Monday - August 9 -
ALJAZEERA - IRAQI CLOSURE
And Some Historical Background
"Aljazeera has promised to continue its Iraq coverage despite the one-month closure of its Baghdad office announced by the Iraqi interim government on Saturday.":: Aljazeera vows to defy Iraq ban ::
"Aljazeera would have hoped that the Iraqi government would embark on its new term with initiatives to lift media restrictions, not add new ones that would certainly not be conducive to freedom of the press and expression."
:: Aljazeera 'outraged' at Iraq criticism ::
+ The time for Mr. Ballout to engage in self-righteous indignation has passed. It is now more appropriate to engage in some sober self-examination, for which purpose, we provide the following material.
++ Has "The Media" ever been successfully indicted on incitement charges?
The simple answer is: Yes. You may refer to these excerpts from an article on this issue:
* * * * *
In the first case of its kind since the Nuremberg trials, an international court here on Wednesday convicted three Rwandans of genocide for media reports that fostered the killing of about 800,000 Rwandans, mostly of the Tutsi minority, over several months in 1994.
...The court said the newspaper "poisoned the minds" of readers...
...Wednesday's verdicts were the first convictions of media executives for crimes of genocide since 1946, when the Nuremberg tribunal sentenced the Nazi propagandist, Julius Streicher, to hang for his campaign against the Jews.
In a 29-page summary of the Arusha judgment, which was read aloud in court, the judges pointed out that they were addressing issues that had not come before an international court for many decades. "The power of the media to create and destroy human values comes with great responsibility," the summary said. "Those who control the media are accountable for its consequences."
Elated prosecutors called the verdicts a historic victory. "This is really a groundbreaking decision," said Stephen Rapp, the lead prosecutor. "The court said there is a wide range for free expression, but when you pour gasoline on the flames, that's when you cross the line into unprotected expression."
...Floyd Abrams, a legal expert on the First Amendment ... said in a telephone interview that while the United States protected free speech more fiercely than any other country, it did not shield statements intended to provoke violence and likely to do so...
...Besides drawing a legal boundary between free speech and criminal incitement to mass murder, tribunal officials said the verdicts vindicated the court's slow and expensive approach to delivering justice in a region where the powerful have long enjoyed impunity...
...The three-year trial detailed how the hugely popular RTLM station turned into a messenger of death...
:: ARCHIVED ARTICLE ::
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