Punishing "Practicing Journalism Without a License"?
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It makes perfect sense to two groups of people — professional journalists* and bloodthirsty dictators:
(*One example here.)
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Meanwhile:
In retrospect, however, it really is the simplest things — like "we can throw the bums out" and "you don't need a license to write" — that make the United States so obviously superior to so much of the rest of the world. And here I am today, not 14 but 41, blogospherically screaming from the rooftop essentially the same simple message, because it so desperately needs to be screamed:
We are a great nation for a reason. To the extent we forget the reason, we cease to be great.
At around 2 p.m. yesterday, a Zimbabwean police unit raided the York Lodge, a Harare hotel being used by several foreign reporters covering the elections. Five journalists were arrested. Three of them were later released, but two are still being held at Harare police headquarters. One of them is New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak.Look on the bright side: Zimbabwe's barbarian censorship laws (two years in jail) are better than China's barbarian censorship laws (3.5 years).
Their lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said they would be charged ... with working without accreditation in violation of a 2002 press law known as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, under which journalists can be sentenced to up to two years in prison for working without a permit from Media and Information Commission (MIC).
(*One example here.)
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Meanwhile:
The inner circle of President Robert G. Mugabe of Zimbabwe met Friday to decide how to handle the outcome of elections that the opposition contends the president lost.The first presidential inauguration I remember watching was Reagan's in 1981:
The options that confront the senior leadership of the ruling party include having the president step down, holding a runoff vote later this month or prolonging their control over the country, regardless of the outcome national elections last Saturday.
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Before the election, Mr. Mugabe repeatedly said he would not allow the opposition to take power, and since then his aides have said that he "is going to fight to the last."
The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place as it has for almost two centuries and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every-4-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.Translation: "Carter, you really sucked. In fact, you sucked so bad that the nicest thing I can say about you is that you at least didn't try to stage a coup when you lost so pathetically. Thanks for that — and don't let the door hit you on the way out." I remember thinking, in my 14-year-old way, "This guy's supposedly a great orator? For saying stuff like that?"
Mr. President, I want our fellow citizens to know how much you did to carry on this tradition. By your gracious cooperation in the transition process, you have shown a watching world that we are a united people pledged to maintaining a political system which guarantees individual liberty to a greater degree than any other, and I thank you and your people for all your help in maintaining the continuity which is the bulwark of our Republic.
In retrospect, however, it really is the simplest things — like "we can throw the bums out" and "you don't need a license to write" — that make the United States so obviously superior to so much of the rest of the world. And here I am today, not 14 but 41, blogospherically screaming from the rooftop essentially the same simple message, because it so desperately needs to be screamed:
We are a great nation for a reason. To the extent we forget the reason, we cease to be great.
Posted by Kip on
4 April 2008
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