Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site whuxl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!talcott!panda!genrad!decvax!harpo!whuxlm!whuxl!orb
From: orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Strangling Nicaragua: Censorship and War
Message-ID: <636@whuxl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 14-May-85 08:20:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: whuxl.636
Posted: Tue May 14 08:20:03 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 16-May-85 20:43:17 EDT
References: <576@cadovax.UUCP> <164@ttrdc.UUCP>, <1021@uwmacc.UUCP> <173@ttrdc.UUCP> <174@ubvax.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany
Lines: 40

> 
> Re La Prensa in Managua, I've recently had the opportunity to give advice
> to a friend who was writing to the Nation in response to some articles
> about suppression of human rights in Nicaragua.  The points I made to
> him apply here too:
> 
> 1.  Moralities and protections of human rights can differ from normal,
> peaceful times in times of war.
> 
> 2.  Two areas they can differ in is in draft mobilizations and protection
> of absolute press freedoms (I don't accept, on the other hand, preventive
> detentions, for instance).
> 
> 3.  Our worries about suppressions of press freedoms, etc., would be
> justified if those suppressions were not REVOCABLE.  I think that's a
> general principle, that those weakenings of human rights protections
> applied in warfare must be revocable when the war has ended.
> 
> 4.  Hence, if Nicaragua is at war, than we should properly defend the
> right of La Prensa to continue to publish and not be shut down, but we
> can't reasonably complain if the Sandinistas decide to apply censorship
> during wartime.  The Israeli government does no less, and it isn't even
> in a state of war.
> 
> I believe Nicaragua is at war against the contras and their CIA/Somozista
> supporters.  The evidence of invasion and death is everywhere within the
> country.  Hence I question the political motives of those who continually
> harp on La Prensa censorship.  Let's wait until the war is over before we
> apply harsh judgments, please.
> 
> Tony Wuersch

I guess that is another one of the reasons to eliminate the institution of
War.  It provides a convenient justification for all sorts of atrocities,
from killing to censorship.
I cannot agree with such excuses either for killing or censorship.
I doubt that Nicaragua's security would really be threatened by allowing
La Prensa to publish freely.
                        tim sevener   whuxl!orb
p.s.   the Sandinistas have announced a halt to the draft