The Judge RANTS!
Date: 11/01/15
Quis Custodiet...?
Earlier today, many tens of thousands of people took part in a rally-cum-procession to express their defiance of murders committed at the urging of some of the finest intellects the 7th century has to offer, and unequivocally support freedom of expression, something which needs to be protected not merely from obscurantist literalists but from the fake 'liberals' and 'progressives' of the But Tendency; that is, those who say that the cold-blooded murder of journalists and cartoonists is a terrible thing "but..."
This is how the BBC News site headlined it:
(Note the circled text: the BBC - true to being the very epitome of UKanian values - has always counted status as being more newsworthy than significance)
So, who were these 'world leaders' who were so determined to show their support for freedom of speech, expression and conscience? Well, here are some of them - in no particular order - courtesy of Daniel Wickham:
- King Abdullah of Jordan, which last year sentenced a Palestinian journalist to 15 years in prison with hard labour,
- Prime Minister Davutoǧlu of Turkey, which imprisons more journalists than any other country in the world,
- Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, whose forces killed 7 journalists in Gaza last year (second highest after Syria),
- Foreign Minister Shoukry of Egypt, which - as well as Al Jazeera staff - has detained journalist Shawkan for around 500 days,
- Foreign Minister Lavrov of Russia, which last year jailed a journalist for "insulting a government servant",
- Foreign Minister Lamamra of Algeria, which has detained journalist Abdessami Abdelhai for 15 months without charge,
- The Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates, which in 2013 held a journalist incommunicado for a month on suspicion of links to the Muslim Brotherhood,
- Prime Minister Jomaa of Tunisia, which recently jailed blogger Yassine Ayan for 3 years for "defaming the army",
- The PMs of Georgia and Bulgaria, both of whose countries have a record of attacking and beating journos,
- The Attorney General of the United States of America, where police in Ferguson have recently detained and assaulted Washington Post reporters,
- Prime Minister Samaras of Greece, where riot police beat and injured two journalists at a protest in June last year,
- Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, who are yet to be held to account for deliberately bombing and killing 16 Serbian journalists in 1999,
- President Keita of Mali, where journalists are expelled for covering human rights abuses,
- The Foreign Minister of Bahrain, second biggest jailer of journalists in the world per capita (they also torture them),
- Sheikh Mohamed Ben Hamad Ben Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar, which jailed a man for 15 years for writing the 'Jasmine' poem,
- Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who had several journalists jailed for insulting him in 2013,
- Prime Minister Cerar of Slovenia, which sentenced a blogger to six months in prison for "defamation" in 2013,
- Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland, where "blasphemy" is considered a criminal offense,
- Prime Minister Kopacz of Poland, which raided a magazine to seize recordings embarrassing for the ruling party,
- Prime Minister Cameron of the UK, where authorities destroyed documents obtained by The Guardian and threatened prosecution,
- The Saudi ambassador to France. The Saudis publicly flogged blogger Raif Badawi for "insulting Islam" on Friday (and intend doing the same thing for each of the next twenty Fridays before throwing him back in prison for ten years - all for the 'crime' of calling for freedom of thought, expression and belief in Wahhabi Central).
It would be comforting to know that such staunch defenders of freedom had our backs...were it not for the fact that their part in the rally in Paris looks far more like an advanced heat of the Hypocrisy Olympics.
