• Wired , Wednesday, May 2, 2007 10:30 AM

Taking a cue from China's book, the U.S. Army has disallowed soldiers from posting anything from a blog entry to a resume to a personal email without first clearing the content with a supervising officer. Failure to comply could result in a court-martial, or "administrative, disciplinary, contractual, or criminal action." Hmmm, free speech, anybody?

The April 19th directive marks the sharpest restriction on troops online activities since the start of the Iraq war. The official stance is that these postings could contain sensitive information. But the initiative could mean the end of blogging for soldiers. Aside from the outrage this will undoubtedly draw from many citizens, an interesting debate emerges. To what extent is the U.S. Army an employer? Many a worker has been dismissed from his or her job for blogging negatively about their employer, and when your employer is in charge of national safety, perhaps the consequences should be severe.

That said, none of these people were ever threatened with jail-time. You could also argue that these brave men and women are serving their country, so if anyone should be afforded the right to share their experience, it would be then. Plus, there's the right of the public to read and digest the free speech of others, particularly when it involves sons and daughters, and, well, tax money.

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