Press Freedom Day

 
I dag er, som vi læser hos Reporters sans frontières, den 16. årlige pressefrihedsdag.

Endskønt Jyllands-Postens stupide stillen sig i positur i forbindelse med alt karikatur-postyret tidligere på året intet havde med ytringsfrihed (men meget med "retten" til at smæde en trængt minoritet), så er ytrings- og pressefriheden trængt mange steder; i Danmark af terrorlovgivning og klapjagt på kritiske journalister, men især og meget mere i andre lande rundt om i verden - ikke mindst i Mellem-Østen.

Lad os for at mindes dette lytte til den udmærkede Bahraini Mahmood og hans take på situationen:

On the eve of the Press Freedom Day, the press in this [country], as well as virtually the whole Middle East, are in shackles, with parliaments aiding and abetting the press and its workers' incarceration, utilising that ever-present fillip: religion, to justify imprisoning journalists and anyone else who dares to speak their mind and challenge a preconceived notion.

The parliament here for instance is doing nothing but donning its collective religious blinkers in insisting on jail terms for anyone who denigrates God or religions, this grievous harm is to be interpreted in such a malleable manner as to make it permissible for probably any lay person or journalist to see the inside of cells for long periods of their lives for simply looking at the sky and describing that experience in terms which might not be agreeable to the law enforcer's ears. While the parliament is on a roll with imprisoning people for their thoughts, they thought that they might as well jail anyone who denigrates the king too.

On the eve of the Press Freedom Day, let us pause a little and think of these unfortunate heroes who have lost their lives or are imprisoned for doing nothing but express their thoughts for the betterment of their societies:

16 journalists killed
6 media assistants killed
119 journalists imprisoned
3 media assistants imprisoned
56 cyberdissidents imprisoned

Happy press freedom day.

Link til hele indlægget på Mahmood's Den.
Link til Dagbladet Arbejderens appel for ytringsfrihed.
Link til Jyllands-Postens protest mod rigsadvokatens klapjagt mod journalister i Grevil-sagen.

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