U.S. Will Briefly Stop Persecuting Reporters to Host World Press Freedom Day

[Magda Hassan]

U.S. Will Briefly Stop Persecuting Reporters to Host World Press Freedom Day

The State Department just announced that Washington, D.C., will host the United Nations' 2011 World Press Freedom Day celebration, which honors the capacity for states to criminally prosecute and relentlessly seek to silence web sites that publish illegal information.
At a time when Attorney General Eric Holder is pursuing an active criminal investigation into Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange for publishing State Department cables, when Sen. Joe Lieberman is bullying companies into refusing to do business with them, and when the entire federal bureaucracy has lapsed into a childish conniption designed to prevent government employees from becoming contaminated with the information contained in the cables, the U.S. is inviting governments and reporters from around the globe to celebrate press freedoms.
Someone forgot to read the press release before sending it out, because we're pretty sure State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, whose colleague was warning Gawker last week that no Americans should be "propagating" the cables by writing about them online, is really "concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information." Nor is he really that excited about how "new media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals' right to freedom of expression."
Or maybe they just hope Assange will be stupid enough to show up?


Send an email to the author of this post at john@gawker.com.

[Peter Lemkin]

Oh, the irony....well it will provide an interesting forum to point out just this very irony!....watch the MSM ignore it.

[Magda Hassan]

You should see their FaceBook page and all the comments there. All the comments have been removed too. They moved them over to some other place other than the front page. Oh to be a fly on the wall there. :damnmate::bike:

[Peter Lemkin]

You should see their FaceBook page and all the comments there. All the comments have been removed too. They moved them over to some other place other than the front page. Oh to be a fly on the wall there. :damnmate::bike:

Will Heil Hillary be making a speech? Would love to hear her booed off of the stage! :aetsch: Or maybe it should be a tag-team with Lieberman who has proposed investigation and possible prosecution of the American MSM [!] that has printed the cables and about the contents of them from Wikileaks. Hey, why not just set up strict censorship and have to have everything approved by the HS, CIA and NSA?! It is coming to that....fast.

NB - I'm sure the intelligence agencies will have their operatives infiltrate and also bug the conference.....:flute:

[David Guyatt]

U.S. Will Briefly Stop Persecuting Reporters to Host World Press Freedom Day

And:

"concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information."

You couldn't make this up could you.

Not even for a West End farce.

Where's Mel Brooks when you need him?

[Peter Lemkin]

U.S. Will Briefly Stop Persecuting Reporters to Host World Press Freedom Day

And:

"concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information."

You couldn't make this up could you.

Not even for a West End farce.

Where's Mel Brooks when you need him?

U.S. Celebrates Wikileaks Arrest By Announcing Press Freedom Day
December 8th, 2010
Wikileaks‘ Julian Assange is arrested on suspicion of rape; today U.S. State Department drops this gem: “The United States is pleased to announce that it will host UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day event in 2011 in Washington, D.C.” Oh my.

The undercurrent of the rape charges brought by two women in Sweden has been—by some, not all—that they are trumped up in an attempt to silence Assange. Be that as it may, they at least deserve their day in court. That something as relatively incidental to international security as a sex crime has been pursued by the likes of Interpol, however, does little to dispel the idea that perhaps Assange is getting special attention because of his day job.

It’s in this context that the State Department’s giddy clapping about hosting a UNESCO event in D.C. looks completely, laughably out of touch. The same government that can call Assange a high-tech terrorist one day can put out a press release a week later that says this:

The theme for next year’s commemoration will be 21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers. The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals’ right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information. We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age.

Read the full release. I know it’s technically a U.N. organization, but holy hell is the State Department out of touch for crowing about this. [State.gov]

Send an email to Joel Johnson, the author of this post, at joel@gizmodo.com.

source: http://gizmodo.com/

[David Guyatt]

Sorry, but tears are rolling down my face...

I just can't stop laughing at this.

It's so fookin' funny -- the US State Department can't stack a set of children's bricks - let alone run a Press Freedom Day (or handle secrets secretly).

[Peter Lemkin]

Join EFF in Standing up Against Internet Censorship

December 7, 2010

Call to Action by Shari Steele

"Over the past few weeks, we here at EFF have watched as whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has fueled an emotionally charged debate about the secrecy of government information and the people's right to know. We have welcomed this debate, and the fact that there have been myriad views is the embodiment of the freedom of expression upon which this country was founded.

However, we've been greatly troubled by a recent shift in focus. The debate about the wisdom of releasing secret government documents has turned into a massive attack on the right of intermediaries to publish truthful information. Suddenly, WikiLeaks has become the Internet's scapegoat, with a Who's Who of American and foreign companies choosing to shun the site.

Let's be clear — in the United States, at least, WikiLeaks has a fundamental right to publish truthful political information. And equally important, Internet users have a fundamental right to read that information and voice their opinions about it. We live in a society that values freedom of expression and shuns censorship. Unfortunately, those values are only as strong as the will to support them — a will that seems to be dwindling now in an alarming way.

On Friday, we wrote about Amazon's disappointing decision to yank hosting services from WikiLeaks after a phone call from a senator's office. Since then, a cascade of companies and organizations has backed away from WikiLeaks. A public figure called for the assassination of Assange. PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa axed WikiLeaks’ accounts. EveryDNS.net pulled Wikileaks’ DNS services. Unknown sources continue to cripple WikiLeaks with repeated denial of service attacks. Even the Library of Congress, normally a bastion of public access to information, is blocking WikiLeaks.

There has been a tremendous backlash against WikiLeaks from governments around the world. In the United States, lawmakers have rashly proposed a law that threatens legitimate news reporting well beyond WikiLeaks. We expect to see similar efforts in other countries. Like it or not, WikiLeaks has become the emblem for one of the most important battles for our rights that is likely to come along in our lifetimes. We cannot sit this one out.

Join EFF in standing up against Internet censorship.

Download our No Censorship button to display on your websites and social networking profiles. Show the world that you are committed to free expression and denounce censorship."