Global Free Speech Update

Iran:  Iran this week broadcast the execution of two men convicted of "counterrevolutionary" acts and defying god.  Bad enough that Iranian authorities say the charges were justified on account of the men's involvement in protests surrounding June's disputed election results, but it's likely that's not even true.  Instead, those protests are being used as a pretext for allowing authorities to pretty much execute who they want, when they want, for whatever they want, and there doesn't seem to be much the international community can do about it. 

France:  A parliamentary panel recommended in a 200 page report that women be prohibited from wearing a niqab in public office buldings, schools, and hospitals, and while traveling on mass transit.  The niqab, a full face veil that leaves only a slit for the eyes, is worn by approximately 2000 Muslim women currently living in France.  Authorities say the move is necessary to liberate women from "the black tide of fundamentalism," but opponents fear it will provoke a backlash and put some women in danger if their families discover them unveiled in public.  A ban against head scarves in public schools is already in place.

US:  Lee Bolinger chats with Law.com about Chinese censorship, Russian media threats, and the financial fragility of the American press.  Oh, and he's also got a new book: Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open: A Free Press for a New Century.

Netherlands:  Geert Wilder went on trial this week (prior post here).  It's worth checking out the Youtube clip of his opening statement, where Wilder's quotes Thomas Jefferson (good), but then asks for expert testimony to demonstrate the "truth" of his comments that Islam equates to Nazism, and the Quran to Mein Kampf (bad).

-Kathleen Bergin