Weighing in on the whole Anti-Islamic Cartoon situation that seems to be rocking the world these days. I just don't like the idea of publishers hiding behind "Freedom of Speech" as a way to publish clearly inflammatory work. From all accounts, newspapers gets thousands of submissions every day for publication, and it's the editor that decides what to print. Someone made a decision to print it. S/he thought they could sell some newspapers. That's what it comes down to. I don't believe they looked at them and thought "The fine Danes NEED to see this, it's their right!", because there are tons more things that the Danes need to know (like the racist undertones in their fair country).
For a great piece written on this check out Haroon Siddiqui's essay, or an even better letter on Al Jazeerah's site. Even "funnier" cartoons can be seen here.
In short, yes there are rights to freedom of speech, but with that comes responsibility to human decency and respect.
No comments:
Post a Comment