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Emergency security measures in USA curb basic freedoms
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American concerns about emergency security measures are now becoming more voluble. The New York Times, in an unusually critical leader on 10 November, denounced the curbing of basic freedoms. ‘Thousands of detainees are being held in secret by the government; wiretaps on prisoners’ conversations with their lawyers; public debate about the advisability of using torture to make suspects talk,’ it said.A case the week previously highlighted the extent of the security clampdown, where more than two centuries of painfully accrued constitutional checks and balances have been discarded. The American Civil Liberties Union says the Bill of Rights is now ‘distorted beyond recognition’. Nancy Ogden, a member of the Green Party USA’ committee, was surrounded by military personnel armed with automatic weapons and seized as she tried to board a plane at Bangor, Maine to attend a party meeting in Chicago on the use of pesticides in war. Ogden, an organic farmer, was told the airport as closed to her, her fare would not be refunded and all airlines were instructed not to authorise her passage.
A staggering accrual of power in the hands of the US president has been made possible by the intense public revulsion over the events of September 11. The justification for the measures - which include the arrest, trial and, if found guilty by a two-thirds majority, execution of non-US citizens by military tribunal - is that they protect the very American values they suspend.
The authorities also have greatly increased powers to wiretap phone calls and e-mails. However intelligence briefings about what is going on are restricted to eight of the 535 members of Congress. The President has also issued a new executive order, known just as 13223, which bars the public from seeing documents from the past four presidencies and overrides the Freedom of Information Act.
Last modified: Thursday, December 6, 2001
Previous war reporting stories
THE PAPERS’ WAR
28 November: Open meeting - Coverage of the (War) Crisis
War in Afghanistan - BBC Editorial Policy Guidelines
Free Press special issue - War in Afghanistan
1 November - NUJ meeting
4th November - Caryl Churchill's 'Far Away', plus Kika Markham reading from Tony Kushner's 'Homebody/Kabul'.
October 23 - MWAW rally at the BBC
How Carter and Brzezinski helped start the Afghan mess
ARROW calls for anti-war vigils on 11 November
US TV networks fall in line and salute
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
War Reporting
THE PAPERS’ WAR
28 November: Open meeting - Coverage of the (War) Crisis
War in Afghanistan - BBC Editorial Policy Guidelines
Free Press special issue - War in Afghanistan
1 November - NUJ meeting
4th November - Caryl Churchill's 'Far Away', plus Kika Markham reading from Tony Kushner's 'Homebody/Kabul'.
October 23 - MWAW rally at the BBC
How Carter and Brzezinski helped start the Afghan mess
ARROW calls for anti-war vigils on 11 November
US TV networks fall in line and salute
Media Workers Against the War
