The fourth estate has always been a necessary part of democracy and when the news media in any form either gets bought out and sold out or is controlled and/or repressed by those in authority then you know that your democracy is sick and needs to be put on alert and into “rehab”. Reading and watching the take-down of occupy protesters and the journalists who got taken away as well really gave one the impression of watching footage from Tahrir Square or someplace other than the United States. Our nascent democracy understood that an independent news and journalistic medium was a requirement for freedom from tyranny and bad government. We went through some pretty rough times during the sixties and seventies with social unrest but did the news reporters get arrested and shut down as well? I don’t think so, this may be a path that may be harder to retract from than it was to go down, hopefully the reporters and the lawmakers will not back down and will remind the police authority that the press has and will always have the right to record behaviors and news for the good of everyone.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Press Freedom Index: Occupy Wall Street Journalist Arrests Cost U.S. Dearly In Latest Survey
25 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted Uncategorized
in