From time to time I comment on free speech online issues. This is not because I want to, but because of the threats to all bloggers which of course includes me. The best way to resist this is to highlight it.
I frequently read Guido Fawkes UK political blog for its alternative and somewhat subversive picture of what is really happening in UK politics. Today I read that a leading libel lawyer has tried to silence discussion online (and presumably succeeded in some cases) concerning one of his clients. See here for Guido’s comments. A court order threatening people with prison for revealing that there is a court order?!?
I recall that during the 80’s UK television acted as mouth-pieces for Irish terrorists. When the then government tried to prevent them, the BBC spitefully announced that “this report has been compiled in accordance with government reporting restrictions” whenever it had an relevant news, which was most nights for a couple of years. But that wasn’t censored in this way. I recall how the New Statesman in the 1960’s used to publish official D-notices, which indicated matters of vital security interest which should not be published, thereby violating them comprehensively, endangering us all, and insulting the system which was trying to protect them. They too went free. But then, they weren’t writing a blog.
UK. Free Speech. Now.
As a postscript, today I was reading a BBC piece about a new Chinese crackdown on dissent in Tibet. Apparently the Tibetan nationalists were being arrested for “trying to stir up racial hatred”; weasel words for “resisting the Chinese occupation.” Goebbels would be proud of whoever invented this phrase, I think.
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