Paris: Days after

The Charle Hebdo Massacre with 12 journalist killed and score of wounded have brought many world leaders to march on Sunday January 11, 2015, with one and a half million people in a show of force against terrorism and to defend the freedom of Expression.
   I am attracted to this articles in Washington Post this Monday, here the excerpts:

The free-speech hypocrisy of some world leaders marching in Paris
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Despite the laudable show of unity, many observers couldn't help but bristle at the hypocritical presence of some world leaders. Although they were publicly lending their support to free speech at the rally in France, at home they often stifled that very same free speech. As Marc Lynch, a professor at George Washington University, put it:

Reporters without Borders (RWB), a nonprofit that supports free speech, said it was "outraged by the presence of officials from countries that restrict freedom of information."
In particular, RWB took issue with the presence of Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra, United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Gabonese President Ali Bongo.

Dozens of top dignitaries joined hundreds of thousands of people in the French capital Sunday to pay tribute to the victims of last week's attacks in Paris that killed 17 people. (Reuters)

These nations scored particularly low on RWB's annual press freedom index. Egypt is ranked 159th out of 180 countries in the index, Turkey 154th, Russia 148th, Algeria 121st, the United Arab Emirates 118th and Gabon 98th. Below are just a few of the criticisms leveled against the nations.

• Last year, an Egyptian court sentenced three Al Jazeera journalists to between seven and 10 years in jail on "terrorism" charges.
• Turkey, which was named the world's biggest jailor of journalists in 2012 and 2013, ended 2014 by detaining a number of journalists (including Ekrem Dumanli, editor in chief of Zaman, a leading newspaper with links to the moderate Islamic Gulen movement).
• In Russia, anti-corruption blogger and political activist Alexei Navalny has become a frequent target for the government, and the few remaining independent news outlets are struggling mightily to survive.
• While freedom of speech is enshrined in the Algerian constitution, between 1992 and 2011 the government declared a state of emergency that seriously curtailed the right. RWB noted that a number of journalists were arrested before last year's election.
• Groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have claimed that freedom of speech is severely restricted in the United Arab Emirates. Amnesty says that more than 100 peaceful activists and government critics have been detained there since 2011.
• Investigative journalist Jonas Moulenda has been forced to flee Gabon because of death threats.

There were even more guests deemed unsuitable. French newspaper Le Monde pointed to the presence of Hungary's Viktor Orban, the leader of a country that recently proposed taxing the Internet, and Naftali Bennett, Israel's economy minister, who was once quoted as saying, "I’ve killed many Arabs in my life, and there’s no problem with that." On Twitter, there was anger at reports that Saudi officials had attended the march, just days after Saudi Arabia flogged a blogger for blasphemy.
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I read somewhere that the White House was absent at the march, even though the President dropped by the French Embassy to sign the condolences book.
In Washington Post today, I read this:

"In Paris on Sunday, the United States really led from behind — so far behind that President Obama and other important U.S. officials stayed stateside as 40 other world leaders joined about 1.5 million Frenchmen in a stirring riposte to terrorism and anti-Semitism. Even Vice President Biden stayed home. He remained in Delaware where, possibly, he stood at attention in front of the TV. It was, I’m sure, a moving moment.

The Obama administration has not yet explained why no high-ranking American official could hop on a Paris flight — although it did concede Monday that it had erred. Leaders came from Germany, Britain, Israel and even Palestine. The United States, however, was represented by its ambassador, the newly arrived Jane Hartley. With the possible exception of her staff, no one in France would recognize her. Shouts of “ Vive la Hartley ” were not heard."  ....