However, freedom of speech and expression, though characteristic and imperative in a self-professed democracy, is not unfettered.
And will its professed conversion to democracy only cover the old passions for a militant Islamic state in Lebanon?
In the same spirit, critics are waiting for the AU to uphold its own professed principles on democracy and human rights in countries like Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.
Members were picked from groups considered to be pro-American, or at least pragmatic, and for their professed commitment to democracy.
Eventually, Sinn Féin was permitted to establish a branch in the United States, Friends of Sinn Féin, and to raise money there on the basis of its professed commitment to democracy and nonviolence.
Second, few analysts believe the Taliban would submit to the government's writ in areas under their control given their professed opposition to democracy and the Pakistani constitution.
If Mr. Snowden's security breach was truly motivated by his professed concern for democracy and constitutional rights, the government should not pursue him with tools meant for spies and traitors.
They are a first step in the king's professed plan to restore democracy, to be followed by national elections next year.
But he made his case by focusing on what he said were American misunderstandings of the region, arguing that Westerners undermined their professed support for Arab democracy with their hostility toward the role of Islamic law in many Arab states.
Similar opinions can also be heard these days from wealthy Arab businessmen, university professors, senior government officials and Western-leaning political analysts -- the people whose support could help advance the Bush administration's professed mission: to bring democracy to the Arab world.
JOHANNESBURG — President Robert Mugabe's enforcers had already begun to rampage across Zimbabwe, beating his political opponents, when television cameras captured a startling image of Mr. Mugabe holding hands with the smiling South African president, Thabo Mbeki, a professed champion of African democracy.
