It's my opinion that they put statements in their as is found in paragraph 13 just in case they need to quote something later in the press. They won't point to the decades of rules. They will point to this WT quote and say "See? We encourage people to think for themselves, except in cases where the bible clearly condemns a certain course of conduct." (I have heard this line of reasoning so much it makes me ill to type it right now...)
This is a cover their @$$ quote. I find it ironic that the article sort of contradicts this statement throughout....