allix wrote:According to reporters without borders USA ranks 48th in the world, that is pretty low. Uk is 24 , Denmark is 8, which did not surprise me at all. Number one being Iceland..
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24025
I read this on a forum.. i am sure the person does not mind me quoting ...
I was driving into work yesterday listening to K-ROCK (station in NJ) and was listening to a journo being interviewed. He'd just released a book about his experiences in Iraq. He'd specifically not gone there as an embed. Alot of his comments were quite critical of the whole set up across there. How the new troops would be all 'there to help the Iraqis and for peace' and would quickly become unapproachable and cynical, the drug use by the soldiers in theatre, the abuses and torture, how the US seems to be aiming to be there indefinitely, etc. Just as he was getting into full flow the interview was chopped, completely different one came on. It was like I'd switched stations. Really wierd.
It was unfortunate that I missed the start of it, because I didn't hear the guys name.
Troels, what does that tell you about freedom of speech in the USA ? is it going down the plug-hole ?
Well, it doesn't say anything about the status of freedom of speech directly, it just says that the owners of that radio station are anti-free speech, or want to censor the stuff they broadcast for whatever reason. I mean say I came on TLLTS and said something that upset Dann, he could kick me off, he has the full right to do so, because it's his radio program, or "his station" if you will. In some cases this can be justified, because if a guy came on and started making death threats, it's perfectly OK to kick him off, because not doing so, in my opinion, essentially violates people's civil liberties.
The guy who had written a book about the things mentioned, have utilized freedom of speech AND freedom of the press to do so. I mean if he got arrested for writing that book, or saying the things he said, well yeah then free of speech would be something Bush had just flushed down his toilet drain.
When I talk about freedom of speech, and argue that it's important, I am talking about an individual's ability to actually say something and not be imprisoned, tortured or killed for doing so. Stations like K-Rock censoring what people say on their broadcast, are less of an issue (Although if you asked me about their actions, I would lambast them) because the guy that was on the show can still say what he feels needs to be said. It's not like North Korea, where you and your family will be sent to a nazi-style prison camp because you say that Kim Jong-Il is a dick.
I have a tendency to look at things from a very broad viewpoint, which in this case is to compare something that may seem problematic to the extreme cases where something is very very bad.
When the CIA comes to Emmanuel Goldstein's (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off_the_Wall_(radio)) house and throws him in jail for criticizing the Bush administration (Which he does), then we know that freedom of speech is being peed on.
