Obama calls Sony censorship wrong; labels Keystone a hyped project

WASHINGTON U.S. President Barack Obama rebuked Sony Corp. Friday for caving into North Koreas cyber attacks by cancelling the release of the satirical film The Interview.

I think they made a mistake, he said. We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the United States because if somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary that they dont like or news reports that they dont like or even worse, imagine if producers or distributors and others start engaging in self censorship.

Obama said he wished Sony had spoken to him before making the decision to cancel the movie.

I would have said to them do not get into a pattern in which you are intimidated by these kind of criminal attacks, he said.

Sonys decision, he said, is not what America is about.

Sony President Michael Lynton told CNN that Sony officials had been speaking with senior White House officials prior to cancelling the films Christmas Day release. However, he appeared muddled about whether Sony discussed withdrawing the film. He also said it was the movie theatres that cancelled the release and not Sony.

Obama made the comments Friday afternoon at his final news conference of the year before flying off to Hawaii for a family holiday.

He also addressed the issue of the Keystone XL pipeline, pouring cold water on what he called a hyped project of little benefit to Americans.

Obama confirmed the attack on Sonys computer system came from North Korea, adding that no other country was involved.

I think it says something interesting about North Korea that they decided to have the state mount an all-out attack on a movie studio because of a satirical movie, he said.

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Obama calls Sony censorship wrong; labels Keystone a hyped project