Volume 93
the Prairie
Issue XV
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Egyptian government faces criticism Protests call for the resignation of President Mubarak MARIA MOLINA Editor
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ince Egyptian protests began on Jan. 25 against the 30-year presidency of Hosni Mubarak , concerns have been raised about political and economic implications of the conflict. Egypt controls a major port that could lead to an increase in oil prices world wide. “The one thing to remember about Egypt is that the Suez Canal flows through Egypt,” Dr. David Rausch, professor of political science at WTAMU, said. “It makes shipping a lot easier and
consider most of what gets shipped through there is oil and oil products.” Dr. Syed Anwar, professor of marketing and international business, said that the Suez Canal is the third largest industry in Egypt. “Six to seven percent of the global traffic going to ships goes to Egypt,” he said. Rausch said that if the problems in Egypt do not end, oil prices are going to rise. “It is hard to get the oil from Europe to here because if we lose the Suez Canal or the Suez Canal is closed for whatever reason, it is going to make the shipping more expensive,” he said.
Another industry that Anwar and Rausch said will be affected is tourism, which is Egypt´s largest industry. “Over 12 million people visit Egypt every year from other countries,” Anwar said. However, Anwar said that the biggest concern that Egypt faces right now is the violation of human rights. “We saw more than 20 people, Westerners and Egyptians, blindfolded and handcuffed,” Souad Mekhemmet and Nicholas Kulish, two detained journalists from the New York Times, said Feb. 4 in an article published online. “Mubarak is a perfect example of a dictator,” Anwar said. “Few people are
controlling the country and there have been huge human right violations in Egypt for the last 20 years.”
Egypt Continued on p. 2
Courtesy of Sulekha.com Egyptian anti-government protesters.
People question legality of Wikileaks Wikileaks nominated for Nobel Peace Prize KATELYN GARRITY Assistant Editor
Courtesy of the NY Daily News.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
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he actions of Wikileaks, an organization that publishes secret documents, could adversely impact freedom of the press in the United States. Dr. Dave Rausch, a political science professor at WTAMU, said Wikileaks should be considered a branch of the media. “Wikileaks is a media outlet,” he said. “I am a bit concerned that the writers for Wikileaks aren’t trying to inform the public as much as they are trying to get lots of public attention. It might have been better to provide the information to newspapers that have a more established line of protection.” Rausch noted that he does not support any restrictions against the press. He feels the actions of Wikileaks do not validate the government taking a hold of the media and filtering content. “The challenge with Wikileaks is the website is causing Americans to consider some restrictions on the press,” he said. “Any opinions about restric-
tion the press are not good.” He said he thought a more time tested part of the media could have handled the dissemination of the information better than Wikileaks. “A traditional newspaper could have published the basic outline of the documents without releasing specifics or damaging details,” he said. “Wikileaks just published the documents with little commentary.” Matthew Schmitto, a member of the group Young Americans for Liberty, said he feels Wikileaks has not violated the Constitution because its founder, Julian Assange, is not an American. “I don’t think Wikileaks is bound by our Constitution,” he said. “[They] owe no loyalty or anything else to the United States. If anything we should be thanking them for showing us [what] our government is using our tax money towards.” Rausch said using the internet as the main medium to spread Wikileaks information causes a new problem. “The Internet makes it easy to distribute information to a worldwide audience,” he said.
He noted that the Internet makes jurisdiction problematic. If none of the leaked information was published on U.S. soil, it would be difficult to validate charging and trying Wikileaks members in America. Additionally he said that it would be difficult for the courts to decide whether the person that gave the information to Wikileaks or Wikileaks itself was responsible for committing a crime. Schmitto said he foresees regulations against the Internet taking place. He expects fewer attempts to control freedom of the press. “I definitely think that the government will continue to gather new regulations on the Internet in the future in an attempt to prevent something of this nature from happening again,” he said. Schmitto said that U.S. government is already planning restrictions to pass into law.
Wikileaks Continued on p. 3