Category Archives: Free Speech

Justin Carter #39;s Arrest is Ridiculous / Free Speech
http://www.change.org/petitions/release-my-son-justin-carter-in-jail-for-a-facebook-comment.

By: FastlanePoints

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Justin Carter's Arrest is Ridiculous / Free Speech - Video

#39;US Treasury and NSA involved in bans of free speech against
Press TV has conducted an interview with Scott Rickard, former American intelligence linguist from Florida about the issue of ITSO, which has proposed a meeting among parties over the banning...

By: SuperGoldanNews

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'US Treasury and NSA involved in bans of free speech against - Video

Cairo, Egypt - Essam Fouad was on the phone, trying to figure out why his Misr 25 television station had just gone off air, when the security officers arrived.

"I turned my back and walked away so they wouldn't see me," the channel's director of programming told Al Jazeera.

Fouad said the Muslim Brotherhood-owned Misr 25 suddenly went off air, just seconds after Egypt's army chief announced on Wednesday that Mohamed Morsi was no longer president of Egypt, and that the country's constitution had been suspended.

Moments later, security officers raided the station's offices, detaining around 40 of its employees. And Misr 25 wasn't the only network to be hit. Al Hafez, al Nas, and other television channels that many Egyptians describe as pro-Morsi, were also taken off air. The state-owned al-Ahram printing press refused to publish the official newspaper of Morsi's Freedom and Justice Party, which is closely affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood. "The army shutting TV channels proves al-Sisi's weakness in the situation," Fouad said. "If he was strong he wouldn't keep people from knowing the truth." Security officers also raided the offices of Al Jazeera Misr Mubasher and Al Jazeera Arabic, detaining staff from both channels. Most were released soon after. Ayman Gaballah, director of AJMM, was only released from custody late on Friday, reportedly on a bail of 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,480). Associated Press Television News was told not to provide Al Jazeera with any footage of the demonstrations in Egypt or with any filming equipment, while the Cairo News Company was also warned against providing broadcasting equipment to the Qatar-based network. In a statement on Thursday, Al Jazeera condemned the move.

"Media offices should not be subject to raids and intimidation. Journalists should not be detained for doing their jobs," said Al Jazeera's acting director general, Mostefa Souag. The army's closures have sent a worrying message to local journalists and rights groups that free speech might be under threat by Egypt's new leadership. "Closing television stations or imposing similar arbitrary restrictions on media purely on the basis of their political or religious affiliation is a violation of the right to freedom of expression," Human Rights Watch said in a statement. "We urge the military not to deprive Egyptians of information sources at this important juncture," said Sherif Mansour from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Egypt is still finding its feet after the February 2011 revolution brought an end to President Hosni Mubarak's three decades in office. A transitional period headed by the nation's military followed, before Egypt's first free elections were held last year with the Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi claiming victory in the second round. On June 30, the one-year anniversary of Morsi assuming office, nationwide protests began calling on him to step down. The army issued the president an ultimatum on Monday giving him 48 hours to "meet the people's demands". In a televised address late on Tuesday, Morsi defended his "legitimacy" after winning the popular poll. On Wednesday, he called for a coalition government in a bid to ease protests. But it wasn't enough to placate the demonstrations against him, and on Wednesday night the army announced he had been deposed. Tens of thousands in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the 2011 uprising, celebrated the army's announcement and continue to do so days later. In an interview with the New York Times on Thursday, opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei praised the army and defended its closure of media networks. The Islamist channels, he said, "have been calling for vengeance and murder and incitement to kill, so they have to shut them down for a while".

But in the Nasr City area of Cairo, thousands of Morsi supporters have protested what they say is a military coup and called for Morsi to be reinstated, and the TV channels to be put back on air. FJP spokesperson Gehad Haddad told Al Jazeera that the army's moves resembled "a police state" and were antithetical to the principles of democracy. "These are oppressive tactics of the dark ages," Haddad said. Misr 25's Fouad said the tactics were not unlike those used by Mubarak's administration. "Mubarak was a dictator, but cutting the signal was [usually] enough for him," he said. With protests continuing days after the coup, Fouad expressed doubt that Misr 25, which opened months after the February 2011 uprising, would be back on air. "I dont think we'll open again until people go to the street and demand President Morsi returns to power."

But Khaled Dawoud, spokesperson of ElBaradei's National Salvation Front, defended the move.

"I hope this is an exceptional measure that will last only for a few days," he told Al Jazeera

"When you have a critical time of change like this and you have some other people who are trying to incite supporters to go and fight I don't think it is useful to have these channels working at these critical hours." During his year in office, Morsi was criticised for restricting press freedoms.A state prosecutor had been investigating the popular television satirist Bassem Yousef and journalists critical of the president, however, none were jailed and no channels were taken off the air. Cairo-based journalist Wael Eskander, who supported the demonstrations against Morsi, told Al Jazeera that he thought the channels had, at times, been guilty of dangerous coverage - but was worried by the precedent now being set "I understand why they're closing -to end incitement - but this shouldn't be permanent and [the reason for closing them] should be transparent," he said. "Closing the stations down, if it's permanent, is reminiscent of autocratic regimes. "Today, what if someone is critical of or the military or president? What's going to happen to them?"

Follow Matthew Cassel on Twitter: @justimage

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Concern for free speech in Egypt

Feature Article of Friday, 5 July 2013

Columnist: Adams, John Kwame

Professor Kweku Asare, Free Speech Means Nothing to Ghanaians

Professor Asare, I have been following the supreme court case and I have been following your write-ups about the issue and I have found them extremely well-written and fascinating. Recently, you have devoted a lot of ink and time to writing well-researched op-eds about the contempt cases that have come before the Court. While I believe that some of your pieces should be required reading at the Ghana Law School, you are wasting your time if you hope to convince Ghanaians about the validity of your points.

Professor Asare, your article has been met with all sorts of vitriol in the comments section of Ghanaweb. Many are those who have called you Sabi Sabi Lawyer, Educated fool and Book-long. The reason for this is simple. The majority of Ghanaians are unable to conceptualize the things that you talk about. It makes no sense to them when you refer to arcane concepts like Democracy, Free Speech, Due Process and Judicial Overreach. Can you blame them? You must admit that these are very foreign concepts to the average Ghanaian. They do not form part of his world-view.

You may be surprised at my inclusion of democracy among the concepts that the Ghanaian cannot grasp, after all, we vote every four years. So let me justify why I included democracy on the list. A question was posed on the BBC asking if deomcracy was good for every nation. I reproduce the answer of the British Historian Andrew Roberts below:

*No. Some societies are so mired in obscurantism, feudalism, superstition and ignorance - often as the result of the deliberate policies of their governments, in order to stay in power - that universal suffrage would merely mean a census on the size of each tribe... One-person-one-vote happening once is not democracy. *

Reading his answer, you see that the situation in Ghana cannot be called a democracy. No one can deny that our elections is just a census of tribe. Tribalism dominates our national discourse. So you see, the Ghanaian does not understand democracy.

Now moving on to Free Speech, it is clear that the Ghanaian neither understands nor appreciates the importance of such a right nor does he believe that the right is given by God. Many are those who have made comments like Freedom of speech does not mean Freedom after speech or Freedom of speech causes wars or Freedom of speech does not mean criticizing by heart or The right to speech is meaningless when compared to the security of the state. Some Ghanaians blame the post-election unrest in Kenya on Free Speech and others have gone so far as to blame the Rwandan genocide on Free Speech. If you do not believe me, just read the comments section on Ghanaweb. So why doesn't the Ghanaian appreciate Free Speech? I believe that it is culture. The Ghanaian culture is beautiful but one cannot deny the elements of it that make the Ghanaian timid in the face of authority. Right from infancy, we are told not to challenge our elders. We are told to accept whatever an adult says as the word of God. I even heard once while growing up that if a child is with an adult and the adult farts, the child must admit that it was he (the child) that farted. Our educational system in which children are brutalized into submission by teachers also reinforces this timidity in the face of authority figures. By the time we are adults, we have learned not to insist on our rights or be shown where the power lies. So how can a person who grows up in an environment like this possibly believe that any sort of speech can be free? He, of course, will insist that speech must have dire consequences!

Now if Democracy and Free Speech do not make sense how do you, Professor Asare, insist that Due Process and Judicial Overreach make sense? I won't say much about these two for fear that I might mention specifics of the recent contempt proceedings and be summoned myself for contempt. So let me just mention this anecdote. The evening of the day that Ken Kuranchie was sentenced, I was listening to one of the talk shows on our airwaves. One of the panelists was asked about the issue of process that you had raised. His answer and in fact, his answer to just about every question was and I paraphrase The Justices are so powerful, the Justices are so powerful, they are above.... Generalizing this to all Ghanaians, one must ask that if Ghanaians believe that the Justices are second only to God, then does it make sense to talk about process or overreach? No it doesn't. After all, if an institution is endowed with such extraordinary powers, then it may do whatever it wants.

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Free Speech Means Nothing to Ghanaians

Prism and Free Speech (How the Decepticons are Moving Against Free Speech)
How the Decepticons are Moving Against Free Speech: Analysis of the fourth and first amendment violations of the criminal decepticons like Cheney and Shumer. It is argued that free speech...

By: Bberrtus

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Prism and Free Speech (How the Decepticons are Moving Against Free Speech) - Video

Broken Glass Trees - 01. Free Speech Can Be Expensive
The 1st track from my second album #39;Aphasia #39;. Photo credits to JD Midgley. TRACK 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUaLyvQ_6V4 TRACK 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KAfFC78rs4 TRACK 4...

By: LateralusDSOTM

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Broken Glass Trees - 01. Free Speech Can Be Expensive - Video

Free Speech the Movement-Conclusion Mock Debate

By: Mskhawthorne

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Free Speech the Movement-Conclusion Mock Debate - Video

Free Speech the Movement-Concluder Mock Debate

By: Mskhawthorne

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Free Speech the Movement-Concluder Mock Debate - Video

Free Speech the Movement-Mr. Skip and the Debaters

By: Mskhawthorne

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Free Speech the Movement-Mr. Skip and the Debaters - Video

Free Speech the Movement-hard work!

By: Mskhawthorne

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Free Speech the Movement-hard work! - Video