Is the U.S. government hypocritical to castigate China for limiting press and Internet freedom, while seeking to jail WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for making use of these very same freedoms? According to this painfully ironic editorial from China’s state-controlled Global Times, in pursing the arrest of Julian Assange, America only inflicts further damage to its already tarnished public image.
The Global Times editorial says in part:
And all of this is happening in a country that loudly boasts of its First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press and expression. In a town hall-style meeting in Shanghai in November 2009, Obama addressed the issue of Internet freedom. And in her speech at Washington’s Newseum last January, Hillary Clinton also went on at great length about Internet freedom, pointing an accusing finger at China and several other countries. [watch video below].
But the Assange case exposes such rhetoric as just so much hypocrisy. It is apparent that when Internet freedom conflicts with self-declared U.S. national interests, or when Internet freedom exposes lies by the self-proclaimed open and transparent government, it immediately becomes a crime.
Censoring the Internet by pushing charges against Assange will only inflict further damage on the U.S. While the leaked cables may have damaged the trust between the American and foreign governments, the crusade against WikiLeaks and Julian Assange will destroy the people’s trust in the press freedom so assiduously preached by the U.S.
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