While traveling in Austin, Texas last week I tried to post this commentary but my very poor wireless access at the Radisson Hotel dropped my connection so those initial, brilliant :-)comments were lost so here is my reconstruction attempt.
May 3, 2006 was World Press Freedom Day which was highlighted via a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) which is based in New York City. CPJ’s report named the countries that are home to the “world’s most censored media”. As a great defender of the First Amendment to the US Constitution (which includes our right to lobby governments for relief) this “Hall of Shame” country list caught my attention.
TEN MOST CENSURED MEDIA MARKETS IN THE WORLD
North Korea
Burma
Turkmenistan
Equatorial Guinea
Libya
Eritrea
Cuba
Uzbekistan
Syria
Belarus
Perhaps some interesting observations based on this list:
-Four of these ten countries are former satellites of the former (thank God!!) Soviet Union
-Three of these countries are in Africa so a great topic for my friends at the Africa Resource Bank, http://www.africaresourcebank.org/ , to discuss at their annual conference
-Ted Turner was quoted on TV (Source: http://www.mrc.org/ ) as saying that when he visited North Korea he (paraphrasing here), “saw some thin people but I didn’t see any sign of abuse………” An amazing quote from the founder of the United Nations Foundation which has not done one thing to promote human rights in North Korea – if they have I am VERY happy to be corrected by any of my readers.
Buy your child a newspaper,
Todd
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