The title of Exporting the Matrix alludes not to actor Keanu Reeves, but to Justice Benjamin Cardozo, who called free speech the matrix and indispensable condition of all freedom. This new book more accurately described by its subtitle, The Campaign to Reform Media Laws Abroad belongs in the small but growing “law stories” genre that aims to capture the drama of law for the general reader. Media law exports come in two main packages a free press, and freedom of information and both are usually marked “Return to Sender.” Advocates must settle for small victories, and savor the small adventures along the way.
Daniel Byron of Indianapolis’ Bingham Greenebaum Doll became a volunteer at age 70 with the International Senior Lawyers Project, the nonprofit group that organized this collection. Byron hopped on a plane to northern Nigeria, where he fearlessly stared down a whole tilapia (with eyes intact) at nearly every meal. Staring down the government of Gambia was a far less savory challenge. The leading Gambian editor, Musa Saidykhan, was allegedly tortured by the state after he published the names of opposition figures who were arrested after a failed coup in 2006. The next year, Byron helped Saidykhan sue Gambia in West Africa’s human rights forum, the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice. Saidykhan finally won this year, but Gambia refused to pay its fine. Byron nonetheless believes that Saidykhan’s case was effective in pressuring Gambia to “ ’go easy on [its] thuggish tactics,” because Gambia President Yahya Jammeh hates being painted as a thug.
