Thursday, January 12, 2006

Free Speech is the most important thing in the World.

We in the Western World, often take free speech for granted. Think of how many times in the last week you have criticised the government, in China, that would merit jail time. China seems to be the bastion of censorship, they have successfully lobbied Microsoft and other Internet providers (I would mention them, but I can't think of them offhand-that's not just a stab at Microsoft-I think AOL also, but I can't be sure) to prevent people from blogging, or taking part in forums, in order to prevent them from possibly planning a revolution (that wasn't mere hyperbole, it probably is a realistic threat within China's communist government). Also, Wikipedia has now been banned in China, because it documents Taiwan's push for independence neutrally.
In Britain, Free Speech continues to be eroded away at a frightening pace since Blair took his third office.
Legislation after legislation is put before the commons which is effectively turning the UK into a police state. Notable examples are that it is now legal for police to arrest anyone they suspect of being involved in a crime, and hold them for up to 28 days before charging them with anything.
(so, feasibly, you could be wearing the same jacket as a suspected terrorist, and be locked up for up to 28 days.)
In the US, Free Speech is a joke of a concept. While technically it does exist, in practice it is a very different story. Unless a musician seriously re-edits their lyrics, their song will not be picked up by radio, seriously stifling it's ability to make an impact on anyone. Look at the difference in lyrics between D12's popular 'Purple Hills' compared to the original 'Purple Pills'. Also, American media outlets are all-to-quick to ban something. After 9/11, many radio stations banned a lot of songs which may not sit well within the climate at the time. Songs with lyrics about crashing planes were held back, which is understandable, but John Lennon's Imagine, a song whish should have been played multi-fold over the period was also banned.
It's important to remember how important it is to have free speech protected, without it, Blair would already be ultimate dictator... now he'll have to wait a few years first.

1 comment:

James said...

What my learned colleague kippski has failed to recognise is that Northern Ireland is a Third World country, just one that happens to be sandwiched between two big players in the E.U. (UK&RoI). Hence, these laws he speaks about wouldn't be tolerated in the Mainland, but until the politicians in N.I. (armed and otherwise) start to wise up, there should be no reason why third world laws exist in a third world country.