

U.S. to host World Press Freedom Day - ZeroMinx
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/12/152465.htm

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abhimishra
This paragraph is hilarious: "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."

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emilsedgh
While hunting down Wikileaks and Julian Assange?

dont get me wrong, i live in iran and what you have as freedom of press is a
thousand years ahead of us, but really, 'world press freedom day' and calling
wikileaks 'a terrorist organization' AT THE SAME TIME?

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frisco
s/haunting/hunting

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joeybaker
I love how the lede makes it sound like UNESCO is the only real press-freedom
organization in the world. Never mind folks like Reporter without Borders
<http://www.rsf.org> who have condemned US actions. Or, <http://www.cpj.org>,
or <http://freedomhouse.org>, or <http://amnesty.org>, or
<http://www.hrw.org/>

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znt
I guess the event will be sponsored by the Ministry of Truth.

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quanticle
The accommodations will, of course, be provided by the Ministry of Love.

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swombat
How hypocritical!

It's not press freedom if you only allow it when it suits your agenda.

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astrodust
This year's special guest speaker will be held in a CIA rendition cell in a
secret location. Get your tickets now!

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abyssknight
Say what you will, but the U.S. puts up with a lot more than most countries.
Be thankful for the freedoms you have and celebrate the freedom of others.

Edit: Not sure why some went on the defensive. I never said you shouldn't
fight to protect your own freedoms. Nor did I condemn anyone or anything. Is
this really what we've been reduced to? In our search for freedom of speech
we're squelching the voice of those who don't agree with us? Isn't that what
you are aiming to fight?

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swombat
The fact that it's better than some others is no reason to avoid condemning it
when it fails to live up to its own standards.

By this argument, we shouldn't complain about any abuses of government in the
western, because a lot of countries do even worse to their citizens. That's a
nice idea, but if it was really applied, the result would be that the western
governments would soon be no better than others.

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abyssknight
I don't think I said we should avoid condemning it. Did I?

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swombat
You said we should be thankful for what you have. That implied disagreement
with the criticism of the US govt for this hypocritical stance. I suggest
starting the post with something along the lines of "I agree that this stance
is hypocritical, but ..." if you want to avoid conveying disagreement. It's
less concise, but it gets the message across correctly!

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fredBuddemeyer
this is the first time i can remember when such a headline would appear
ironic.

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nir
When WikiLeaks published the docs, I thought it would be great as it would
expose Westerners to how most of the world lives & operates. Clearly it
didn't. Which nation would the commenters here recommend as host of WPFD, in
place of the US? (Not counting nations too remote/small to have any security
concerns at all)

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gasull
37 votes 2 hours ago. And it isn't in the frontpage.

Isn't something broken in the ranking?

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bwb
How ironic given our actions of wikileaks, crazy.

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Charuru
Come on guys, the United States didn't do jack to Julian Assange. It's the
Swedish who are pursuing the case against him, and quite possibly the matter
is one of internal politics. You might say that the US put pressure on Sweden
to have this happen, but here in the civilized world we say innocent until
proven guilty right?

On the other hand many many Americans celebrate Wikileaks and what it
represents, the government has done extremely little / nothing against
wikileaks, and all the antagonists wield only rhetoric. The relative inaction
so far is reason for celebration! Obviously there are always going to be
people who say sensational stuff, but they don't represent the entire country.

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abyssknight
And thankfully our laws and the freedom of speech allow them to say all that
sensational stuff. As someone once said of Voltaire's attitude: "I disapprove
of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

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gasull
Are you aware that the US Government wants to accuse him Assange of treason
and espionage. I think the reason they haven't formally done it yet is because
they are waiting for him to be extradited to Sweden first.

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ehutch79
also, not that the likes of palin will let little things like the law stop
her, but you can't commit treason against the US without being a US citizen...

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to
does not compute.

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ZeroMinx
Oh come on...

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VSD20C
haha... the title is an oxymoron

