Tag: freedom of speech

Freedom of Speech, really?

Solid argument in Huffpost from Geoffery R Stone (A distinguished professor of Law at University of Chicago) that even if what you say in public is inflammatory and incite violent reaction, you cannot be blamed for it because of this idea called ‘freedom of expression’ (according to the first amendment of the US Constitution).

I wouldn’t go into much detail describing the hypocrisy reflected by such laws and other statements made by Sec. Clinton and government officials especially when you compare it with the all the fuss same media pundits created over nude photos of a princess of Royal family. But it’s just that when you seriously threaten, prosecute and force to shut down some publisher for pushing what you consider indecent, why so dud and lifeless on what 1.6 Billion people and one of the largest religious communities on globe considers, not only indecent but also severely punishable. What I want to discuss is the hypocritical posture of EU & the West on such issues, sensitive to Muslims; Blasphemy being on the top.

Freedom of Expression you say? Let’s be objective now!

1.   In the Parliament of EU a resolution was adopted in last decade which enforces punishment by Law, against anyone propagating racist and/or prejudiced speech. The target of the Resolution was holocaust denial. As a pretext (and in some countries the aftermath) of this resolution was the adoption of holocaust denial laws. Such Laws are present in Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Czech Republic, and many more European countries. So today, in majority of eastern European countries and some West European countries too, you can be sentenced to prison for up to 15 years or fined a hefty amount or both on merely your words denying or diminishing the severity of Holocaust in your speech or writings. From 1999 to present, dozens of people have been sentenced prison or fined. Dr. Robert Faurisson PhD. a professor of French Literature at University of Lyons France was dismissed from his post, fined 7500 Euros criticized & discredited worldwide by mainstream media for his articles published in Journal of Historical Review. In these articles he denied (with evidence) the existence of Hitler’s famous “Gas chambers” and some other facts related to holocaust. This was one of the most important cases of Holocaust denial. Apart from this, there were dozens of cases where such ‘blasphemous’ people were thrown in to jail for up to 5 years.

2.  Acknowledging the fact that US and UK do not have Holocaust denial laws because of same Freedom of speech, this entity is still not absolute. The prominent exception where such freedom is exempted is SLANDER. So it’s ridiculous that a community which protects its politicians and celebrities from slandering cannot comprehend the same idea for a personality Muslims hold more beloved than their life by faith. It’s still a big question mark on the standards of the so called developed world the majority of which has laws protecting citizens and inhabitants from hateful speech to stop them from developing inflammatory reaction and keeping peace. Nevertheless, it is the same west, which allows mudslinging on the most-beloved and most-respected personality in the history of the world realizing all these facts and labels the agitated as Intolerant, Retrogressive, Dark Age-ions. I don’t want to impose labels but such an absurd mentality can only be expected from an extremely bigoted state of mind. But again, maybe it is a matter of hidden prejudice especially if history (of dark ages) is accounted for.

I have an impression which is based on reality that probably, world peace is no longer important for the West.

Freedom and (ir)responsibility


 Newspapers that maintain a left-of-centre policy in Pakistan claim to be unbiased and independent on facts and reporting. However, they are often subjected to ruthless criticism by the rightist journalists and bloggers for misleading the facts and total biased reporting of events.

Maintaining a left-of-centre or rightist policy is the legal choice of the institution and its investors and news institutions have been doing so since past many decades. There have always been debates between the rightists and the leftists on academic issues and both the sides have published their arguments, leaving it to the readers to decide.

However, in the past couple of years and with the birth of several private media institutions in Pakistan, the standard and quality of journalism has dropped drastically. With shortage of professional and seasoned journalists in Pakistan, several media organizations have hired fresh graduates and MBAs for their editorial teams and without proper ethical training and guidance, they have been granted freedom to operate in the online editions of these newspapers and TV channels.

To add credibility to my argument, recently an English newspaper published a amateur blog, NOT an article from a seasoned journalist, on their website, which was well in accordance with their editorial policy. There is no point in arguing whether such amateur criticism should be published or not, but what happened next is more disturbing and reflects the state of our media industry professionals. The Tweet below, by the web-editor of the newspaper says it all!

Yes, thats what I am talking about. A journalist, who is assumed to be a responsible person (probably) is writing the wonderful remarks “Cmon, say it w me now… Fuck the JI,” as well as inviting his followers on Twitter to do the same. This comment is neither “centre-of-left” nor “rightist”, its just an unethical, immoral comment from a person, whose public tweets to promote the traffic on website are going unchecked.

There is no doubt that even the basic dynamics of journalism are changing and the story now initiates from tweeting and citizen journalism as argued by Paul Bradshaw, however, I couldn’t find any latest research on the fact that improper and unethical language can be used to propagate an ideology and attract visitors to the website, or in legacy terms increase circulation. Perhaps, its an old idea rejected by the educationists, so they don’t publish it on the internet anymore! I find no difference between the “Urdu Eveningers”, who publish Masala stories, sell sex and end up in increased circulation, and the more sophisticated “English Eveningers” who use almost the same techniques to increase their ranking on Alexa and increase the no. of tweets and shares on Facebook!

Having said that, let me re-iterate what I have been promoting since the past many years in the journalist community, that there is a dire need for a body that monitors the online editions of newspapers and TV channels for unethical and derogatory content. There is nothing as absolute freedom of speech. Because, with absolute freedom, comes mere irresponsibility! Thats what has been proven so far.