re: "Should the Media Be Prosecuted for Espionage, Too?"

Kevin Jon Heller at Opinio Juris is a sharp cookie. I like the way he thinks.

Money quote(s):

"The New York Times, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, Le Monde, and El Pais — all are just as guilty of violating the Espionage Act as WikiLeaks. There is no “we redacted some of the documents” defense in the Act, and prosecuting a news organization after it has published documents does not create prior restraint problems. Moreover, given that those newspapers have a vastly wider readership than the WikiLeaks website, they have arguably harmed America’s national-security interests far more than WikiLeaks itself. (And let’s not forget, WikiLeaks did not steal the documents; it obtained them from the person who did. So there is no relevant difference between the newspapers and WikiLeaks in that regard; the “espionage” is simply one level removed with the newspapers.)"

TG - America to remove HIV visa ban after Briton's protest. Campaigner persuades Washington to alter laws that forced travellers to lie on entry forms

From my archive of press clippings:

The Guardian


America to remove HIV visa ban after Briton's protest. Campaigner persuades Washington to alter laws that forced travellers to lie on entry forms.

Anushka Asthana and Sam Rogers
The Observer, Sunday 5 July 2009



A law that has in effect banned people with HIV from visiting America for two decades is to be overturned after a Briton with the virus accused the US of hypocrisy and discrimination during a major health conference.

Read the whole article here.

re: "Give credit where credit is due"

sjostrom at Atlantic Blog ("thoughts on politics, economics, and the culture") awards kudos to The Guardian.

Money quote(s):

"There is an interesting little storm in Britain involving Hazel Blears, Britain's Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and Daud Abdullah, deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain. Blears has withdrawn engagement with the Muslim Council of Britain over a conference attended by Abdullah, which produced a curious little document."

"The Guardian did not merely print Blears letter, it practiced journalism by linking to the post at Harry's Place which not only reprinted the controversial part, but also linked to the entire document. The Guardian also published Abdullah's response, disputing Blears' assertions, and again the Guardian linked to the document in dispute, allowing readers to decide for themselves whether Blears is wrong or Abdullah's denials are dishonest weaselling."

&

"(T)he reference to "individuals" is an unsubtle call for terrorism against civilians with impure thoughts, and paragraph 8 is a call for attacks on British troops (British ships are patrolling the arms embargo on Gaza), the same thing that got George Galloway kicked out of the Labour Party. Harry's Place calls for trying Abdullah for treason. Any doubts that Abdullah is just misunderstood are cleared away by a letter in today's Guardian supporting him, with thirty signatures, nine of them named."