bradley manning hearing ends, public and media denied access throughout

Bradley Manning's pre-court martial hearing ended a few days ago, but for most media and the public, it might as well have never happened.

This story in The Nation outlines how the US military denied access to one of the most important cases of our time. All recording devices were banned from the courtroom, no transcript of the proceedings is being made available, media passes were revoked at will and without explanation, the overflow spectator area (where people could take notes on laptops) was closed down, and so on.

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Bradley Manning isn't being given a trial, which would imply fairness and a public record. He's being court-martialed. The military makes its own rules, and lives by them when it chooses.

Daily notes from the courtroom were posted by diligent supporters who attended the hearing, but as determined and dogged those notetakers were, that is no substitute for media access. You can read the daily proceedings at the Bradley Manning Support Network.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

not so fast

Not everyone thinks the Conservative government is a lock. Canada's opposition Conservative Party, which is set to bring down the minority Liberal government later this week, was hit by a new opinion poll on Monday that showed it was trailing in the country's most vote-rich region. The Leger Marketing poll for the Sun chain of newspapers put support for the Liberals in the powerful central province of Ontario at 43 percent compared with 31 percent for the Conservatives. Ontario, a Liberal stronghold at the federal level for the past 12 years, accounts for 106 of the 308 seats in House of Commons, and no party can hope to form a government without doing well there. . . . Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals have been badly hurt by a corruption scandal and Conservative leader Stephen Harper says the government must be defeated as soon as possible. The Leger figures, however, suggest there is no guarantee Harper can end 12 years of Liberal rule. Thanks, ALPF! I must say, I...
Read more

dipstick

So there won't be an election yet. Talk about a squeaker . Feel free to tell us how you feel about this, unless it's all been said already, then feel free not to. ALPF mustered his courage and sent more links, so I have some good commentary to post. I found this Macleans story on the Conservative party's reaction to Stronach's decision - and public reaction to that reaction - very interesting. Canadians seem almost universally turned off by the name-calling and sexist slurs. On the other hand, when a certain governor made his "girly men" pronouncement, his constituency howled with glee. (Which is not to say the rest of us weren't appalled.) The Macleans article also notes that not all the sexism came from politicians: Some of the most sexist characterizations of Stronach didn't come from her political adversaries, but from media. Montreal's La Presse newspaper ran a cartoon of Martin leaning out his car window to solicit a street-walking Stronach...
Read more