Questions, Questions

This is actually amusing. Reuters is reporting on questions raised by the New York Times deciding to block Britons from reading a story about the evidence gathered so far in the foiled bomb plot. I posted about that brilliant bit of hypocritical ineptitude here and here. Reuters also note the fact that the Time Of London did publish details that were substantially the same. So the New York Times was completely insane to do this, right? Not exactly, according to the so-called reasoning of a UK legal consultant.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York Times decision to block British online readers from seeing a story about London terrorism suspects raises new questions on restricting the flow of information in the Internet age, legal and media experts say.

The New York Times said on Tuesday it had blocked British Internet readers from seeing a story detailing elements of the investigation into a suspected plot to blow up airliners between Britain and the United States.

The story was published in Monday's paper. Under British laws, courts will punish media organizations that publish material that judges feel may influence jurors and prevent suspects receiving a fair trial.

"There has not been a prosecution for contempt over anybody publishing outside this jurisdiction (Britain), but logically there is no reason why there should not be," said Caroline Kean, partner at UK media law firm Wiggin.

And here we have the insane trap of the whole issue. If British courts can reach into the US and prosecute Americans for violating laws that do not comply with the American constitution we have an enormous problem. If this is where the left wants to go this country – and the world are in serious, serious trouble. Can they not see the shambles the entire world will be in once you start doing this? Turnabout, after all is fair play. Our Supreme Court should reach out and strike down these British laws right now. Then China will slap all of us with Google restrictions to comply with their laws.

That is not the worst aspect, either. Think of some of the other legal systems.

You damn fools. You'll lawyer your way into a collapse of civilization.

Other Links to this Post

1. Blue Crab Boulevard » Blog Archive » Bad News From China — August 31, 2006 @ 8:27 am