European Student Think Tank

Three tri­als relat­ing to issues of cor­rup­tion and abuse of office have been taken against cru­sad­ing Span­ish Judge Baltasar Gar­zon. The ver­dict of one trial, res­ul­ted in an eleven year dis­bar­ment order, with no recourse for appeal. Was it a case of the law being fairly applied or is it a polit­ical witch hunt against a man many view as a polit­ical nuisance?

Cen­sor­ship; it’s a rather ugly word and a dif­fi­cult concept but is it a neces­sary evil? Recent phone hack­ing con­tro­versy in the United King­dom has demon­strated the dangers of an unreg­u­lated media which is allowed to act illeg­ally with com­plete impun­ity and print whatever they wish, without need to verify facts. But where does reg­u­la­tion end and cen­sor­ship begin? Do we trust states to fairly reg­u­late media? Judging by the recent furore through­out Europe at Hungary’s repress­ive media law, the answer would appear to be no.

A typ­ic­ally over­looked con­sequence of the EU’s fall from global grace due to its fin­an­cial crisis is the debate it has pre­cip­it­ated at the highest polit­ical levels of East Africa. Since its most recent incep­tion in 1996, the East African Com­munity (EAC)-an envi­sioned polit­ical and fiscal union of Kenya, Tan­zania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi- has looked to the European Union as a role model for regional integ­ra­tion, the embod­i­ment of all it aspires to achieve. How­ever, with the recent Euro Zone crisis and polit­ical frac­tur­ing within the EU, dis­con­tent has begun to cir­cu­late amongst the East African coun­tries involved; should they heed the warn­ing of the European Union and aban­don their endeav­our before it’s too late?