Freedom of expression defines the rise and fall of nations

Mesenbet Assefa

I was provoked to contribute to the debate on the right to freedom of expression when I read your Editorial about the significance of freedom of expression in serving as a market place of ideas in a democratic society. Given the topical significance of the subject, I thought it would be interesting to highlight some of the foundational principles and raison d’être which try to respond to the question why do we protect freedom of expression in a democratic society. While the theory of the market place of ideas and the search for truth are some of the most important justifications for the protection of freedom of expression; I would even argue and take the argument further stating that freedom of expression defines the rise and fall of nations.

Kenya’s deadly night riders

By Michael Meyer

NAIROBI – It sounds like the plot of an old Western movie. A posse of desperados gallops into a frontier town, burns the saloon, robs the bank, guns down leading citizens, and disappears into the dead of night before the sheriff gets himself out of bed.

That is what has happened, repeatedly in recent days, in a small Kenyan town named Mpeketoni, just south of the Somali border on the Indian Ocean coast. Last week, a gang of armed men hijacked a mini-fleet of matatus, small group taxis, and roared into the city center, shooting as they went. They set shops and banks ablaze. In neighboring villages, they went door to door, asking for citizens by name. Those who were Muslim and could prove it by reciting the Koran were spared. Others were shot at point-blank range or hacked to death.