Commentary: Fate of truth tellers in China a warning for America
William McKenzie, For the Express-News
June 5, 2021
FacebookTwitterEmail
Democracy activist Joshua Wong, center, has been imprisoned for speaking truth to power. Manipulation of the truth is the ground game of authoritarians and propagandists and it’s destabilizing to a democracy like ours.Associated Press file photo
Joshua Wong is in a Chinese prison for having the temerity to speak the truth. For that, Chinese authorities just gave the lithe 24-year-old democracy activist another 10 months on top of the 13½ months they sentenced him to in December for standing up for free speech and the freedom of assembly in his hometown of Hong Kong.
Data overload hits us every day - some data true, some false, some useful, some not. It's a data world and there's no going back. SAS has anno.
But the management of difficult problems is a
Bulletin forte, and in this issue, we asked a range of experts for their thoughts on how to at least begin to limit the worst effects of internet-based mis- and disinformation on public discourse and public policy:
In an interview with associate editor Matt Field, internet pioneer turned professor Ethan Zuckerman argues that public broadcasters, neighborhoods, governments, and other groups can purposefully build social media platforms that aim to provide civic benefit, rather than the “engagement” that profit-driven platforms seek.
In an interview with editor in chief John Mecklin, Alan Miller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for the
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Wednesday had two firsts for me and they both involved the Constitution.
The first âfirstâ was being called for jury duty and sitting for two hours in Noble Superior Court 1 as a prospective juror. I will tell you about my experience and what I learned about the Sixth Amendment in my next column.