Why visit the Maldives? For the lack of air conditioning, professional torture methods and occasional loaf of stale bread, of course. Offer for journalists only.
In its ongoing mission to drive home the importance of press freedom, Reporters without Borders runs this sad set of PSAs that invite watchdogs, travel agency-style, to exotic locales for a taste of the hard knocks. We particularly like Cuba.
The no-freedom-without-press-freedom line has probably been repeated from the birth of unregulated reporting (read: gossip) but takes on a new meaning these days. While the country pores over Britney’s latest attempt at relevance and cries about the lack of adequate news coverage on Anna Nicole postmortem, we haven’t any idea what zany hijinks Bush is cooking up lately.
Is this a symptom or a forfeiture of press freedom? Does the public indeed determine media coverage or is the media managed by bourgie-ass interest groups and corporations? What does it actually mean to have press freedom, anyway?
