Of course there isn't a law "giving" the press freedom. Freedom is something they have. Laws restrict freedom, not grant it.
Actually no, Constitutional laws in both England and US, promote freedoms not restrict them. in Fact every single amendment to the US constitution contrains the power of the federal goverment.
If fact the founding fathers of the US left the ultimate constraint in the tenth amendment.
"Those powers no specificly grant to the federal goverment by this document are reserved for the states and the people respectively"
and in reality England is the only major modern country without a constitutional law insuring freedom of the press. However England traditionaly closely follow US law and the press in recent years and with the advent of IT, has enjoyed ennormous freedom. But its the freedom to gather information from the goverment that is constrained in England, which is really the most important source of information, because no one else knows anything of importance in the areas we are discussing.
quote:The Official Secrets Acts (1889, 1911, 1989) make unlawful the “unauthorised communication of information about matters which must remain secret in the interests of the safety of the state
And you think other countries don't?
Actually the first amendment to the US constitution gauruntees freedom of the press. In fact the entire reason the US has the first amendment was to insure against the abuses of the Crown (King of England) in restricting and controlling the printed handbills of the time. (percursor to the newspaper)
England since that time has never passed legislation insuring that the goverment may not abrige the press.
quote:These include limits about the information a reporter may gather about government activities,
No, the official secrets act applies to government employees, and those they pass classified material to. It does not apply to journalists who "gather" information, unless the information they gather is stolen classified documents.
Of course, you dont have to restrict the people who dont know the information, they cant pass on information they dont have in the first place.
you only have to restrict the people who have the information and everyone they tell.
no matter , I didnt post to argue the merits and realities of the english law.
I see. So the murder rate in the UK isn't really a third of the US rate, it's just as high, but we aren't allowed to know that.
Actually the Murder rate in england is higher than that of the US on a per capita basis, (based on United nations studies)
handgun violence which is historicly less than the US, has been rapidly gaining.
here are some studies from people in England.
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"Crime and Justice in the United States and in England and Wales, 1981-96"
by Patrick A. Langan, Ph.D., BJS Statistician and
David P. Farrington, Ph.D., BJS Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge
This report compares crime in the United States and England with respect to crime rates (as measured both by victimization surveys and police statistics), conviction rates, incarceration rates, and length of sentences. Crime rates as measured in victim surveys are all higher in England than the United States. Crime rates as measured in police statistics are higher in England for half of the measured crime types. A person committing serious crime in the United States is generally more likely than one in England to be caught, convicted, and incarcerated. Incarceration sentences are also generally longer in the United States than England."
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Crime rate in England 'is worst in the world'
by David Taylor, Englands Home Affairs Correspondent
England has the worst crime record in the industrialised world, according to alarming findings published today.
The figures, which are a blow to Tony Blair's crusade against crime, show there are 58 offences for every 100 inhabitants of England and Wales each year.
That puts us joint top of the world league with Australia, with a record far worse than America, which has an annual rate of 43 crimes per 100 inhabitants.
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In 1998, a study conducted jointly by statisticians from the U.S. Department of Justice and the University of Cambridge in England found that most crime is now worse in England than in the United States.
* "You are more likely to be mugged in England than in the United States," stated the Reuters news agency in summarizing the study. "The rate of robbery is now 1.4 times higher in England and Wales than in the United States, and the British burglary rate is nearly double America's."6 The murder rate in the United States is reportedly higher than in England, but according to the DOJ study, "the difference between the [murder rates in the] two countries has narrowed over the past 16 years."7
* The United Nations confirmed these results in 2000 when it reported that the crime rate in England is higher than the crime rates of 16 other industrialized nations, including the United States.8
4. Fact: British authorities routinely underreport crime statistics. Comparing statistics between different nations can be quite difficult since foreign officials frequently use different standards in compiling crime statistics.
* The British media has remained quite critical of authorities there for "fiddling" with crime data. Consider some of the headlines in their papers: "Crime figures a sham, say police,"9 "Police are accused of fiddling crime data,"10 and "Police figures under-record offences by 20 percent."11
* British police have also criticized the system because of the "widespread manipulation" of crime data:
a. "Officers said that pressure to convince the public that police were winning the fight against crime had resulted in a long list of ruses to 'massage' statistics."12
b. Sgt. Mike Bennett says officers have become increasingly frustrated with the practice of manipulating statistics. "The crime figures are meaningless," he said. "Police everywhere know exactly what is going on."13
c. According to The Electronic Telegraph, "Officers said the recorded level of crime bore no resemblance to the actual amount of crime being committed."14
* Underreporting crime data: "One former Scotland Yard officer told The Telegraph of a series of tricks that rendered crime figures 'a complete sham.' A classic example, he said, was where a series of homes in a block flats were burgled and were regularly recorded as one crime. Another involved pickpocketing, which was not recorded as a crime unless the victim had actually seen the item being stolen."15
* Underreporting murder data: British crime reporting tactics keep murder rates artificially low. "Suppose that three men kill a woman during an argument outside a bar. They are arrested for murder, but because of problems with identification (the main witness is dead), charges are eventually dropped. In American crime statistics, the event counts as a three-person homicide, but in British statistics it counts as nothing at all. 'With such differences in reporting criteria, comparisons of U.S. homicide rates with British homicide rates is a sham,' [a 2000 report from the Inspectorate of Constabulary] concludes."
