From ars:
The Free Flow of Information Act has just cleared the House by a vote of 398-21, but that doesn’t mean President Bush has any interest in signing it. The bill would offer protection of sources and documents to journalists (including professional bloggers) caught up in federal investigations, and could put an end to images of reporters led from court in handcuffs after refusing to testify. The Bush administration sees it as carte blanche to leak government information without penalty, though.
<rant on>Sorry Bush administration, this one is your bad. IF we can’t shield sources, the terrorists win, to turn your language around. Because democracy depends on folks standing up to overreaching powers that be. Including Presidents.
I for one hope that Bush vetoes it, and then is overridden. It’d be a very sweet victory.
just heard about this somewhat related report today (RSF’s “Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007”):
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24025
the US comes in at #48
oops! was that link included in the ars report? (I can’t tell now — but I must admit that I didn’t click through to ars beforehand :O 😉
Something else just occurred to me: Do such laws as the “Free Flow of Information Act” apply to something published online under say .IE or .NO (TLDs of the two top rated countries in the “Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007”)? I expect that the free “flow of information” would gravitate towards TLDs where the risk of censorship is lowest.
Interesting….
Hi , Can you put the URL of your interview with Facebook owner here? I couldn’t find anything on the internet
Cheers
Thanks for that news update.
oops! Iceland is .IS – Ireland (.IE) is “tied” with Portugal (at 9.5 — i.e. in 9th & 10th places)
There will be a revolution if they will attack to our free speech and fundamental right. -Dave