The volume of complaint about human rights abuses from a country varies inversely with the actual level of abuse there.
Moynihan's claim is about what open societies permit to be reported, not about their conduct. Countries with functioning press and courts generate the documentation; closed ones generate silence.
In practice
- A country with functioning courts and press generates the documentation of its own abuses; a closed one generates silence.
- An organisation with a working whistleblowing channel has more recorded incidents than one without, and fewer actual ones.
- Standing
- A claim about what open societies permit to be reported, not about their conduct.
- Subject
- Law & Politics
- Essay
- What can be proved and measured about power