are not citizens, but that is just a loophole considering anyone can be declared an enemy combatent.
We are in a critical period in our history, the age oil is peaking, and there is a single super power on the planet redefining itself - apparently into a extreme right fascist global empire. Pay close attention.
"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." George HW Bush
So _you're_ the type that buys all the Olsen Twin games. God bless your trolling heart!
Why do I M2 everything negatively?
Ok, let's get this straight. A bunch of journalists try to enter America without the proper paperwork, and get this, they get locked up and then deported! What a tyrannical government! It's an outrage I tell you! An outrage!
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"They could have been named David Nelson.
Seriously, this whole thing is very foul and flagrant. They're asking for an international incident with this.
Terrorists have already won. :(
whaddayawant, the guy emptying the bottle was couldn't make out wether it was an american or a ralph lauren shirt (maybe he doesn't ralph-lauren-wearing-snobs)
seriously, america needs a humility lesson...
The Awful Truth
As if the French aren't the biggest snobs on the planet...
I slipped the authorities £20 to intercept my manager and lead designer, who got to go to the show. I think my descriptions must have been a little vague.
we know something we call Human rights. Even if you have a wrong visa (but you still have one!) then why you have to be cuffed and locked up?
Really, would a terrorist get any visa? And if they do, would they mix them up? Terrorism can't be an excuse to do anything you want, there are some rights everyone should have, and one of them is, innocent till proven, so why treat them like they are not?
Dre
So if i am to attend a business trade show, i need a different visa than if i was to attend a consumer trade show?
Sounds a bit Catbertish... oops, sorry, patriotic is the word, right?
We -are- at a terrorism level of "Taupe" in the US. That means the "authorities" can do whatever they want to whomever they want. God bless taupe.
Yeah, all the body searches are over the top (if ya didn't find anything the first time...) But what is the big deal? Should "journalists" be allowed to enter a country with out the proper parperwork just because they are "journalists"?
A couple years ago, we may have said the same thing about a bunch of people form the middle east that wanted to go to airline pilot school in Florida... We all know what happened to those guys...
This is either journalistic retribution or an ambitious journalist looking to squeeze out a story.
I highly doubt some guards targeted and sought to 'get back' at the french. It doesn't make any sense. This is just a bunch of poorly trained guards harassing a few foreign journalists. This is the same b*tchin and moanin' from a car accident that's twisted to look like a hate crime.
There's no way to defend against it. Times like this it feels like global society's hit another crutch and like pointing fingers at the 'bad and evil' US empire.
Accually, I was detained for a few hours some years back over the same issue. The visa waiver thingy means you can't accually -work- while being in the US, you can interview people, write articles etc., but you can't publish anything -while- you're in the US. For this you need a special visa or something, which I didn't have, and I suspect the French journalists didn't have either. The kind officers of the US Immigration Service (or something) eventually let me go, but they could've easily put me on the first plane back. Or body searched me a few times, detained me for 24 hours and -then- put me on a plane. After this incident, I never ever ever get into specifics over what kind of work I'll be doing at E3. I suspect the French journalists may have answered 'mais oui, i will publish my articles while I'm here' for all this to have happened. I also suspect the fact that they're French didn't exactly get them any favours.
I assume they can, if they want, deny the change in status, deport the fiance and make you apply for a spouse visa and make life all around miserable
And the rules may have changed from several years ago, but in my case the visa was processed in about 2-3 months without any mandatory waiting period. In fact, after a year of planning, we almost had to move up the wedding date to accomodate the efficiency of the IRS and the three month expiry of the visa.
--
dman123 forever!
Filtering out the -1s and 0s since 1999.
A few years back a man lost an eye at a Tony Hawk pro skater demo at E3 (someone lost controll of a skateboard and he caught it right in the cornea).
Its all fun and games until somebody looses and eye, or gets repeated cavitie searches.
You can't take the sky from me...
seriously, america needs a humility lesson...
Not as much as you need a grammar lesson.
stuff like that has happened loadsa times even before all this al qaeda-iraki stuff (so that "that's a sign that terrorist won" is nonsense - usa has always been this way). some of my colleagues were caught by the guys on immigration, two were fined for 500$ (eight years ago) and one was handcuffed, sent to an hotel for the night and sent back to italy (five or four years ago). it's the law and everybody outside the US know this, especially everybody who work in the press. my opinion is that those french guys were simply n00bs who tought that press=can do anything, next time they'll be smart enough to gather infos on the country they're visiting.
on my part, each time I come to the immigration for E3 I simply state that I'm here on businness, I'm here to see the show and no, I'm not a journalist. saves me a lot of hassles.
I've always thought that the work visa was necessary to work in a USA job. Why would they need one instead of a tourist visa if they are working for their publisher in Europe?
Chika Chik-ah... do-e ow ow.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20030425/rose_01 .shtml
(you may need a Gamasutra account, but its worth it).
No, I did not read the f***ing article!
So when you read an article about this incident, it really boils down to this quote I found by Alison Wood: "I also hope that E3 organisers, the Interactive Digital Software Association, take steps to ensure that in future they inform all international journalists what documentation is actually required to enter America as a journalist. It seems all this could've so easily been avoided if it had been made clear that entering the States, on the visa waiver program, as a journalist, is not permitted." [BTW, this happened in Atlanta as well a few years ago.]
There are bigger problems than journalists being detained for a few days. I wrote an article the other day that focuses on the ethics that some game publications and websites use in their reports. I'd rather a reporter go on a junket and be detained for the right reasons, than have have the reporter go on a junket and be influenced for the wrong ones.
Yet in the same breath, on the next article these same people will shout how the borders are still not secure, how Homeland Security is doing nothing. How airport security and immigration services are morons.
Yet they do their job, by the book, and people gasp that they are some militia of Bush that's been indoctrine to hate France or some bullshit.
They are doing their job, by the book. Is this a result of terrorism in the US? Yeah, i would hope things are much more strict these days.
THIS WOULD BE A STORY IF THE MORON JOURNALIST COULD NOT GET PRESS VISAS!
Instead it's a non story because they didn't even try, and complained when our border security rightly bitchslapped them back to France.
Here's the deal on the waiver's too:
-Malakai
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
Nice try, Virus1984...or should I say, Mr. HUSSEIN????
Maybe it's time to move the E3 to a different country... I'd say Canada, but I'm biased.
Seriously... isn't it a bit stupid to make an issue about foreign journalists reporting on events within the US back to their home countries (especially "friendly" countries). Their employers are outside of the US... they are not taking precious American jobs. They weren't trying to conceal their idenities... they were up front about what they were in the US to do. Unless you're trying to limit foreign coverage on events within the US... E3 today, what next tomorrow? I guess we'll have to make do with CNN.
Bah, one more reason to not travel to the US... yep, the terrorists won after all.
It's all just a big misunderstanding. This is really just a promotional tie-in to GTA: Vice City.
oops.
I don't know what the other veto holders might do (maybe China), but the US already ignores the UN when necessary, we'd probably walk away altogether if deprived of our veto.
It's still unfair for 5 countries to have the veto, but I don't think it's a flaw, because I don't think making controversial decisions is or should be in the UN's mission.
The UN serves best as a forum for debates and to pool the resources of the member nations in achieving a widely supported goal. It's not supposed to be a world government that _decides_ things. This should be clear from the fact that it has no means to enforce its decisions.
On Iraq, we went the UN, we debated, we compromised a bit in hopes of getting other nations to help out with the bill, and then we did what we were going to do anyway. I'd say the UN served its (limited) purpose pretty well.