Obama at year-end press conference: Sony ‘made a mistake’

President Barack Obama said Friday that Sony Pictures “made a mistake” by choosing not to release its controversial film “The Interview.”

The film, based on a plot to assassinate North Korean President Kim Jong-Un, was to be released on Christmas Day. But Sony cancelled the release after receiving threats from hackers warning of an attack against American moviegoers who went to see the film. Obama said the move by Sony sets a bad precedent.

“We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the United States,” Obama said speaking from the White House. “Because if somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they’ll start doing when they see a documentary that they don’t like or a new report that they don’t like.”

“Or even worse,” he continued, “imagine if producers and distributors and others start engaging in some censorship because they don’t want to offend the sensibilities of somebody whose sensibilities probably need to be offended.”

SEE ALSO: Christmas Day showings of the ‘The Interview’ cancelled by Sony amid threats

Besides making threats against American moviegoers, the hackers also released embarrassing e-mail conversations between Sony executives as well as films the company hadn’t released yet.

The president also said he was “sympathetic” to the concerns Sony faced and the “significant damage” to the company caused by the hackers. But he added: “I wish they had spoken to me first. I would’ve told them do not get into a pattern in which you’re intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks.”

Obama blamed North Korea for the cyber attack and said the United States will respond. However, he declined to elaborate on how and when that would happen.

“We will respond,” he said. “We will respond proportionally, and we will respond at a place and time that we choose.”

Obama made these remarks during his end-of-the-year press conference just hours before heading off to Hawaii with his family for a 17-day vacation. The latest cyber attacks from North Korea were just one of the topics he discussed during the one-hour press conference.

The president also touched on how he had promised that 2014 would be a year of action—and, indeed, it has been. He took executive action to raise the minimum wage for federal employees, he signed a historic deal with China to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and he took steps to reform as much of the immigration system as he could without the help of Congress.

SEE ALSO: Bitter divisions after Obama’s executive action on immigration

In addition, this year’s job growth was the strongest it has been since the 1990s and the nation’s uninsured rate is nearing the lowest level it has ever been.

Most recently, Obama took major steps to restore diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba. The president defended his decision to normalize relations with Cuba on Friday even as he noted that Cuba is “still a regime that oppresses its people.”

“I don’t anticipate overnight changes,” he said. “But what I know deep in my bones is if you’ve done the same thing for 50 years and nothing’s changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome. And this gives us an opportunity for a different outcome, because suddenly Cuba is open to the world in ways that it has not been before.”

As for next year, Obama said he hopes he’ll be able to work with the House and Senate, both of which will be controlled by Republicans, to pass bills related to issues like increasing American exports, simplifying the tax system and rebuilding infrastructure.

But he also said he’ll continue to keep taking executive actions when needed and delivered this message to members of Congress: “Pass bills and work with me to make sure I’m willing to sign those bills.”

SEE ALSO: The biggest winners of the renewed US-Cuba relations

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