Laws beyond borders

There has been a disturbing trend of late, and that trend is countries trying to extend their laws beyond their borders. So imagine how that will fly once it fully takes hold.

Imagine if you would saying something publicly in a place that it is perfectly legal to do so. Then hopping on a jet and fly to another country only to be arrested for what you said. It certainly could cause some problems in more ways than one. That is in fact what is going on.

It started off subtle with the laws only applying to citizens of their own country. The US started off with sex crime laws targeting pedophiles who would fly to other countries. Generally the public supported this as it is clearly a sickness. Seeking sex with children that have not reached puberty is wrong even by natures standards.

So from there the scope of the laws started to grow infringing more and more on people far away from their home country. Free speech was being attacked as well as a few other things. China is big on this and most recently Iran with Iranian protesters in other countries. But here is one of the first cases of extending those laws and restriction to non Iranian citizens. Journalists who’s job it is to cover stories from inside or outside a country depending on the political climate are being arrested for what they did beyond the border of Iran. Once the journalist sets foot back in Iran they are arrested.

However this is really nothing new for some Muslim countries. There have been death threats against authors of books in the past. However now the implementation of law is being used and no longer based simply on religious interpretations.

Thailand too has joined in on this with extending Lèse majesté laws beyond it’s borders to Thais as well as non Thais.

So as this trend continues it will eventually start to erode free speech in places like the USA, but political correctness is already well on the way of doing that anyway.

Unfortunately this trend will be difficult to stop. Countries have already seen it is possible, so whatever repression they have on people inside a country will now be far reaching across the entire face of the Earth.

Connecting the Dots sees this to be an on going story. Because of that we are adding a new Category with this post called “Laws Beyond Borders”. This makes it easy for you to keep track of what is going on. If you feel there is an event on this new topic that is news worthy, please send an email to richard@preapism.com and it will be considered.


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