We definitely do not want Marilizardism to metastasize in America. God forbid.... Marilizardism, terrorizing dissident bloggers, has metastasized in many repressed countries. Merciless Marilizard, the culprit FM of October-18 shock and awe, terrorizes Graecoblogosphere. Accusing dissident bloggers of treason, Graecokleptocrats have manufactured a blood libel in cyberspace, which in turn may incite hatred and violence. http://venitism.blogspot.com
The most disgusting Marilizardist countries are Bahrain, Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Greece, Indonesia, Iran, Libya, Malaysia, Mongolia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
Reporters Without Borders is disturbed to learn that blogger and New York Times reporter James Risen was served with a subpoena on 23 May from the Department of Justice to testify at former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling's trial on a criminal charge of disclosing restricted information to reporters. Risen has been asked to appear in court on 12 September. It is the fourth time he has been subpoenaed.
The Department of Justice document received by Risen says he is a witness in the Sterling case and must reveal his sources and information to the jury. If he refuses, he could go to prison for contempt of court.
"This subpoena is a serious threat to media freedom and the protection of sources," Reporters Without Borders said. "The entire journalistic profession is concerned, not just Risen. Sources could stop talking to the press if they know they are not protected. We have long been calling for a federal shield law.
"Thirty-six states of the union and the District of Columbia currently have their own legislation guaranteeing journalists varying degrees for protection for their sources. Similar legislation must be adopted at the federal level for the sake of the freedom of information that is enshrined in the US Constitution."
The same day as Risen's subpoena, it was revealed the Justice Department has decided not to prosecute Thomas M. Tamm, a former employee who told Newsweek he was one of the sources for a 2005 New York Times article (written by Risen and Eric Lichtblau) revealing that President George W. Bush had directed the NSA to conduct large-scale electronic surveillance of Americans in a completely illegal manner, without obtaining warrants. The White House had put a lot of pressure on the New York Times not to run the story.
"The Department of Justice's behaviour is completely inconsistent," Reporters Without Borders added. "It cannot ask a journalist to testify against a source and at the same time refuse to prosecute one of its own former officials, who revealed the same kind of information as the former CIA official is alleged to have done. Attorney General Eric Holder must publicly explain this contradiction. And given these circumstances, we urge him to drop the subpoena against Risen."
Citizens have a democratic right to know what a government does in their name. Governments and their public servants bear sole responsibility for protecting properly classified information. Outsiders who receive or communicate confidential government information should not be prosecuted unless they have obtained it by fraud or bribery or duress.
National security exceptions should be precisely defined, should protect the identity of sources who are at risk of reprisals but should not stop whistleblowers from revealing human rights violations – the public has, at the very least, a right to know when a war fought in its name is killing innocent civilians through illegal targeting decisions.
While the leaking of government documents is a crime, the publication of documents is not a crime. Governments cannot call for unlimited internet freedom in other parts of the world if they do not respect this freedom themselves. http://venitism.blogspot.com
Anonymity is revolutionary. Governments have long recognized this. What Wikileaks has done is to give us the ability to in effect spy on government with a powerful assurance of anonymity. It has begun to level the playing field. Now ordinary people can be protected as they work to hold governments accountable for their actions and for their lies.
Defending leaks is not the point. The point is that this technology, this ability to spy on governments with some degree of protection, is critical for any semblance of a free society to flourish. And now that leaks have done it, anyone else can too. Even if leaks are destroyed, the model has been demonstrated and other methods will be built to perform the same function.
Governments not only cannot be trusted to police themselves, but they cannot even be trusted to set the ground rules under which they will be policed. We need competing forces outside of government in order to impose any kind of meaningful checks and balances on it.
Those who argue that governments need to keep some secrets ignore the fundamental problem of allowing governments to decide which secrets they get to keep. Government cannot be its own watchdog. As long as government officials get to decide what information gets released and what is secret, they will always conceal its crimes and its lies.
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