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Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

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A Government acting in good faith should never bring criminal proceedings against anyone who reveals information about human rights abuses within its jurisdiction. There is therefore a sacred responsibility placed on governments to protect whistleblowers as they play an important role, for example:
a) Smedley Butler who exposed the McCormack-Dickstein Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives that business leaders had plotted a fascist coup d'état against the Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration in what became known as the “Business Plot”.
b) Peter Buxtun who exposed the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment: an infamous clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis …show more content…

Therefore prior censorship poses real dangers to freedom of expression because if authorities are able to suppress future publications, it becomes impossible to verify the justification of such actions. This will undoubtedly lead to abuse of power to prevent government criticism. Some governments allow an appeal process that puts the government in control as court processes by their nature are expensive and slow thus giving control to the authorities for the timing of the flow of information. This creates another problem as news like any other product or service is a perishable commodity, “so that success in court after lengthy proceedings will often prove a pyrrhic victory” . In some jurisdictions, like the USA, prior censorship is prohibited save for the protection of minors, that is, Article 13 (1) and (2) of the ACHR states: Freedom of Thought and Expression:
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought and expression. This right includes freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, in print, in the form of art, or through any other medium of one's choice.
2. The exercise of the right provided for in the foregoing paragraph shall not be subject to prior censorship but …show more content…

[But a] mistake in ruling against the United States could pave the way for thermonuclear annihilation for us all. In that event, our right to life is extinguished and the right to publish becomes moot.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression stated that “any system of prior restraint on freedom of expression carries with it a heavy presumption of invalidity under international human rights law,” in his report on Republic of Korea and the ECtHR ruled that “the dangers inherent in prior restraints are such that they call for the most careful scrutiny” . This case involved an ad hoc application of prior restraint by the Republic of Korea government to prevent publication of a specific harmful expression through the

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