Under a broad new set of laws criminalizing speech that ridicules the government or its officials, some resurrected verbatim from Saddam Hussein’s penal code, roughly a dozen Iraqi journalists have been charged with offending public officials in the past year.
Currently, three journalists for a small newspaper in southeastern Iraq are being tried here for articles last year that accused a provincial governor, local judges and police officials of corruption. The journalists are accused of violating Paragraph 226 of the penal code, which makes anyone who “publicly insults” the government or public officials subject to up to seven years in prison.
You know that Bush must be salivating over the possibility of implementing these types of laws over here. King George just hates being asked hard questions by the media.
"Guards! I am sorry, Mr. Gregory but you are going to have to spend a night in the hole for that last question. Hey go ahead and grab Helen Thomas as well, you just know she is going to ask one of her tricky questions any minute."
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Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.