Freedom of the Press

[Theophylact]

for Iraq? Don't make me laugh.

Coalition officials say the code is not intended to censor the media, only to stifle intemperate speech that could incite violence and hinder efforts to build a civil society. The country is just too fragile for a journalistic free-for-all, they say.

As Ari Fleischer said [of Bill Maher], Americans

need to watch what they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like that; there never is.

They need to stifle Ari. He is the root cause of so many people (like myself) mis- and dis- trusting the Administration.

Good thing he's gone.

On reading the piece, I think the Administrators in Iraq are worried about anything negative getting out. Like too much reporting on the elusive WOMD, the civilian population killed by the US Marines and so on.

They don't want to look bad. Plain and simple.

[ClubMed]

So in what way does the current administration represent freedom and democracy? Glad I don't live there.

[kenyg]

glad i do

I'm glad I don't live there too. The current Administration (in Iraq) will be more authoritarian and stronghanded given the circumstances.

[caddmannq]

Originally posted by shahani
They don't want to look bad. Plain and simple.

Not really news there. When has any government official ever tried to avoid looking "bad"? The norm is that they go to great length to avoid looking bad. Dissenters are regularly slapped in jail, sent to gulags, or shredded into mulch for their anti-administration activities.

Here, we normally just ask them to shush up, or stifle their media coverage. That's why you hear about them at all: we don't practice killing them off.

If things were as bad here as some non-Americans would seem to imagine, you'd really know it. There would have been no 49.9%/50.1% split on the election like Bush & Gore.

Bush would have got 100% (Just like in famous middle-eastern elections...), and Gore would be picking fleas outta his jock somewhere in Bengladesh.

I like the fleas part.