[Times-UK] Michael Gove - I have been a member of the National Union of Journalists for nearly 20 years. But now, reluctantly, I fear that I will have to part company with the union because the NUJ recently passed a motion at its conference calling for a boycott. This boycott is not of a repressive state that outlaws free expression (of which, sadly, there are still too many) but of one of the few states in the Middle East with a proper free press: Israel. The NUJ exists to defend, among other virtues, freedom of speech. That virtue is better defended in Israel than in any other nation of the Middle East and it comes under assault daily from forces driven by fanaticism. Now is a time, for all sorts of reasons, for showing solidarity with those defending democracy in that region, not for passing on the other side of the road.
2007-04-19 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive