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Just a quick post before I get into more detail. It looks like the AAEC (of which I am a member) is calling for Apple to support free speech. You know, so you can get your satire-filled app approved BEFORE winning the Pulitzer and having Steve Jobs say Apple made a mistake. More detail soon, but in the meantime, there's this:
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A Call to Apple to Support Free Speech, from the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists
3899 North Front Street
Harrisburg, PA 17110
April 22, 2010
Mr. Steve Jobs
Apple
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
Dear Mr. Jobs:
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists would like to commend Apple for approving Mark Fiore's app, "NewsToons" (which incidentally became the top selling news app in less than 48 hours). Ironically, Apple rejected this very app as "objectionable" until Mr. Fiore received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize and considerable media attention. We hope other apps that focus on politics and satire do not have to wait for a Pulitzer Prize before they are approved by Apple.
The recent attention given to Apple's rejection of apps because they "ridicule public figures," and are therefore in violation of the iPhone developer agreement, has brought some very important free speech issues to light. Apple's policy forbidding ridicule of public figures effectively bans all political cartoons and satire from the iPhone and iPad.
While the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists realizes that Apple is a private sector company, Apple is also becoming one of the primary ways people publish news and information. With that innovation comes new responsibility.
A vigorous public discourse, opinion, satire and, yes, ridiculing public figures, are essential to journalism and our Democracy. Our nation would be a very different place if early technological innovators like Benjamin Franklin and those who followed him, forbade their presses from being used to ridicule public figures.
Instead of approving apps containing news and satire based on popularity, the quantity of public outcry, or the quality of award the work has received, there is a much simpler solution. The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists calls on Apple to immediately stop rejecting apps because they "ridicule public figures" and are deemed "objectionable." Now is the time for Apple to welcome a vibrant and diverse world of news and opinion with open arms.
We would be happy to meet with you to discuss this matter further and look forward to journalism and press freedom being an important part of Apple's continued innovation.
Sincerely,
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists
Do Something!
Comments
"Public Figures" have been
"Public Figures" have been subjected to ridicule and rightly so since Roman times. In particular, cartoons have played major roles in portraying graphically the failures and foibles of people in power both politically and economically. To profess heavenly support for one's business plan as "God's Work identifies the the current professor as , at the minimum, ego-centric. This was the plan that almost wrecked two of the world's larger banks. This type of behavior shouts out for ridicule and provides the talented Mr. Fiori with the ammunition to severely wound this avowed worker for "God"."Free Speech" will have been badly treated should Apple be the arbiter of the objection ability of this objectionable behavior
04/25/2010 Cjluther.
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