In perhaps the most egregious display of hypocrisy to surface this year, the U.S. Department of State announced yesterday that Washington will play host for World Press Freedom Day in 2011.
The following is an excerpt from the World Press Day press release.
Expanding access to the internet and mobile technologies has opened new routes for gathering and sharing news and information. Those same technologies also have provided new tools to regimes that seek to filter and censor information or to silence those who want to express themselves. World Press Freedom Day 2011 will offer a forum for media freedom advocates, journalists, and policymakers to tackle these challenges and keep them on the global agenda. Freedom of the media is a fundamental human right that requires strong support and constant vigilance.
The announcement further confounds America’s quizzical stance on freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, has pushed the boundaries of free speech and has redefined what it means to be a journalist in the 21st Century. In doing so, Assange angered government officials and humiliated Washington with leaked documents that expose the moral turpitude of ranking government officials.
As Washington gears up to protect “new threats to free expression and the uncensored flow of information,” with World Press Day, the U.S. Justice Department is working furiously to find ways to try Assange with a crime. Several members of the Republicans party have already called for capital punishment if/when Assange is brought to the U.S.
Ken Layne from Wonkette writes, “this is the same Department of State (and Justice Department and Pentagon and CIA and NATO and PayPal) trying everything to cut off WikiLeaks’ access to the Internet and its own money”—it has been rumored that Department of State directly influenced PayPal into shutting down Wikileaks’ account.
To quote fellow Death and Taxes editor, Stephen Blackwell, “Assange has signaled that our democracies are not democracies at all, but instead power structures disguised as such.” This brave man has single handedly changed the way we view and process information—and, more importantly, misinformation.
Who better to give the keynote address at next year’s World Press Day, than our Man of the Year, Julian Assange?
December 09, 2010 at 3:17 pm, Disgusted American said:
“World Press Freedom Day 2011 will offer a forum for media freedom advocates, journalists, and policymakers to tackle these challenges and keep them on the global agenda. ”
More like a way for the system to find out who these activist are and put them on a terrorist watch list for not agreeing with them .
December 10, 2010 at 5:33 pm, John Q said:
The United States of America consistently demonstrates that it fails to practise what it preaches on major issues. This is a case in point. It's double-speak a la Orwellian times. The “War on Drugs” – a la CIA and Military planes involved in trafficing the stuff. The “War on Terror” which s/b dubbed the War OF Terror. It wants to “export” democracy and stifles it at home and countries it conquers…It wants to jail or worse yet, assassinate truth purveyors.
Whatever respect I developed for Barack Obama during his campaign has now vanished. He was just another snake oil salesman peddling….himself. So much for his idea of “transparency”. Whenever I see him on TV I actually feel like puking. He is more of the same. I simply cannot believe that a majority of Americans cannot see that their entire political system is so woefully corrupt to – a point of putrid decay that they may not be able to even reverse and save themselves..
There is a criminal Elite that has been running the show. Eventually, we may be so well cornered we will actually admit that resistance is futile.
Clearly, the time to act is now!
December 11, 2010 at 4:01 am, Polyglotte11 said:
I would rather see Helen Thomas, but then that's just my opinion.