EVEN genuinely democratic governments - as opposed to those repressive regimes that like to include the descriptor in their titles - occasionally have reservations about press freedom. Consider the animosity expressed by politicians in Western countries, Australia included, towards Julian Assange and the concerted effort to suppress the material he made universally available on WikiLeaks.
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Yet press freedom is at the heart of true democracy. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes this clear: ''Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.'' When these freedoms are denied, as they are routinely in places as diverse as China and Fiji, governments no longer feel compelled to consider the views of their citizens and other rights are more easily curtailed.
Israel has the distinction of being a genuine democracy in a region better known for autocratic rulers. It offers its citizens rights and freedoms that many in nearby countries are risking their lives to achieve in uprisings that have spread across the region. So it is most disappointing that the Israeli government is threatening journalists with reprisals should they join the 10-ship flotilla due to sail to the Gaza Strip this week. International journalists who join activists, politicians, writers and religious figures on the flotilla face being banned from entering Israel for up to a decade.