World Press Freedom Day
The US government has just announced that it will be hosting World Press Freedom Day while at the same time trying to squash WikiLeaks. Commenters on the event's Facebook page are having a ball: "Will you be inviting Julian Assange? He's done some fantastic work in this area," wonders one. "This reminds me of the time Iran tried to join the UN womens' rights group," writes another.
State Department spokesman PJ Crowley writes:
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.
http://www.connect.connect.facebook.com/WPFD2011/posts/180945228583171
Free to choose not to look
I want you to look very closely at this picture and try and keep it in your mind's eye. This was a perfectly healthy twenty-two-year-old young man who in the service of his country got half of his head blown off. This is some American mother's son, her little boy, he may be gay or straight or transgender but his life is fucked forever. I think that is important, I think that is newsworthy. Let me tell you how newsworthy I think it is. I think that it is more important than chocolate cake recipes and comic book reviews. How did this come to happen to this poor mother's son? It came to happen because the people in the media who are supposed to foster a public debate on such public issues as war instead used their franchise to promote articles about chocolate cake and comic book reviews. They see their free press as free to choose not to look when bad things happen. They feel no need to explain to his parents or to anyone else that the war that blew off half of this poor boy's head was based on out and out lies.
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