If you are a journalist, you are supposed to get a special 5-year visa before visiting the USA. I have no problem with that: it's what I do, and it's what I urge all my colleagues to do. However, a lot of journalists travel on tourist visas, and usually they have been able to get away with it. Following the increase in Homeland Security efforts, that is now a very bad idea -- and don't try it if you are French. Reporters Without Borders complains that six French journalists trying to attend the recent E3 games trade show "were treated like criminals -- subjected to several body searches, handcuffed, locked up and fingerprinted." They were held overnight in cells and deported. A bit of a shock if your big ambition was to play Half-Life 2. [Thanks to Slashdot for the link.]
* Steve Boxer's report on E3 is in today's Online, and here
