In an earlier blog entry, I wrote the following:
In an apparent reversal of decades of U.S. practice, recent federal Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations bar American companies from publishing works by dissident writers in countries under sanction unless they first obtain U.S. government approval.
The restriction, condemned by critics as a violation of the First Amendment, means that books and other works banned by some totalitarian regimes cannot be published freely in the United States.
Wow. Thank goodness we have Bush as our President, eh? He is out there sending our troops to kill other human beings that, you know, hate freedom. “They hate freedom!” he says. So what does his administration do? Bans writers from other countries from having their works published in the United States of America without the government okaying it first.
Wow. Land of the free. Thank goodness we have Bush to protect us from those freedom haters out there.
Here is the latest:
From biomedcentral.com
In a reversal of almost all of the controversial prohibitions enacted in September 2003 that led to a lawsuit against it by a coalition of US publishers 3 months ago, the Treasury Department reauthorized American authors and publishers to collaborate with and edit the scientific and other manuscripts of citizens in trade-embargoed countries yesterday (December 15).
The Treasury Department said it acted “to further promote the free flow of information around the world and to ensure the voices of dissidents and others living in Cuba, Iran, and Sudan are heard,” according to an anonymous Treasury official speaking through a spokesperson.
But Edward Davis, one of the publishers’ attorneys, said yesterday that the publishers are not yet ready to drop their lawsuit, filed September 27, because the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), by granting a general license, continues to assert that it can regulate informational materials. The plaintiffs argue that OFAC has no such authority.
“I think it’s nice that the government has recognized the validity of our position for freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” said Marc Brodsky, president of the American Institute of Physics and executive council chair of the American Association of Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishers Division, one of the plaintiffs. “It’s just a shame that we had to spend so much effort and time and money to go to court to get their attention, despite the fact we went to them ahead of time.”
Good news, yes, but we need to make sure this does not happen again, and I fully support the continuing lawsuit to make sure the government learns its place.
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