DUCKPOND

Where the important news stories are of course.

Sometimes understandably somethings get below the radar. Because they represent such an elite, alert and intelligent group of professional journalists, they would be unimportant things. Right.

Last week, for example, there were new photographic evidence (via Common dreams)of the torture as Abu Gharib prison. But the news judgment was, I assume, that is an old story. The seven low-level individuals involved have been imprisoned, and otherwise punished.

Then there was the report from the UN Investigation that the Guantanamo Bay Concentration Camp should be closed. Apparently the USA does not subscribe either to civilized standards or its basic law. So that does not matter either. The clincher on this was the assertions of the Secretary of Defence, Rumsfeld.

And – do not laugh – the President of this country wants to spread democracy around the world.

Of course, we sometimes laugh at inappropriate things, but as witnessed by these examples, they are not so much funny, as a disgrace.

Dr Sentamu, is we are told the number two in the Church of England, the Archbishop of York, and his comment in part, reported by The Independent, via Common Dreams, pretty much sums up the concern at the behavior of the Media:

“The American Government is breaking international law,” he told The Independent. “The main building block of a democratic society is that everyone is equal before the law, innocent until proved otherwise, and has the right to legal representation. If the guilt of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay is beyond doubt, why are the Americans afraid to bring them to trial? Transparency and accountability are the other side of the coin of freedom and responsibility. We are all accountable for our actions in spite of circumstances. The events of 9/11 cannot erase the rule of law and international obligations.

But I think he means 1984, not Animal Farm, later in his comments. Orwell, to my memory, did not describe the subservience of the press. I suppose the historical example is the capitulation of the German press from 1933 onward, and I suppose, it should be possible to look at more recent history. I guess here one issue is not to idealize the past.