IPI's 2004 World Press Freedom Review

""Singapore has become as rich as it is because it has a strong rule of law," Backman argues. "The rule of law requires that laws be written down, that they are precise and that they are gazetted." Such vague guidelines on what can and cannot be discussed contradicts this commitment."

It was once argued to me that having OB markers are good because they allow for flexibility. Ignoring the question of whether we need OB markers in the first place, I suppose then that abolishing all our laws is also good because that too allows flexibility. We know that the wise ones will make the right decisions in the end, after all.

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"Participating States will respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion." - Extract from the Helsinki Agreement, 1975, signed by the USSR

"In conformity with the interests of the working people, and in order to
strengthen the socialist system, the citizens of the U.S.S.R. are guaranteed
a) freedom of speech;
b) freedom of the press;
c) freedom of assembly, including the holding of mass meetings;
d) freedom of street processions and demonstrations.
These civil rights are ensured by placing at the disposal of the working
people and their organizations printing presses, stocks of paper,
public buildings, the streets, communications facilities and other material
requisites for the exercise of these rights." - Article 125 of the 1964 Constitution of the USSR

Rhetoric is all well and good, but if nothing changes except allowing a bastardised form of bartop-dancing, it's not worth the paper it's written on.