Exporting the Matrix - 9781611631463

Edited by Richard N. Winfield (media law, Columbia and Fordham Law Schools, former general counsel for the Associated Press) for the International Senior Lawyers Project, this book is a collection of first-person accounts by fifteen specialists in media law writing about their experiences in international settings. They include lawyers, judges, academics, and independent media specialists. The essays describe experiences in a variety of nations, including Japan, Peru, Yemen, Nigeria, Russia, Kuwait, and India. The writers come from a Western perspective on law, democracy, and freedom of information; and they describe settings where basic definitions of information, communications technologies, and social structures are quite different. Frequently, the authors discuss situations where the freedom to say or write what one pleases is not either traditional in society or guaranteed by law. In some instances, they are consulting to create legal structures to support Western standards of open information; in others they are part of campaigns to change public opinion or help people use existing Freedom of Information laws in nations where they are unfamiliar or considered unsafe to use because of recent histories with repressive government. Some essays focus on telling the story while others offer the authors' experience of techniques that tend to be effective. The tone and style of the book is suitable for general readers with an interest in law, freedom of information, or international diplomacy. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)