The german chancellor and the german media come up with a lot of criticizm towards Russia that the free press there would be suppressed.
I think it’s good, that we sometimes put freedom first and try to implement our view of how things should work against the views of other countries.
But lets also take another viewpoint:
- Free press is not part of peoples primary needs, so maybe it’s not one of their priority issues in a country which was in a difficult situation 10 years ago
- Russia and everyday-life for its citizens has become better and more stable under Putins adminstration
- changes should evolve and grow from within a country
I would also propose to think about how free the western press really is:
- large parts of the western media didn’t recognize (or didn’t tell) that Saddam wasn’t linked to Al Qaida and didn’t own WoMD (in Germany we had been lucky, that our chancellor opposed the war at that time and thus media was also critical)
- the non UN-backed war against Serbia was not seen with much criticism (at least not in Germany)
- there is not much criticism about the effectiveness and strategy of the Afghanistan-mission
- it’s rare, that an Iranian viewpoint on being embargoed, being surrounded by US troops and being named part of the Axis of Evil is taken
- it’s rare, that critizism regarding the US-embargo against Cuba is brought forward by our chancellor and by our media (though the UN pass resolutions condemning that embargo every year since 1992 or so)
So, don’t take me wrong – i think that free press is good and that e.g. Russia should improve on this – but shouldn’t we also take care of our own backyard?
Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Afghanistan, Cuba, Germany, Iran, Media, Neutrality, Politics, Russia, US
