1. Freedom

Category Archives: Freedom

Is our hard-won freedom extended in kind to others?

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COPLAND: On occasions each year, whether it be Australia Day or Anzac Day, phrases involving "freedom" and "our way of life" enter the public conversation.

When the TV cameras pan around the beaches and the streets of our wide brown land asking people to define what this "freedom" or "way of life" means to them, people struggle to put their feelings into words.

The most common response is, "We are free to have a barbecue and a few drinks with our mates."

But surely it is much more than that. I think I know where some of this freedom can be found.

Each time we vote we can freely choose whom we want to govern our nation, our state and our local government area.

There is no need for security on polling day.

A few years back when then Prime Minister Rudd was removed from office by his own party, local friends of mine who had escaped civil war in their homelands were truly amazed.

There were no helicopters in the sky, no soldiers in the streets.

Life went on the next day just as it had the day before. Freedom.

I'll tell you where else this freedom, this way of life, this fair go for all resides.

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Is our hard-won freedom extended in kind to others?

Indonesia falls in global press freedom ranking

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Press freedom in Indonesia fell six places in the latest ranking from Reporters Without Borders, which places Southeast Asia's largest economy below Afghanistan and Brunei in its 2015 World Press Freedom Index.

The lower ranking comes following a year of intense election coverage and just four months after President Joko Widodo took office promising to ease barriers to foreign investment and embrace transparency.

In the 2015 index, Indonesia ranked 132 out of 180 countries, with an overall score of 40.75 out of 100, up from 38.15 in 2014. A higher score indicates less press freedom based on metrics such as pluralism, media independence, self-censorship and transparency. In a related index of abuses, which measures the level of violence and harassment encountered by journalists and news organisations over the course of a year, Indonesia scored 27.08.

Indonesia was twice placed at the top of the global news agenda last year, once in July when Mr. Widodo defeated former special forces commander Prabowo Subianto in the presidential election, and again in December when an AirAsia Indonesia aircraft crashed into the Java Sea.

The ranking pits Indonesia lower than many countries in Africa and elsewhere in Asia but above most of Southeast Asia. Cambodia is one rank below at 139, with the Philippines - one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist - at 141 and Malaysia at 147. Brunei is ranked at 121, while Singapore, which in the last year has charged political bloggers with offences such as contempt of court and defamation of the prime ministers, is ranked 153.

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Indonesia falls in global press freedom ranking

freedom of speech………..Peter Caine /Brooklyn Dog training/NYC dog training – Video

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freedom of speech...........Peter Caine /Brooklyn Dog training/NYC dog training
Peter Caine Dog training https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peter-Caine-Dog-Training/109406279131753?ref=br_rs https://twitter.com/Ptcaine http://readyourdog.com/Home_Page.html.

By: Peter Caine

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freedom of speech...........Peter Caine /Brooklyn Dog training/NYC dog training - Video

Phil Woods – Freedom Jazz Dance + Ballad – 1969 Paris (Live Video) – Video

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Phil Woods - Freedom Jazz Dance + Ballad - 1969 Paris (Live Video)
Superlative saxophone playing from Phil Woods and his Quartet ... (not sure if this might not be his original #39;European Rhythm Machine #39;) ... George Gruntz on piano; Henri Texier on bass; and...

By: Bob Hardy

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Phil Woods - Freedom Jazz Dance + Ballad - 1969 Paris (Live Video) - Video

Danish PM Defends Freedom of Speech After Attacks

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TIME World Denmark Danish PM Defends Freedom of Speech After Attacks "We must insist on acting as we do. Think and talk like we want to. We are who we are"

The Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has insisted that the series of shooting attacks in Copenhagen will not alter the countrys belief in the freedom of speech.

They want to violate our freedom of speech, they want to violate our belief in religious freedom, she said at a press conference on Sunday.

Its time for unity in Denmark. The coming days will be tough to get through. We have to understand what has hit us, but we must insist on acting as we do. Think and talk like we want to. We are who we are.

Police continued their investigation after a gunman who had already killed one person and injured three officers in an attack on a panel discussion dedicated to free speech, struck again on Sunday morning, this time killing another and injuring two outside the citys main synagogue. Hours later, in a dragnet the likes of which this peaceful Nordic city has never seen, the shooter himself was shot dead by police.

The attacks began just after 3:30pm on February 14. A gunman armed with an automatic weapon sprayed a caf in a cultural center in the eastern part of Copenhagen with bullets killing 55-year-old documentary filmmaker Finn Nrgaard and wounding three members of security forces. At the time, the caf was hosting a discussion on freedom of expression, that included among its panelists the French ambassador to Denmark, Franois Zimeray, and Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist and art historian who has been the object of several assassination attempts since he published a cartoon in 2007 that depicted the prophet Mohammed as a dog. Vilks later told the press he was certain he was the object of the attack.

They fired on us from the outside. It was the same intention as Charlie Hebdo except they didnt manage to get in, Zimeray told Agence France-Presse. Bullets went through the doors and everyone threw themselves to the floor.

After finding the car in which the gunman had initially escaped, police fanned out throughout the city, erecting roadblocks and passenger controls at airports and train stations in an attempt to keep the perpetrator from slipping across the border to Sweden or Germany. But he hadnt gone that far. Just after 1am, a gunman fired shots in front of the citys main synagogue, wounding two police officers and one member of the synagogue who was controlling access to a bar mitzvah being celebrated by roughly 80 people inside. That member, 37-year-old Dan Uzan, later died of his wounds. Its what weve always feared, said synagogue president Daniel Rosenberg Asmussen in an interview with Danish television DR2. It is also what we have always warned could happen in Denmark.

Overnight, the center of the city was locked down, and police advised citizens to stay in their homes or, if they were already out, in the bars and clubs where they found themselves. Around 4 am, a suspect returned to an apartment in the northern part of the city that police had been monitoring since the afternoon. When police approached the man, he began firing at them. In the ensuing exchange of shots, the man was killed. We believe that the man shot by riot police this morning is the one behind the two attacks, said chief police inspector Torben Mlgrd Jensen at an early morning press conference.

The similarities between the Copenhagen shootings and the attack that took place in Paris last month in the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket were lost on no one. After the Charlie Hebdo event, we knew that there would be more attention directed toward the cartoon affair, says Lars Erslev Andersen, a senior researcher on terrorism at the Danish Institute for International Studies.

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Danish PM Defends Freedom of Speech After Attacks

Religious freedom or discrimination?

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Two Indiana Senate Bills are causing a heated debate about where to draw the line between protecting religious freedom and allowing what the opposition fears is discrimination.

S.B. 127, which has already passed the Senate 39-11, would allow religious-affiliated organizations that receive state contracts such as universities and hospitals to hire people based on their religion. The bill goes further, also allowing organizations to require employees to follow religious tenets.

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Religious freedom or discrimination?

Leaders Decry Denmark Attack as Assault on Freedom of Speech

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Public figures across Europe and beyond on Sunday condemned the attack by an unidentified gunman against a free speech event and a synagogue in Copenhagen that left three people dead, including the suspected perpetrator. Investigators in the Danish capital say the gunman could have been inspired by the terror attacks in Paris last month, in which three Islamic radicals killed 17 people at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper, a kosher grocery store and elsewhere.

Here's a look at some of the reactions to the events in Copenhagen:

"Denmark has been hit by terror."

"As a nation we have experienced a few hours that we will never forget. We have tasted the nasty taste of fear and powerlessness that the terrorists want us to taste."

"We do not know the motive for the alleged perpetrator's actions, but we know that there are forces that want to hurt Denmark. They want to rebuke our freedom of speech." - Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Europe-1 radio he was struck by how closely the bloody sequence of events in Copenhagen tracked the Jan. 7-9 attacks in Paris.

"First, an attack against the symbol of freedom of expression. Next an attack against the Jews, and then the clash with police."

"Again, Jews were murdered on European soil just because they were Jews."

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Leaders Decry Denmark Attack as Assault on Freedom of Speech

Political expression isnt criminal: group

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Freedom of speech is at stake during provincial and municipal campaigns, according to a Vancouver-based advocacy group thats taken the issue to the provinces top court.

The B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association was in court Friday appealing a decision last year that denied the advocacy groups constitutional challenge to a section of the B.C. Election Act - which requires everyone to register with the province before doing any kind of third-party election advertising.

That means if someone within an election campaign period makes or wears a related t-shirt, for example, or posts a public sign stating a related opinion, must register as election advertisers or risk facing a $10,000 fine or up to a year in jail.

B.C. is the only province in Canada that requires third-party election advertisers to register with authorities with no minimum amount that must be spent on the advertising, according to Vincent Gogolek, B.C. FIPA executive director.

What the government has done is imposed a ban on political expression with criminal penalties, he said.

Most provinces have a minimum $500 registration threshold for advertising expenditures.

Its had the effect of actually restricting free speech, he said. People have shut down websites, refused to comment because theyre intimidated by the law.

But the B.C. Attorney General argued the mandatory registration and identification provisions ensure that during the campaign period leading up to a fixed date election ... the electorate is able to determine who is doing the speaking.

This ability to identify the speaker and their message is key to fulfilling the goals of promoting transparency, openness and public accountability in the electoral process and encouraging an informed electorate, it stated in its respondent letter.

Freedom of expression works both ways to protect the speaker and to protect the listener.

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Political expression isnt criminal: group

Miriam hits Napeas, media freedom declines, nurse with MERS pregnant | The wRap – Video

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Miriam hits Napeas, media freedom declines, nurse with MERS pregnant | The wRap
HEADLINES: - Senator Miriam Santiago hits police officials for mishandling operations in Mamasapano. - Watchdog group says media freedom declines drastically partly because of extremist...

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Miriam hits Napeas, media freedom declines, nurse with MERS pregnant | The wRap - Video


  1. Freedom