© Reuters / Jason Reed
The study entitled "Global chilling: The impact of Mass Surveillance on International Writers" surveyed 772 writers in 50 countries and concluded that writers and journalists are self-censoring for fear of reprisal.
A similar report published in November 2013 found that writers were "worried about mass surveillance, and were engaged in multiple forms of self-censorship as a result."
A full report from writers around the world will be issued in the spring of 2015. As writers are considered to be the "canaries in the coalmine" therefore they are likely to give an accurate picture of the impact of surveillance on privacy and freedom of expression.
Writers living in democratic countries were found to be nearly as concerned as those living in non-democratic states with long histories of mass surveillance.
It found that while 61 percent of writers living in the countries labeled as 'Not Free' by Freedom House avoided writing or speaking about a certain topic because of government surveillance this was now true of 34 percent of writers in 'Free' countries.
© Reuters / Kieran Doherty
It also found that writers outside the US shared many of the same fears and uncertainties, particularly in the countries in the Five Eyes alliance of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and US.
One respondent said he "hesitated - and thought to answer very honestly - these questions."
There was also a sharp decline in how writers viewed the US as a haven for free expression, with 36 percent of writers surveyed in so-called 'Free' countries believing that their own country offers better protection for freedom of expression than the US.
The Pen document ends with recommendations that the US government stops dragnet monitoring and the collection of US citizen's communications. It also advises that collection of digital metadata be suspended and advises greater judicial, legislative and executive oversight of US intelligence agency programs.
It also pointed out that the US has to respect the privacy and rights to free expression of foreign citizens either in or out of the US.
"As the United Nations has repeatedly stated, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the US is a party, requires it to respect the human rights to privacy and free expression of all individuals affected by its surveillance programs," the report says.
I was working at OpEdNews, trying to get rid of its blatant censorship and restrictions on open and free expression among its participants. OpEdNews is a ridiculously bad site, in terms of how it portrays itself and what it actually is and does. Ridiculously bad, but then, there are so many....so, so many on the internet and everywhere you go in life now.
So anyway, things were 'proceeding' and other people there (at OEN), besides me, were getting the nerve up to confront the distortions and the bullshit of that management group, headed by Mr. Rob Kall. People, the general membership, were actively criticizing and engaging this 'management' instead of just blathering back and forth at each other, or at things OEN wanted them to....
Then, Sandy Hook happened, in conjunction with Aurora (Batman) and Clarence Dorner (the 'mad cop'), and this facilitated a necessary group 'reaction' (psychosomatic) and everything I was working on there, went. slithering away.....
I've been noting Sott, working here now instead, and since my presence here, and watching all this (what goes on here) and I feel this is a somewhat different and somewhat better place for free expression and actual campaigning for human (and other life) rights and justice and freedom and actually providing some impetus for people actually doing something with their lives, besides being stupid cogs and mindless rubes and bimbos on a short little tether.
You (if you're not a mere cog and bimbo) break the evil snake eggs when you find them, where you find them; you don't just talk about eggs and egg recipes and what's for dinner.
Thanks, Sott, for the most part. Right now, I am sorta okay with you and that's about as complimentary as I get considering the present day (totalitarian, psychopathic) circumstances and overall, totally pessimistic outlook for anything remotely resembling actual conscious evolutionary progress for life here, in the main. Basically everything alive now is being killed and dismembered....
Everybody else: Keep up the good work and keep up the free and open discussion and comment. And remember to always bust those eggs. Snakes (psychos and their followers) lay an incredible amount of them and they guard them with every trick and deception and form of violence and mayhem they know.
I know this is not the most finely worded and structured comment, but I don't care, that is part of my strategy. Let us please find some way, together, to make this world a place devoid of psychos and their insane and largely so far, successful, ambitions.
ned, out