NationStates Jolt Archive

So having just gotten a couple of endorsements I thought I should take a break from proposal whining and get into some proposal writing. Taking the notion of writing a propsal to fit the category (and not view versa) I selected a category which I though would probably not get a lot of proposals written for it and which I happened to like. The result is the following draft of a resolution. (Length approx 2,263 characters currently.)

International Free Press Accord - Education and Creativity - Free Press

WHEREAS the rights of freedom of opinion and freedom of expression are fundamental rights in many of the nations in the World Assembly;

WHEREAS the right of freedom of the press is a fundamental tool to ensure open and honest international cooperation among members of the World Assembly;

WHEREAS it is in the interest of the World Assembly to support a free press so that it can monitor compliance with the various resolutions passed by the body among the members of the World Assembly;

WHEREAS it is also important to acknowledge national security among the members of the World Assembly and that freedom of the press cannot be used as a cover for espionage from one member nation against another;

The World Assembly:

ESTABLISHES the World Assembly Press Association (WAPA) for the accreditation and education of international reporters and for the streamlining of passport and visa applications for members of the international press;

ENCOURAGES members of all international press organizations of the World Assembly to join the WAPA;

ENCOURAGES all member nations to permit duly accredited members of the WAPA into their nations for the purpose of reporting to their home nations or for reporting to appropriate World Assembly agencies;

STRONGLY DISCOURAGES any member nation from denying visas on the basis of their status as an international reporter alone if they are accredited by the WAPA;

ENCOURAGES free access of communication between members of the WAPA and their home nations and World Assembly agencies so that these reporters can carry out their functions;

ESTABLISHES the following committees within the WAPA:

ESTABLISHES the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) which shall monitor World Assembly member nations for various offenses against freedoms of the press, opinion and expression and to report on any discovered abuses to the WAPA for dissemination to all member nations;

ESTABLISHES the Committee for the Encouragement of a Free Press (CEFP) which shall promote the benefits of an free press to all member nations of the World Assembly;

ENCOURAGES an independent international press so that member nations may not be encouraged to use members of the WAPA for international espionage;

Thoughts: I realize that the use of encourages and strongly discourages may seem to be mild but I wanted to be conservative about what impact can be done in an "education" resolution. This is not about establishing a free press, but establishing the means to eductate member nations about the free press and to establish the means to get open access to the press for those member nations that do encourage a free international press.

I don't think this has an impact on those member nations that do not want a free press (other than being on some committee's "naughty list") but I am willing to adjust this resolution to satisfy any fears that this might be so.

According to a string length program this proposal is currently 2263 characters. Word puts it at 2280 but that also includes the title line and an extra blank line.

Thoughts welcome and feel free to rip the proposal to shreads so that it can be improved.

(For boring background stuff check the wiki article on Freedom of the Press (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press))

This is not about establishing a free press...Then why call it that?

Thoughts: I realize that the use of encourages and strongly discourages may seem to be mild but I wanted to be conservative about what impact can be done in an "education" resolution.
I've got to admit, this looks to be conservative to the point of being almost useless; not so much mild as apologetic.

This is not about establishing a free press, but establishing the means to eductate member nations about the free press[...]
OK, that's one line (CEFP). What about the rest? They form quite an effective blocker to establishing a free press, and frankly I'm not interested in letting that happen.

[...] and to establish the means to get open access to the press for those member nations that do encourage a free international press.
Don't those member nations have that already, pretty much by definition?

I don't mean to be harsh, but this proposal doesn't really seem like it would do anything, other than create committees to do things that private organizations could do, and probably do better than the WA can.

If we're not going to do much more than wag our fingers at nations that muzzle the press, and create committees of finger-wagging, there's probably no reason to bother.

I'm going to start this by stating something I forgot to mention in the first post. I think that if someone took the time to code a category and strength someone should take the time to write a good resolution for it. That's the reason for this resolution.

Then why call it that?

Well it's international, it involves the free press, and it was the first thing in my mind to make the title beloved by fluffies everywhere. I'm always wiling to work on that.

I've got to admit, this looks to be conservative to the point of being almost useless; not so much mild as apologetic.


I'm going under the assumption that the category is sort of like that. If everyone and the mods think I can put more teeth on this and not get into a category/strength violation I would definitely be willing to do that.


OK, that's one line (CEFP). What about the rest? They form quite an effective blocker to establishing a free press, and frankly I'm not interested in letting that happen.

Well it does show up in other areas as well. The CPJ "educates" through shame. The WAPA educates its own members and that is also a way to get the polite word to those member nations. My point was this doesn't force a free press on any member nation because I'm assuming that would definitely be a different category & strength.

I'm sure we can add wording to make this clear that this is not a free press blocker. A "Free Press" imposer would probably be a "Human Rights" - "Significant" type of resolution as a truely free press also requires the right to freedom of opinion and freedom of expression. This is not designed to be a blocker. To be honest I didn't think of the potential to use this as a blocker that's why I didn't include a paragraph.

I'm going under the assumption that the category is sort of like that. If everyone and the mods think I can put more teeth on this and not get into a category/strength violation I would definitely be willing to do that.

Free Press isn't a toothless effect. I don't remember the specifics (and I wouldn't share them here if I did), but it's as powerful as any other Category / Effect in the game, all of which hover in the vicinity of "Significant" strength.

I was thinking more about the category of "Education and Creativity." Would forcing more provisions of a free press be possible under that category? If so, I'll work on a much stronger version of this proposal.

I like where this proposal is going, though I'd also say it's toeing the line of things I could approve in some places if it were strengthened. At the moment, though, there's not a requirement in the whole thing regarding actual press freedom, so I won't vote for it as is either. I don't like resolutions that only RECOMMEND, ENCOURAGE, and CONDEMN. If the resolution doesn't require anything, creating a committee to monitor how nations measure up to it is just a waste of money. That's what polling agencies are for.

Riley Fluffer
Representing the Federated Democratic States of Xanthal
Designated Agent of the Delegacy of SPACE

This is my second attempt and my first minor revision. Once again the goal is to allow international reporting; that is the reporting of events to the international WA community. If you want to be closed to your own people, then this resolution does not yet prevent you from doing so.

WHEREAS the rights of freedom of opinion and freedom of expression are fundamental rights in many of the nations in the World Assembly;

WHEREAS the right of freedom of the press is a fundamental tool to ensure open and honest international cooperation among members of the World Assembly;

WHEREAS it is in the interest of the World Assembly to support a free press so that it can monitor compliance with the various resolutions passed by the body among the members of the World Assembly;

WHEREAS it is also important to acknowledge national security among the members of the World Assembly and that freedom of the press cannot be used as a cover for espionage from one member nation against another;

The World Assembly:

ESTABLISHES the World Assembly Press Association (WAPA) for the accreditation and education of international reporters and for the streamlining of passport and visa applications for members of the international press;

ENCOURAGES members of all international press organizations of the World Assembly to join the WAPA;

ENCOURAGES all member nations to recognize the WAPA by permitting duly accredited members of the WAPA into their nations for the purpose of reporting to their home nations or for reporting to appropriate World Assembly agencies;

PROHIBITS any member nation from denying visas on the basis of their status as an international reporter alone if they are accredited by the WAPA;

REQUIRES free access of communication between members of the WAPA and their home nations and World Assembly agencies so that these reporters can carry out their functions;

ENCOURAGES all member nations to grant free and open access for the purpose of reporting to members of the WAPA with the exception of cases involving safety or national security issues;

ESTABLISHES the following committees within the WAPA:

ESTABLISHES the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) which shall monitor World Assembly member nations for various offenses against freedoms of the press, opinion and expression and to report on any discovered abuses to the WAPA for dissemination to all member nations;

ESTABLISHES the Committee for International Journalism Excellence (CIJE) which shall establish criteria for judging members of the WAPA and use that criteria as the basis for annual awards to the best reporters of the WAPA.

ACKNOWLEDGES that the rights of freedom of opinion, freedom of expression and freedom of the press are fundamental rights and that the World Assembly reserves the right to legislate on these rights in member World Assembly nations;

I've changed one of the committees and put in a provision that allows future regulation of free press internal to a WA nation should that be desired in the future. (So this resolution is not considered a "blocker" for free press in general.) Off the top of my head, a resolution for "free press" within the nation might be a full sized resolution in and of itself.

ACKNOWLEDGES that the rights of freedom of opinion, freedom of expression and freedom of the press are fundamental rights and that the World Assembly reserves the right to legislate on these rights in member World Assembly nations;
This is a tad confusingly phrased, and could be taken to mean the exact opposite of what you seem to intend. Also, can the WA actually pass legislation that REQUIRES something that an existing resolution merely ENCOURAGES? Assuming we can't (and I'd be very happy for a mod to tell me I'm wrong here), this resolution still blocks a hell of a lot of the category.

There are only two operative clauses in ten which will have any real effect on press freedom in this resolution and it creates commitees and bodies which will presumably decide policy on press freedom that would have been better decided within this resolution.

The authors of this resolution surely have there own cogent arguments and convincing vision of what shape a free press would take? If so why not make them clear? If not then why bother writting a resolution on this subject?

We fail to see any need for so prodigious a use of capital letters within it, or for that matter the liberal and nonsensical use of the phrase "Whereas" within this resolution ( though of course this has nothing to do with it's legality ) and feel that these can only serve to increase the number of pointless and inoperative sections and clauses and decrease the possibility of comprehension.

All in all it is the government of the emperor of Urgench's feeling that this resolution is in dire need of being revised. So much so in fact that it would need to be completely rewritten and reformulated before it would ever garner our vote or support. Our advice to it's authors is that such a resolution should clearly state a comprehensive position on what a free press is and then set about actually creating it. This resolution currently does neither of those things.

yours e.t.c.,