Pixelated Semantics

The public disinterest

Another milestone of shame reached here yesterday: secret trials begin. In the prosecution of a suspected terrorist the Federal Government says its "contrary to the public interest on national security grounds" to even allow the media to report reasons for suppressing the evidence, let alone the evidence itself. Not only that, "these proceedings are not being controlled by the criminal justice system in the country but in a particular way, the American Government is determining what witnesses will be called and when they will be called." By the way, Democracy and public interest are now principles we used to have. Today, it's OK to:

- imprison children, detain them without trial
- accept information obtained by torture as evidence in court
- conduct secret trials without allowing defence access to information on charges
- bug, track, and surveil, anyone without warrant and without evidence of crime
- take DNA without knowledge or consent and store it
- remove information from the media and internet without explaining why or what it was

and the list goes on. All of the above have been discussed here in the last 12 months in the Australian context. When I say I barely recognise my own country anymore, it's not a joke.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 9:58 am ::