Thursday, March 08, 2007

Press Censorship GCSE, Skillset 1, Question 1

You are the leader of a sizeable country located at the crossroads of Asia and Europe, desirous of joining the European Union.

A video surfaces on YouTube, poking fun at your nation's favourite historical icon.

Do you:-

a) Smile ruefully and ignore the slur, knowing there are far more important issues in the world of politics for you to concern yourself with.

b) Issue a statement condemning the video, but reaffirm your government's commitment to free speech?

c) Throw all of your toys out of the pram, blocking access to the site until the offending video is removed, thus denting your chances of aforementioned EU membership?

Answers on a postcard to: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey, Istanbul

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Monday, March 05, 2007

Photo Freedom

Several years ago I was in
New York for a couple of days, before heading on to the Stepford Wives world of Connecticut for a jazz workshop.

Feeling for the first time that I was in a city more overwhelming, more unforgiving even than London, I wondered around in a touristic gaze snapping pictures of this and that.

As I was taking my umpteenth ‘Very Big Building’ picture, a burly NYPD officer came running over to me, shouting “Hey buddy, you gotta stop that. You cannot photograph this building.”

Dumbfounded by this act of public censorship and undone by my mouth’s tendency to intervene before my brain, I quipped “What, in the Land of the Free?” and spent the next ten minutes apologising profusely and demonstratively deleting pictures from my camera.

Despite my shock at this blatantly unnecessary measure, I could see why it happened.

This was New York just two years after 9/11. Tensions were still high and every street was adorned with more flags and policemen than you could shake a stick at. The cop was just doing his job in circumstances with which none of us had yet learned how to cope.

Five years later, it appears that the US authorities’ penchant for photo censorship has reached new levels.

The Associated Press has launched a complaint against the US military, after journalists claimed that soldiers had deleted footage of the aftermath of an attack in Afghanistan, in which three people were shot dead.

Jean-Francois Julliard, a spokesman for Reporters Without Borders put it simply, saying: “Why did the soldiers do it if they don't have anything to hide?"

With our knowledge of what happened at Abu Ghraib, as well as the recent conviction of US soldier Segreant Paul Cortez for the rape and murder of a young Iraqi girl and her family, alarm bells have to start clanging.

That Big Apple bobby may have been stretching a point, but at least he had a point. He was legitimately worried for the security of his home town. Overly zealous he may have been, but his motives seemed altruistic.

What has happened in Afghanistan should worry us just as much as the recent blogging censorship in Egypt. When an organisation chooses to censor the press, it is very rarely for the same reasons as my New York cop.

Unless an explanation is offered, and soon, we can only assume these soldiers had something sinister to hide.

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Computer crash

TrialByShorthand has been quiet for a few days, due in part to a home internet connection which is reluctant to do what it says on the tin.

But I’ve been granted a miraculous window of usage by the temperamental technology today, so time to get back up to date.

My favourite story of the week is the cautionary tale of Oscar Hinojosa, an American who was driving while using his laptop and - somewhat predictably - lost concentration, crashing head-on into a Hum Vee.

It may be sad, but there’s something so glamorously American about this story that I can’t help but feel attracted to. If the same accident had happened in the UK, the laptop would have been replaced by a Minute Maid lolly and the Hum Vee by a Robin Reliant. Those Americans are just so darn cool, even in death.

And full marks to Tom Marshall of California Highway Patrol for his fabulously understated words of wisdom: “"When you're driving that is not a time to be practising your multitasking skills."

But the biggest giggle is the news that the Princess Diana fund is to give 10 million pounds to refugees, asylum seekers, young offenders, the Roma (gypsy) community and lesbian and gay parents with learning disabilities.

I’ve had great fun visualising Daily Express readers spluttering into their Lapsang Souchong at hearing this roll call of pet hates.

And getting their grubby foreign little hands on our hard-won British cash too? Disgraceful. After all, couldn’t they have just bought some more lilies?

Altogether now: ‘It’s political correctness gone maaaaaaad.’

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