PARIS, EARTH — Protests outside the Paris offices of the Federation News Service continued today, as protestors continue to demand the resignation of editor-in-chief Reza Kardgar and a formal apology from the news organization following their publication of Nikael Kalre’s open letter to the Federation.
Survivors of those killed in the Maquis Reborn’s campaign of terror were prominent fixtures today, making emotional speeches to the assembled masses.
“My father’s voice was silenced and now his killer not only gets to go free, but gets his propaganda printed in the FNS,” Sallia Moore, daughter of Chief Warrant Officer Jacob Moore, said, fighting back tears. “It’s not right and it’s a spit in the face to everything my father believed in.”
Not all reactions have been as emotional or explicitly negative, but the vast majority of public opinion puts the FNS’s decision to publish the letter in a negative light. Many have given tepid support to the principle under which it was published, that of free speech, but decry the publishing of a, some would say ‘one sided’, letter from an admitted terrorist to be ghoulish and in poor taste.
Noted FNS columnist Maronida Shiir wrote an accompanying editorial decrying the decision to publish the letter and its contents. This action has once again cemented her place as the darling of the Federation media in the face of this backlash against her employers.
“Nikael Kalre is a terrorist, a madman, who will go on killing with his merry band of thugs regardless of our own sympathies for him, regardless of how eloquent we find his letters of grief,” wrote Shiir in her scathing response. “What should have been a footnote in history at best, is now an article to be laid bare for the entire Federation to see. He has tricked us, manipulated us, into false sympathy so that we may second guess our resolve.”
In the weeks since the letter’s publication there has been no direct or explicit word from Reza Kardgar over the decision to publish the letter, considered to be a grave misstep by many.
“It’s absolutely unthinkable that he hasn’t grabbed a mic and made a speech of his own to at least defend his actions,” said Admiral Ashi T’Jiia on the FNS program Illuminating the City of Light earlier this week. “He’s got every tool available to him to make a statement and there’s been nothing, zip, zero. I wonder if that’s a sign he’s on the way out?”
Protestors have remained ardent in their commitment to protest outside the FNS headquarters until Reza Kardgar has resigned and a formal apology has been issued. FNS insiders state that the most likely successor to Mr. Kardgar, should he resign, would be Lara Senekal, former protégé of Maronida Shiir and noted correspondent.
Famous for her take no prisoner’s style of reporting, Ms. Senekal is noted for her verbose public opinions but for always getting her facts straight and getting the proper context. While certainly ideological and not without controversy, she has not been tainted by scandal but would continue a some would say, anti-authority, anti-power style of reporting that has dominated the FNS since the 2360s.
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