Freedom of expression, freedom of the press, fiction, poetry

[Eric]

I suppose it's pointless asking people here on the WLF whether they feel that there is freedom of expression in their particular country. Because if there is a reasonable amount of freedom of expression, they will probably not have thought about the whole issue. But if there is censorship and government pressure not to discuss certain things, they won't dare to be the first to start writing on an open forum about any problems encountered.

But it's not only the newspapers and online media that are affected, but also fiction and poetry. In many countries of the world you can still be threatened with imprisonment for writing things even in novels that the authorities don't want discussed publicly. So when you look at people such as Havel, Solzhenitsyn, Ngugi, Kross, and other writers who tackled national and political problems head on, or via allusion, you have to understand that they were brave. Anyone in Britain can write a novel making fun of Blair, Cameron, the Queen, Parliament, any religion they like, the Greens, the ultra-right, etc., without fear that the police will come knocking on their door to arrest them and send them to a labour camp, or simply have them shot in a back alley. That is the same, mutatis mutandis, for most countries of Europe, with the glaring exception of Belarus.

So, I'm still going to ask the question I wasn't going to: do you have full or reasonable freedom of expression in your country? And I'm thinking especially of novels, short-stories, poetry, essays, not necessarily the daily and weekly press.

[Amoxcalli]

I was quite surprised by the fact that footballer John Terry is being tried at a criminal court for racist remarks. I don't think such a thing would be possible in the Netherlands, where, as far as I'm aware, racism isn't illegal (discrimination is, obviously). I'm not quite sure where to place this on the line of freedom of speech vs. public order. Instinctively, I would say the Dutch system is to be preferred, but I can't really back it up with anything.

It reminds me of a case in the 50s, when Willem Frederik Hendriks was tried for a passage in a novel in which the main character grossly offended Catholics. They let him go on the grounds that it was not W.F. Hendriks, but the main character who offended the Catholics. I don't find it an altogether satisfying result.

For more serious freedom of speech issues, I will be moving to Egypt in the coming academic year, so I'll get to see some oppression first hand.

[Heteronym]

I consider Portugal a country with freedom of expression, yes.

What I fear, however, is that in the EU and the USA, the impact of freedom of expression has been squashed by an ubiquitous media run by private interests. Being free to say whatever you want is not very useful when the news are in the hands of economic groups that decide what the masses hear and see, and that create public opinion by selecting which pundits have air time. Here in Portugal we're going through our austerity measures and all disenting voices are squashed not by violent repression but simply by not being invited to talk on TV. Every time new legislation is passed that ruins our rights, the channels invite a couple of right-wing economists or deputies, or a businessman, who'll of course say there's no alternative to austerity and that there's no point going on strike or protesting or fighting for your rights. Meanwhile the unions, the workers, the poor, the other parties barely have a voice.

So yes there's freedom of expression: you can write something intelligent on a blog but no one will read it. Meanwhile someone will lie during prime time and a handful of people will believe him.

[Eric]

Chinese people who like the internet are playing a cat and mouse game with the authorities:

http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/a...32_651865.html

But do you realise that millions of Britons and Americans are performing acts of self-censorship? Because they've never learnt any foreign languages, they cannot read this article about getting round censorship in China, which is written in French. So the Chinese authorities hardly need to worry about masses of people from the USA and the UK reading the article.