3 ms·

Don't know where I've been but this is the first I've heard of ag-gag laws. Absolutely absurd, bordering on unbelievable. How has this crap been passed in multi

Don't know where I've been but this is the first I've heard of ag-gag laws. Absolutely absurd, bordering on unbelievable. How has this crap been passed in multiple states?!

Lawtonfogle 11y ago
You start by deciding the First Amendment allows the government to ban certain speech, likely by picking something no one would be opposed to banning. You then take precedence and use it to ban speech you were targeting from the start.
rasz_pl 11y ago
It can be a lot worse. There was a huge surveillance scandal in Poland last year. Someone wired particular restaurant used by politicians and recorded tons of incriminating conversations (Polish Central Bank governor giving support to ruling political party in next elections by fudging budget numbers and so on). Results: -police, prosecutor and intelligence service raided headquarter of newspaper that broke the story, assaulting and beating editor-in-chief http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27945687 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27945687 -prosecutor immediately opened investigations into illegal wiretapping -full two months later prosecutor was forced to open investigation into actual content of tapes, this investigation was naturally quickly killed off. -head of government and political party implicated in leaked tapes was punished by ... jokes, he was awarded presidency over whole fucking European Council -new law passed making audio recordings All-party consent, and outlawing using as evidence any and all recordings made without court order :-) instant immunity from further wiretaps.
- bayesianhorse 11y ago
  Well, technically, if it wasn't a journalist, but a police investigator, who wired the restaurant without a warrant, people would have been outraged about the privacy breach, regardless of the success of the recordings... So, in part, this pretty much the legislation privacy advocates call for, though passed with different intentions and motivations...

Don't know where I've been but this is the first I've heard of ag-gag laws. Absolutely absurd, bordering on unbelievable. How has this crap been passed in multiple states?!

Lawtonfogle 11y ago

You start by deciding the First Amendment allows the government to ban certain speech, likely by picking something no one would be opposed to banning. You then take precedence and use it to ban speech you were targeting from the start.

rasz_pl 11y ago

It can be a lot worse. There was a huge surveillance scandal in Poland last year. Someone wired particular restaurant used by politicians and recorded tons of incriminating conversations (Polish Central Bank governor giving support to ruling political party in next elections by fudging budget numbers and so on). Results: -police, prosecutor and intelligence service raided headquarter of newspaper that broke the story, assaulting and beating editor-in-chief http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27945687 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27945687 -prosecutor immediately opened investigations into illegal wiretapping -full two months later prosecutor was forced to open investigation into actual content of tapes, this investigation was naturally quickly killed off. -head of government and political party implicated in leaked tapes was punished by ... jokes, he was awarded presidency over whole fucking European Council -new law passed making audio recordings All-party consent, and outlawing using as evidence any and all recordings made without court order :-) instant immunity from further wiretaps.

bayesianhorse 11y ago
Well, technically, if it wasn't a journalist, but a police investigator, who wired the restaurant without a warrant, people would have been outraged about the privacy breach, regardless of the success of the recordings... So, in part, this pretty much the legislation privacy advocates call for, though passed with different intentions and motivations...