ORIGINAL: Otto von Blotto
...... believe me in the army free speech is the least of their concerns.
In WWII, at least a free Britain was a concern, actually, well along with England's will to protect her colonies, her backbone of resources and the spheres of political and economical interests/influences.
Also, quite contrary to your statement, quite some members of the US units that freed my hometown (Cologne) insisted that they actually did have that spirit and they told citizens, after they understood that - during living under a dictatorship - there wasn't just black and white, that they had worked hard (and had risked their lifes) for current and future generations of "Krauts" to enjoy freedom (of speech). The same was pointed out by the Brits who then provided the occupation force for the Rheinland. Does that mean that each and every Allied officer or grunt had that spirit? No.
But does that mean no soldier was preoccupied by that spirit? No.
Vital British (and American) figures, who were in charge right after the war, actually kept up that spirit and were substantial in implementing that basic right (freedom of speech), and the Brits were a driving - if not the leading force - when it came to establishing a free media landscape in (North-)Germany:
On behalf of the Foreign Office, the British military administration was tasked with rebuilding the press, radio stations and cinemas. A special unit (PRISC = Public Relations and Information Services Control) was then in charge of the reconstruction, and hired a few German editors and journalists. One of those activities involved the creation of a weekly magazine ("
Diese Woche" = This Week), which was launched in 1946, with a British officer as acting chief editor, and with the British unit providing training and support for everything dealing with how to set up a free and thoroughly researching editorial department.
After publishing a number of very critical articles (where some had been smuggled into the magazine), covering the fact that the British military administration was absolutely overstrained when it came to organize food and coal distribution (which led to the "Hunger-Winter" 1946/47 and the "Hunger-Year 1947") and the fact that there was no political intention {until 1947} to up the food level for Germany, the British Foreign Office ordered it to be passed into German hands, issuing their second license for a weekly magazine in Germany. The Brits just didn't want to publish a magazine with highly critical articles, where officers of their own military branch were involved, so, instead of prohibiting the publication of the magazine, they just got rid of it. This magazine (now called "DER SPIEGEL" = The Mirror) became the spearhead of investigative journalism in Germany, as it developed a history of investigation and publication of (national) political and economical scandals, since 1950.
That said, the Brits who were in charge in the Foreign Office and in the PRISC unit
had that
spirit, for sure.
ORIGINAL: barker
tried to post a question - that all threads on the board should adhere to the new policy....it was deleted
Now, regarding freedom of speech in a forum (which is not connected and shall not be confused with any existing constitutional right that protects free speech):
If the moderator of a privately owned forum feels like deleting posts or limiting free spech, then he has the right to do so. If the mod of this general forum feels like deleting my post, say because my detailed example above is deemed to be off-topic, I'd consider it to be a bit too strict, but hey ... still fair enough, it's his right.
A user who's got a problem with such actions may express his/her discontent, but after 1 or 2 times such user might want to actually either go and frequent other forums or refrain from emitting confusing threads that are just trying to ship around a (sub forum) mod's "powers".
While any form of more strict forum control may be inconvenient (or frustrating, depending on the POV), trying to bypass the mods/devs, by posting it in the general forum of that particular dev's publisher, is a bit off, imho, no matter who's right or wrong.
This could actually be addressed via PM or e-mail.
My 2 cents
