The Directors Guild of America agrees with President Barack Obama and the rest of the chorus criticizing Sony Pictures' decision to cancel the release of "The Interview" following terrorism threats.
DGA President Paris Barclay released a statement on the group's website Friday. He indicated that he would like to see "The Interview" receive some sort of distribution:
As the events of the past weeks have made painfully clear, we are now living in an age in which the Internet can enable a few remote cyber criminals to hold an entire industry hostage. This unprecedented situation demonstrates that even basic rights such as freedom of expression can quickly fall prey to those who would misuse and abuse the Internet to steal from, intimidate and terrorize our industry and our nation, and stands as an excruciating illustration of the heightened need for the federal government to increase its efforts to protect our society against cyber crimes, terrorism and all of its implications.
We hope that instead of the "chilling effect" on controversial content, this incident becomes a rallying point for all of us who care about freedom of expression to come together and champion this inalienable right. We stand by our director members Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and hope that a way can be found to distribute the film by some means, to demonstrate that our industry is not cowed by extremists of any type.
Earlier on Friday, Obama held a press conference in which he called Sony's decision a "mistake." Obama and Barclay's comments reflect similar sentiments from Judd Apatow and many others within the Hollywood community.
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