| NJ5 said: I'm going to reply to the parts I bolded on your post. 1- Correction: The Germans ban/censor games, that's an exception rather than the rule. I didn't say all Europeans would dislike Palin because of the book banning episode, I said "many". 2- Regarding freedom of press: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporters_Without_Borders#Worldwide_Press_Freedom_Index_Ranking All the countries in the top 14 are European, USA is #48. Where's your evidence to say there's more press freedom in USA than Europe? 3- You do know about Palin's attempt to get books pulled from a library, don't you? http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/515512.html 4- Regarding abortion: I believe a lump of cells with no formed brain is not capable of suffering, consciousness or self-awareness, therefore I believe it's fine to abort at an early stage. From a quick google search, this argument seems to work at least for the first two months of pregnancy. For later abortions, I think we should take into account the impact on the mother as well as the baby. Do you have any idea how traumatic it must be to give birth to a baby after you were raped by your own father?
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The US is very lenient on freedom of the press. In the US, you can pretty much publish anything you want, even if it is hate filled BS, a leaked document from the government, pornography, etc. There are really no laws governing what can be published (aside from child porn, for obvious reasons), just laws that limit the availability of certain things to certain settings & age groups. The US has had no bannings of movies, books, or newspapers (nationally) in it's recent history. Some movies will be given an NC-17 rating, and that pretty much kills them, or games given an AO rating, which pretty much kills them, but the government itself is not in the business of limiting speech by banning speach by law or punishing the speaker or writer for their opinions.
Like Kasz said, the list you gave is going to be skewed because arrests of journalists are not due to what they reported, but the fact that they would not reveal the source that illegally released classified documents. The US does not prosecute journalists for publishing classified information, but instead goes after the person who leaked the info in the first place.
The Racial and Religious Hatred Act actually outlaws certain types of speech in the UK, namely speech that "inciting (or 'stirring up') hatred against a person on the grounds of their religion" is illegal. In the US, we have no laws that restrict what opinions are legal or not legal to either speak or print. Due to this fact alone, the US has fewer restrictions on speach than the UK.
