Tag: Free Press

Does Freedom Of The Press Have A Future?

This election there has been a lot of talk about one of our basic freedoms….freedom of the press…..lots of talk about this candidate or that will limit our freedoms and press is the one the worry about the most….along with that of speech.

One particular candidate seems to have it in for the press and if elected may be hard on them…..but would it be a violation of the 1st amendment?

“Our press is allowed to say whatever they want and get away with it. And I think we should go to a system where if they do something wrong… I’m a big believer tremendous believer of the freedom of the press. Nobody believes it stronger than me but if they make terrible, terrible mistakes and those mistakes are made on purpose to injure people. I’m not just talking about me I’m talking anybody else then yes, I think you should have the ability to sue them.”

Source: Trump Suggests Curtailing First Amendment: ‘Our Press is Allowed to Say Whatever They Want…’ | Mediaite

I realize that trump is pissed at the way the press is covering him…..I think the press is doing a horrible job also….even though I do not like Trump as a candidate…..but to put limits on the press because you think they are being mean is just a violation of the right……

With that said…..and I know that his supporters are on his side in this….is kinda scary because they are accusing of Dems. Obama and others with crapping on the Constitution….and yet they might support this type to “control”……

One of the feel-good stories that Americans like to tell ourselves is that our freedom of the press (or media), as enshrined in the 1st Amendment, is at the top of the list of things that make us an exceptional nation. But as one of our country’s Nobel-winning authors (no, not that one!) famously expressed it….yes, isn’t it pretty to think so.

The reality is much cruder than we care to admit. The group Reporters Without Borders ranks the United States as a mediocre 41st out of 180 nations for press freedom, behind not just the usual suspects (Canada, the Scandinavian countries) but places like Ghana and Chile. That’s not surprising in a country that honors its government whistleblowers by indicting them or throwing them into jail and where reporters covering Black Lives Matter-style protests have found themselves detained for no good reason. And this was all before Peak Donald Trump.

Source: Why U.S. press freedom may not survive 2016

Funny how so many people like the 1st amendment and in the same breathe talk down on the press…..I agree that the press needs to get their shit together but …..(you fill in the blank).

Freedom of the press will survive….but what will it look like?

U.S. Plummets in Global Press Freedom Rankings | Free Press

If you are reading this then I am still battling lawyers over my father’s estate…..I set this to be published at 1330 hrs….just in case…..

We are so proud of our ‘freedoms’ especially the freedom of press….maybe we should pay closer attention to what is happening or that ‘freedom’ could be lost…..

U.S. Plummets in Global Press Freedom Rankings | Free Press.

Is The 1st Under Attack?

Of course it is!~  Well depends on who you talk to……everyone has a different view of the attacks….there are those that claim it is under religious attack….others see speech as under the gun…..even others see that the freedom of press is being assaulted……no matter what or which section you are concerned about there is situation brewing in the UK that could have wide ranging consequences…..

AS reported in the UK’s Guardian newspaper……..

The seizure of journalists’ notebooks, photographs and digital files could be conducted in secret hearings, owing to a little-publicised clause in a government bill aimed at cutting red tape, media organisations have warned.

Requests for notebooks, computer disks, photographs or videos must currently be made in open court and representatives of news groups can be present.

But the clause – in the deregulation bill, which comes before the Commons on Monday – significantly alters the way courts consider so-called “production orders”, stripping out current safeguards.

The underlying rules governing whether police can have access to material will remain the same but without media groups being present it is feared that judges will be more easily persuaded to authorise police seizures of journalistic material.

You know if this succeeds then it will be looked at closely here….I mean as we lose more and more of our rights to privacy….this would be just the next logical step…….

Thoughts?

A Free Press Is Not As Free

One of our most important freedoms is the freedom of the press.  Some say that a free press is a indicator of a true democratic society.  Just how is the world doing with the free press thing?  “Global declines in press freedom” persisted last year, with setbacks highlighted in Israel, Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere across the world, an annual survey said Friday.

Freedom House, a nongovernmental organization that supports democracy and freedom of the media, said in its annual press freedom survey that “negative trends” outweighed “positive movements in every region, particularly in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa.”

“This marked the seventh straight year of overall deterioration. Improvements in a small number of countries — including bright spots in parts of South Asia and Africa — were overshadowed by a continued, relentless assault on independent news media by a wide range of actions, in both authoritarian states and countries with very open media environments.”

It seems that most of the slide is from countries that are tied closely with the US, so why cannot we use our influence to make it a freer press society?