Kalistan

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Kalistani Government Officials join in a rare moment of agreement with Amudim
"Opinion papers can print what they like, but not lie," said Minister of Education
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
November 1, 5689


Minister of Education and Culture Simmons addresses History by The National on Radio Kaliburg

"We have to get the facts straight," said Her Imperial Majesty's Education Minister, Janet Simmons, while speaking on the Capitol Morning radio program on Radio Kaliburg this week. "Opinion papers, like The National, can print what they want, but they cannot lie." She was referencing the recent publication of a "A Brief History of House Ananto's 4th and 5th Dynasties, 5148 - 5689" by the pro-nationalist journal The National last month which contains what she calls "factual inaccuracies" regarding Kalistan's history running up to the Kundrati Crisis.

"I want to give the magazine the benefit of the doubt," said the Education Minister. "It's their first really long form piece, maybe the author was up late doing research, and maybe smoked a little too much while trying to hit a deadline. Whatever. But I do find it strange that I should be saying this: In one aspect the critique of the piece from the Sholemberg Chronicle is accurate. There are some glaring factual and historical details that are simply mis-stated and need to be corrected for the record."

The factual inaccuracies are primarily in the period detailing the lead up to the War in Kundrati, during the beginning of the reign of Empress Carolina I Ananto. "We see here that The National has reported that the so called "Hubris War" began in the late 5580, as a run up to the Nuking of Xsampa by Beiteynu. We find no evidence of the factual historicity of this. Of course Amudim used this inaccuracy to smear and dismiss the entire history. In fact, the primary catalyst for Kalistan's expansion into the Mad Dog was a disagreement around the organization known as the Three Point Federation and its control over the Migrants' Pass. It would appear that Lodamun had contracted for a naval base in Malivia, which upset the members of the 3PF, leading to a naval stand off between Lodamun and 3PF members in the Migrant Pass. The later events of the Red Bass War which led to a nuclear detonation in Metz-Leonid and the events surrounding Kundrati's decline into totalitarian fascism were tangentially, but mostly unrelated."

The Education Minister, in correcting the record, wanted to also ensure that the record on Amudim's part was corrected as well: "To be honest: it is true that they would never get a cent from a Kalistani Newspaper in a slander lawsuit, no matter how many judgements were rendered against it. The Press in Kalistan is free. They are free to print what they like, and the only laws we have limiting the freedom of the press are laws concerning factual inaccuracies. So The National, as long as it is not deliberately printing falsehoods, can add its slant if it wants. But while we're on the topic of lies, let's also be cautious not to print lies and half truths of our own. I'm looking at you, the so-called "journalists" of the Sholemberg Chronicle. We do in fact believe it to be factually accurate to place the blame for the missile attacks of August 10th and 11th, 5612 squarely on the shoulders of Beiteynese rocket scientists who helped Kundrati acquire, modify and deploy the missiles Kundrati launched from Likatonia that devastated our cities."

Education Secretary Simmons then took it to a personal level: "Princess of the Empire Mary Ananto-DeLaurentis was a baby when her family was forced to flee her home and move to Eveari while the Imperial Residence was deemed unsafe for human habitation from the contamination of those rockets. That stuff happened in living memory of tens or hundreds of thousands of Kalistanis. And Beiteynu, now Amudim has given us excuse after excuse for not admitting their role in that event, or the attempted discrediting of Kalistani allegations of death camps in Kundrati in its case for sanctions and war against Kundrati. Neither of those have been admitted, we have no expectation that they ever will be admitted, and so we ask the Yeudis in Sholemburg to perhaps take the plank out of their own eye, before pointing out a minor factual inaccuracy in our reporting."

The Education Minister added that The National might be immune to civil suits from other nations, but nonetheless must still comply with Kalistani laws. "We assume that The National, which is unnecessarily critical at times of Her Imperial Majesty's government and policy, nonetheless simply made a mistake in its reporting. We have contacted the editors and have asked them to correct the record in their online version of the story. They have one month to do so, and if they fail to comply, they will be subject to penalties under Kalistani Standing Statues, Title X, Section 1, subsection d, which states 'X.1.d The government's policy regarding regulation of media content- There are laws against the publication of false information; everything else may be published freely.' It's a simple fix, and doing so will bring their reporting, slanted or not, back into conformity with Kalistani laws."

As for the complaints by Amudim, The Education Minister said "I don't know what else to say about the rest of the article. 'Sorry'? I suppose that's more than the apology that Amudim has given us to date for killing more than 40,000 Kalistanis as we slept."

@TheRepublic