Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Charles Sides

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Freedom of Information In a Post 9-11 World

Baywood Publishing Company, Inc.

Contents

Editor's Note......................................................................................................................................................vPreface............................................................................................................................................................viiCHAPTER 1 Freedom of Information in a Post-9-11 World: Introduction Charles H. Sides.............................................................................1CHAPTER 2 Information Law since September 11: The USA PATRIOT Act and Other Government Limitations of Expression Rights George F. Bohrer, Jr......................23CHAPTER 3 Freedom in Internet Mediated Communication (IMC): Does This Foster True or Untrue Relationships? James Poon Teng Fatt..................................39CHAPTER 4 The New Challenges for Intercultural Encounters Post 9-11 John Chetro-Szivos...........................................................................69CHAPTER 5 What Should We Teach to Our Students in the Age of the Internet? Fumiko Yoshimura......................................................................91CHAPTER 6 Communal "Intelligence" and the Disarming of Dangerous Information Robert Carr.........................................................................115CHAPTER 7 The Open Society and Its Enemies: A Reappraisal Michael Ben-Chaim......................................................................................135CHAPTER 8 9-11 Communicative Grammar Dorota Zielinska............................................................................................................155CHAPTER 9 Accessible Information and International Business David Dobrin.........................................................................................185Contributors.......................................................................................................................................................195Index..............................................................................................................................................................197

Chapter One

Charles H. Sides

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. -United States Constitution, First Amendment No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. -United States Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment

The morning of September 11, 2001, has already achieved that status in history-similar to November 22, 1963 and July 20, 1969-that if we were present, we remember specifically what we were doing. These watershed dates permit, maybe even compel us to take stock and evaluate our personal or professional value systems or, as is often the case, that inextricable middle ground where the personal and professional meet.

On September 11, 2001, I had seen my daughter off to high school and was preparing to write my quarterly editorial for the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, which I edit. At approximately 8:45, I reached to turn off my radio, which was tuned to (I admit it) the "Imus in the Morning" program, and heard Warner Wolfe, the show's New York City-based sports reporter, call in to say that a plane had just hit one of the World Trade Center towers, near where he lives in Tribeca. Don Imus asked if it was a small, private plane, and when Warner Wolfe responded that, "No, it was a huge plane and there is fire and smoke everywhere," I did turn off the radio and opted for the television, where I sat transfixed for the next several hours.

In those hours and days that followed, one event in particular stood out to me as a writer, editor, and scholar in the technical communications discipline: in two locations, flight manuals for specific jet liners had been found in abandoned automobiles and motel rooms that were traced to several of the hijackers. It is those manuals which led to my call in the editorial I eventually wrote, challenging us to examine the implications of the free access to technical information, and that leads to a question this book addresses: "Is there ever a time when information is too accurate or too available?" Ancient Greeks used the concept of kairos to describe a ripe or exact or critical moment in time-a moment in which many disparate events come together and crystallize to provide unique opportunities for analysis. September 11, 2001, has been a vital moment of kairos in the technical communication discipline. Our analysis of that date, then, should focus on whether this single event will shape new arguments over the limits of free speech and free access to information, especially technical information.

This question is disarmingly complex because it goes to the core of our profession, as well as to the core of political systems which are founded upon freedoms of speech and access to information. My goal is to put forth a rubric for examining the question, as well as to posit directions governments might entertain in attempting to regulate speech and information that heretofore were considered relatively innocuous. To do this requires a careful look at the history of free speech and access to information, as well as fundamental arguments regarding these freedoms. It also involves differentiating between the evolution of the two.

HISTORY OF FREE SPEECH

From the beginning of recorded history approximately 5000 years ago, there has been trace evidence of a growing acknowledgment of speech rights. In the Sumerian civilization, in present-day southern Iraq, approximately 2400 BCE, the first surviving reference to freedom was recorded. Even though the freedom in mind was economic freedom, this document, written in cuneiform, establishes that the concept of freedom was already being examined and debated. A surviving record from Egypt in approximately 2000 BCE describes a dissenting oration the prophet Ipuwer delivered to his king, lamenting over conditions that could have been reported in yesterday's major newspapers: disregard of the law, inadequate treasury resources, and a diminished public safety. Some time later, speech rights were defined for Egyptians in the Maxims of Ptahhotep: "Worthy speech is more hidden than greenstone, being found even among the slave women at the millstone".

During the first millennium BCE, extraordinary evidence of free speech rights-not equaled yet in some modern countries-began to emerge in several cultures, including Israel, Athens, Rome, and China. The Hebrew Bible is replete with examples of prophets reprimanding kings over their disregard of the people's rights. Importantly, the kings rarely punished such prophets, even if their preaching was deemed a threat to the government. Additionally, there is evidence-both from...