[x-pubpol] EFF: How Can the New York Times Endorse an Agreement the Public Can't Read?

[Joly MacFie]

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/how-can-nytimes-endorse-agreement-public-cant-read

The New York Times' editorial board has made a disappointing endorsement of
the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), even as the actual text of the
agreement remains secret. That raises two distressing possibilities: either
in an act of extraordinary subservience, the Times has endorsed an
agreement that neither the public nor its editors have the ability to read.
Or, in an act of extraordinary cowardice, it has obtained a copy of the
secret text and hasn't yet fulfilled its duty to the public interest to
publish it.

Without a publicly available agreement, readers are forced into the
uncomfortable position of taking official government statements at face
value. That's reflected in the endorsement, which fails to note the myriad
ways in which TPP has been negotiated undemocratically, shutting out public
oversight while permitting corporate interests to drive the agenda. Given
these glaring issues, it is disconcerting that the Times would take such a
supportive stance on an agreement that is likely to threaten innovation and
users' digital rights well into the 21st century.

[...]

-- 
Maira Sutton
Global Policy Analyst
Electronic Frontier Foundation - www.eff.org
maira at eff.org
Tel: 415.436.9333 x175

:: Defending Freedom in the Digital World ::

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