Right: Denmark’s Freedom of Expression
Left: America’s Freedom of Expression
The strongest signal on the controversy over freedom of expression came from the United States though, when US officials slammed the airing by an Australian TV channel of new images of abuse suffered by Iraqi prisoners at the hands of their US jailers. The SBS channel aired on Wednesday previously unseen images of prisoner abuse at the notorious US-run Abu Ghraib in 2003.
Believe the move could further stock up anti-American feelings, the Bush administration said the images should not have been presented to the public. A US state department legal adviser told the BBC the administration felt it was “better for the photos not to be released.”
The same view was echoed by Pentagon and White House officials, saying the channel should have thought about the consequences before airing the images. [article]
Here’s what I wrote on my blog today re this same topic.
Many conservative apologists, particularly in the good ol’ US of A, have defended the publication of the Islamic-bashing Danish cartoons on the hallowed ground of free speech. They’ve argued in favor of free expression and have suggested that to squelch such would lead down the road to tyranny and, who knows, maybe even communism. What a farce!
These are the very same people who defend Dubya for not releasing information about the NSA spying program. These are the very same people who support the concept of embedded reporting and the right of the military to dictate to the media what can and cannot be reported concerning our various military forays. These are the very same people who are working behind the scenes today to PRIVATIZE the internet so they can better control the flow of “free expression”.
In other words, it’s a false argument on their part. They don’t care a lick about free expression. They only pull out the “free speech” card when it suits their nefarious purposes.