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Timmah! on 10 September 2008
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NJ5 said:
Timmah! said:

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.

The UK is only one place in Europe. I don't even live there, so I'm going to stop replying to stuff about UK. As I said above, UK has a lot of things to be ashamed of, especially in terms of privacy.

I'm sure a lot could be said about USA vs UK, but I'm neither knowledgeable nor interested enough to enter that specific debate.

 

Censorship In France: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_France

Censorship in Germany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Germany

After reunification (1989-present)

Main article: Censorship in the Federal Republic of Germany

Because Germany kept the West German constitution after reunification, the same protections and restrictions as in West Germany apply to contemporary Germany. Continued globalization and the advent of internet marketing present a new host of complications to German censorship and information laws.

There are four reasons for censorship or information and media control:

  • A decision of a court, that assumes that a publication is violating another persons personal rights (a newspaper for example can be forced not to publish pictures of privacy anymore).
  • All forms of movie ratings (also for computer games but not for books) motivated by youth protection.
  • Media that is assumed to be very harmful to youth is indexed by the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien (Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons). These publications are restricted in marketing but not de jure censored in general. Indexing can grant publicity but is often tried to prevent.
  • Publications violating laws (that restrict freedom of speech in general) can be censored; their authors can be penalised. Such restrictions are Volksverhetzung, slander and libel (which are in Germany Beleidigung, Verleumdung and Üble Nachrede). Especially Üble Nachrede (defamatory statement) scarcely causes censorship. Üble Nachrede (Defamatory statement) means violating personal rights by spreading gossip/news which are neither evidentially true or false.

Membership in a Nazi party, publicly advancing national socialist ideas[citation needed], and Holocaust denial are illegal in Germany. Publishing, television, public correspondence (including lectures), and music are censored accordingly, with harsh legal consequences, including jail time.

Already covered the UK.

Censorship in Spain: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814792,00.html

Some European countries do have full freedom of the press (I believe Italy is very good, if not the best on this issue), but to suggest that Europe is somehow much better than the US is not necessarily correct. I'm not saying the US is perfect, just not backwards in regards to censorship as some may suggest.