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You are here: Home / Archives for Freedom of Expression

Venting anger against authorities online no crime, says SC

January 22, 2015 by Nasheman

facebook

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has yet again come to the rescue of common people who give vent to their anguish against official apathy on social networking sites as it said such adverse comments were not a crime under the law.

A Bench of Justices V. Gopala Gowda and R. Banumathi said the couple were well within their rights to air their grievances on a public forum like Facebook. “The page created by the traffic police on Facebook was a forum for the public to put forth their grievances. In our considered view, the appellants might have posted the comment online under the bona fide belief that it was within the permissible limits,” the 10-page judgment observed.

The couple’s car had hit an autorickshaw, resulting in injuries to a passenger. They paid due compensation to the injured person and took care of the hospital charges. But Ms. Jawa, who drove the car, was summoned to the Pulakeshi Nagar Traffic Police Station, Bengaluru city, where the police allegedly misbehaved with her.

The couple vented their anger on the police’s Facebook page. The police reacted by lodging a criminal complaint against the couple.

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Facebook, Freedom of Expression, Social Media, Supreme court

Noam Chomsky: Paris attacks show hypocrisy of west's outrage

January 21, 2015 by Nasheman

Philosopher Noam Chomsky is professor of the MIT Institute of Linguistics (Emeritus). (Photo: teleSUR/file)

Philosopher Noam Chomsky is professor of the MIT Institute of Linguistics (Emeritus). (Photo: teleSUR/file)

by Noam Chomsky

After the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo, which killed 12 people including the editor and four other cartoonists, and the murder of four Jews at a kosher supermarket shortly after, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared “a war against terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam, against everything that is aimed at breaking fraternity, freedom, solidarity.”

Millions of people demonstrated in condemnation of the atrocities, amplified by a chorus of horror under the banner “I am Charlie.” There were eloquent pronouncements of outrage, captured well by the head of Israel’s Labor Party and the main challenger for the upcoming elections, Isaac Herzog, who declared that “Terrorism is terrorism. There’s no two ways about it,” and that “All the nations that seek peace and freedom [face] an enormous challenge” from brutal violence.

The crimes also elicited a flood of commentary, inquiring into the roots of these shocking assaults in Islamic culture and exploring ways to counter the murderous wave of Islamic terrorism without sacrificing our values. The New York Times described the assault as a “clash of civilizations,” but was corrected by Times columnist Anand Giridharadas, who tweeted that it was “Not & never a war of civilizations or between them. But a war FOR civilization against groups on the other side of that line. #CharlieHebdo.”

The scene in Paris was described vividly in the New York Times by veteran Europe correspondent Steven Erlanger: “a day of sirens, helicopters in the air, frantic news bulletins; of police cordons and anxious crowds; of young children led away from schools to safety. It was a day, like the previous two, of blood and horror in and around Paris.”

Erlanger also quoted a surviving journalist who said that “Everything crashed. There was no way out. There was smoke everywhere. It was terrible. People were screaming. It was like a nightmare.” Another reported a “huge detonation, and everything went completely dark.” The scene, Erlanger reported, “was an increasingly familiar one of smashed glass, broken walls, twisted timbers, scorched paint and emotional devastation.”

These last quotes, however — as independent journalist David Peterson reminds us — are not from January 2015. Rather, they are from a report by Erlanger on April 24 1999, which received far less attention. Erlanger was reporting on the NATO “missile attack on Serbian state television headquarters” that “knocked Radio Television Serbia off the air,” killing 16 journalists.

“NATO and American officials defended the attack,” Erlanger reported, “as an effort to undermine the regime of President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia.” Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon told a briefing in Washington that “Serb TV is as much a part of Milosevic’s murder machine as his military is,” hence a legitimate target of attack.

There were no demonstrations or cries of outrage, no chants of “We are RTV,” no inquiries into the roots of the attack in Christian culture and history. On the contrary, the attack on the press was lauded. The highly regarded U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke, then envoy to Yugoslavia, described the successful attack on RTV as “an enormously important and, I think, positive development,” a sentiment echoed by others.

There are many other events that call for no inquiry into western culture and history — for example, the worst single terrorist atrocity in Europe in recent years, in July 2011, when Anders Breivik, a Christian ultra-Zionist extremist and Islamophobe, slaughtered 77 people, mostly teenagers.

Also ignored in the “war against terrorism” is the most extreme terrorist campaign of modern times — Barack Obama’s global assassination campaign targeting people suspected of perhaps intending to harm us some day, and any unfortunates who happen to be nearby. Other unfortunates are also not lacking, such as the 50 civilians reportedly killed in a U.S.-led bombing raid in Syria in December, which was barely reported.

One person was indeed punished in connection with the NATO attack on RTV — Dragoljub Milanović, the general manager of the station, who was sentenced by the European Court of Human Rights to 10 years in prison for failing to evacuate the building, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia considered the NATO attack, concluding that it was not a crime, and although civilian casualties were “unfortunately high, they do not appear to be clearly disproportionate.”

The comparison between these cases helps us understand the condemnation of the New York Times by civil rights lawyer Floyd Abrams, famous for his forceful defense of freedom of expression. “There are times for self-restraint,”Abrams wrote, “but in the immediate wake of the most threatening assault on journalism in living memory, [the Times editors] would have served the cause of free expression best by engaging in it” by publishing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons ridiculing Mohammed that elicited the assault.

Abrams is right in describing the Charlie Hebdo attack as “the most threatening assault on journalism in living memory.” The reason has to do with the concept “living memory,” a category carefully constructed to include Theircrimes against us while scrupulously excluding Our crimes against them — the latter not crimes but noble defense of the highest values, sometimes inadvertently flawed.

This is not the place to inquire into just what was being “defended” when RTV was attacked, but such an inquiry is quite informative (see my A New Generation Draws the Line).

There are many other illustrations of the interesting category “living memory.” One is provided by the Marine assault against Fallujah in November 2004, one of the worst crimes of the U.S.-UK invasion of Iraq.

The assault opened with occupation of Fallujah General Hospital, a major war crime quite apart from how it was carried out. The crime was reported prominently on the front page of the New York Times, accompanied with a photograph depicting how “Patients and hospital employees were rushed out of rooms by armed soldiers and ordered to sit or lie on the floor while troops tied their hands behind their backs.” The occupation of the hospital was considered meritorious and justified: it “shut down what officers said was a propaganda weapon for the militants: Fallujah General Hospital, with its stream of reports of civilian casualties.”

Evidently, this is no assault on free expression, and does not qualify for entry into “living memory.”

There are other questions. One would naturally ask how France upholds freedom of expression and the sacred principles of “fraternity, freedom, solidarity.” For example, is it through the Gayssot Law, repeatedly implemented, which effectively grants the state the right to determine Historical Truth and punish deviation from its edicts? By expelling miserable descendants of Holocaust survivors (Roma) to bitter persecution in Eastern Europe? By the deplorable treatment of North African immigrants in the banlieues of Paris where the Charlie Hebdo terrorists became jihadis? When the courageous journal Charlie Hebdo fired the cartoonist Siné on grounds that a comment of his was deemed to have anti-Semitic connotations? Many more questions quickly arise.

Anyone with eyes open will quickly notice other rather striking omissions. Thus, prominent among those who face an “enormous challenge” from brutal violence are Palestinians, once again during Israel’s vicious assault on Gaza in the summer of 2014, in which many journalists were murdered, sometimes in well-marked press cars, along with thousands of others, while the Israeli-run outdoor prison was again reduced to rubble on pretexts that collapse instantly on examination.

Also ignored was the assassination of three more journalists in Latin America in December, bringing the number for the year to 31. There have been more than a dozen journalists killed in Honduras alone since the military coup of 2009 that was effectively recognized by the U.S. (but few others), probably according post-coup Honduras the per capita championship for murder of journalists. But again, not an assault on freedom of press within living memory.

It is not difficult to elaborate. These few examples illustrate a very general principle that is observed with impressive dedication and consistency: The more we can blame some crimes on enemies, the greater the outrage; the greater our responsibility for crimes — and hence the more we can do to end them — the less the concern, tending to oblivion or even denial.

Contrary to the eloquent pronouncements, it is not the case that “Terrorism is terrorism. There’s no two ways about it.” There definitely are two ways about it: theirs versus ours. And not just terrorism.

Filed Under: Opinion Tagged With: Charlie Hebdo, France, Freedom of Expression, Noam Chomsky, Paris, West

Protect novelist Murugan's freedom of expression: Sahmat

January 17, 2015 by Nasheman

Perumal Murugan

New Delhi: The Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat) Saturday called upon the Tamil Nadu government to protect novelist Perumal Murugan’s constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression from extra-constitutional cultural censors.

Tamil novelist Murugan Jan 13 announced his decision to give up writing, saying there will be continuing controversy over his novels and short stories fanned by various outfits and individuals.

Thanking those who stood in his support in connection with the controversy surrounding his novel “Madhorubhagan”, he said the issue was not going to end with this.

“We call upon the state government of Tamil Nadu to protect the writer, his constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression and his creative integrity from such extra-constitutional cultural censors,” Sahmat said in a statement.

“We call upon artists, writers, intellectuals, readers and the concerned public at large to rise to the defence of democracy imperiled by this unwarranted and vile abrogation of an author’s right to write,” it said, adding that it was a “shocking and serious blow to the freedom of expression”.

According to Delhi-based Sahmat, Murugan was bullied, blackmailed and harassed by “anonymous vested religious elements led by the Hindutva right, in collusion with the police and the state administration of Tamil Nadu, into helpless submission – so much so that he has, in pain and frustration, announced that he is giving up writing altogether”.

It said “Madhorubagan” was published in 2010 in Tamil and an English translation was published in 2013 under the title “One Part Woman”.

“As if on cue to an orchestrated campaign initiated by the RSS and the BJP in the state, the work has, over the last few weeks, suddenly come under attack for allegedly being offensive to the local dominant caste of Tiruchengode (near Erode in Tamil Nadu), where the story is set,” it said.

Various organisations, caste outfits in Murugan’s home town Thiruchengodu, 410 km from Chennai, protested against the novel, whose story revolves around the problems faced by a childless peasant couple and the woman’s attempt to get pregnant following a tradition of consensual sex with a stranger.

(IANS)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Freedom of Expression, Madorubhagan, One Part Woman, Perumal Murugan, Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, Sahmat, Tamil Nadu

France arrests a comedian for his Facebook comments, showing the sham of the west’s “free speech” celebration

January 15, 2015 by Nasheman

Photo: Chesnot/Getty Images

Photo: Chesnot/Getty Images

by Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept

Forty-eight hours after hosting a massive march under the banner of free expression, France opened a criminal investigation of a controversial French comedian for a Facebook post he wrote about the Charlie Hebdo attack, and then this morning, arrested him for that post on charges of “defending terrorism.” The comedian, Dieudonné (above), previously sought elective office in France on what he called an “anti-Zionist” platform, has had his show banned by numerous government officials in cities throughout France, and has been criminally prosecuted several times before for expressing ideas banned in that country.

The apparently criminal viewpoint he posted on Facebook declared: “Tonight, as far as I’m concerned, I feel like Charlie Coulibaly.” Investigators concluded that this was intended to mock the “Je Suis Charlie” slogan and express support for the perpetrator of the Paris supermarket killings (whose last name was “Coulibaly”). Expressing that opinion is evidently a crime in the Republic of Liberté, which prides itself on a line of 20th Century intellectuals – from Sartre and Genet to Foucault and Derrida – whose hallmark was leaving no orthodoxy or convention unmolested, no matter how sacred.

Since that glorious “free speech” march, France has reportedly opened 54 criminal cases for “condoning terrorism.” AP reported this morning that “France ordered prosecutors around the country to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and glorifying terrorism.”

As pernicious as this arrest and related “crackdown” on some speech obviously is, it provides a critical value: namely, it underscores the utter scam that was this week’s celebration of free speech in the west. The day before the Charlie Hebdo attack, I coincidentally documented the multiple cases in the west – including in the U.S. – where Muslims have been prosecuted and even imprisoned for their political speech. Vanishingly few of this week’s bold free expression mavens have ever uttered a peep of protest about any of those cases – either before the Charlie Hebdo attack or since. That’s because “free speech,” in the hands of many westerners, actually means: it is vital that the ideas I like be protected, and the right to offend groups I dislike be cherished; anything else is fair game.

It is certainly true that many of Dieudonné’s views and statements are noxious, although he and his supporters insist that they are “satire” and all in good humor. In that regard, the controversy they provoke is similar to the now-much-beloved Charlie Hebdo cartoons (one French leftist insists the cartoonists were mocking rather than adopting racism and bigotry, but Olivier Cyran, a former writer at the magazine who resigned in 2001, wrote a powerful 2013 letter with ample documentation condemning Charlie Hebdo for descending in the post-9/11 era into full-scale, obsessive anti-Muslim bigotry).

Despite the obvious threat to free speech posed by this arrest, it is inconceivable that any mainstream western media figures would start tweeting “#JeSuisDieudonné” or would upload photographs of themselves performing his ugly Nazi-evoking arm gesture in “solidarity” with his free speech rights. That’s true even if he were murdered for his ideas rather than “merely” arrested and prosecuted for them. That’s because last week’s celebration of the Hebdo cartoonists (well beyond mourning their horrifically unjust murders) was at least as much about approval for their anti-Muslim messages as it was about the free speech rights that were invoked in their support – at least as much.

The vast bulk of the stirring “free speech” tributes over the last week have been little more than an attempt to protect and venerate speech that degrades disfavored groups while rendering off-limits speech that does the same to favored groups, all deceitfully masquerading as lofty principles of liberty. In response to my article containing anti-Jewish cartoons on Monday – which I posted to demonstrate the utter selectivity and inauthenticity of this newfound adoration of offensive speech – I was subjected to endless contortions justifying why anti-Muslim speech is perfectly great and noble while anti-Jewish speech is hideously offensive and evil (the most frequently invoked distinction – “Jews are a race/ethnicity while Muslims aren’t” – would come as a huge surprise to the world’s Asian, black, Latino and white Jews, as well as to those who identify as “Muslim” as part of their cultural identity even though they don’t pray five times a day). As always: it’s free speech if it involves ideas I like or attacks groups I dislike, but it’s something different when I’m the one who is offended.

Think about the “defending terrorism” criminal offense for which Dieudonné has been arrested. Should it really be a criminal offense – causing someone to be arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned – to say something along these lines: western countries like France have been bringing violence for so long to Muslims in their countries that I now believe it’s justifiable to bring violence to France as a means of making them stop? If you want “terrorism defenses” like that to be criminally prosecuted (as opposed to societally shunned), how about those who justify, cheer for and glorify the invasion and destruction of Iraq, with its “Shock and Awe” slogan signifying an intent to terrorize the civilian population into submission and its monstrous tactics in Fallujah? Or how about the psychotic calls from a Fox News host, when discussing Muslims radicals, to “kill them ALL.” Why is one view permissible and the other criminally barred – other than because the force of law is being used to control political discourse and one form of terrorism (violence in the Muslim world) is done by, rather than to, the west?

For those interested, my comprehensive argument against all “hate speech” laws and other attempts to exploit the law to police political discourse is here. That essay, notably, was written to denounce a proposal by a French minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, to force Twitter to work with the French government to delete tweets which officials like this minister (and future unknown ministers) deem “hateful.” France is about as legitimate a symbol of free expression as Charlie Hebdo, which fired one of its writers in 2009 for a single supposedly anti-Semitic sentence in the midst of publishing an orgy of anti-Muslim (not just anti-Islam) content. This week’s celebration of France – and the gaggle of tyrannical leaders who joined it – had little to do with free speech and much to do with suppressing ideas they dislike while venerating ideas they prefer.

Perhaps the most intellectually corrupted figure in this regard is, unsurprisingly, France’s most celebrated (and easily the world’s most overrated) public intellectual, the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy. He demands criminal suppression of anything smacking of anti-Jewish views (he called for Dieudonné’s shows to be banned (“I don’t understand why anyone even sees the need for debate”) and supported the 2009 firing of the Charlie Hebdo writer for a speech offense against Jews), while shamelessly parading around all last week as the Churchillian champion of free expression when it comes to anti-Muslim cartoons.

But that, inevitably, is precisely the goal, and the effect, of laws that criminalize certain ideas and those who support such laws: to codify a system where the views they like are sanctified and the groups to which they belong protected. The views and groups they most dislike – and only them – are fair game for oppression and degradation.

The arrest of this French comedian so soon after the epic Paris free speech march underscores this point more powerfully than anything I could have written about the selectivity and fraud of this week’s “free speech” parade. It also shows – yet again – why those who want to criminalize the ideas they most dislike are at least as dangerous and tyrannical as the ideas they target: at least.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Charlie Hebdo, Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, France, Freedom of Expression, Paris

Tamil writer Perumal Murugan announces himself 'dead' after being forced to withdraw novel

January 15, 2015 by Nasheman

One Part Woman, the English translation of Perumal Murugan's Madorubhagan, translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, Penguin Books. Photo Credit: Kalachavadu

One Part Woman, the English translation of Perumal Murugan’s Madorubhagan, translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, Penguin Books. Photo Credit: Kalachavadu

New Delhi: Tamil writer Perumal Murugan recently took to social media to announce his ‘death’. He said that the writer part of him has died and only the teacher in him will live on.

On his Facebook page the much loved author wrote:

Perumal Murugan, the writer is dead. He is not God, so he is not going to resurrect. He does not believe in reincarnation either.

Various organisations, caste outfits in his home town Thiruchengodu, around 410 km from here, protested against his novel ‘Madorubhagan’, whose story revolves around the problems faced by a childless peasant couple and the woman’s attempt to get pregnant following a tradition of consensual sex with a stranger. He was forced to withdraw the book and unconditionally apologise for it.

The author posted about his right to freedom of expression and said in the Facebook post that he now wants to withdraw all his previous books and compensate the publishers for their loss.

In his post he thanked his friends, students and publishers for standing by him so far. But, he has urged that he should not be invited to any literary event from now on.

Many imminent personalities have criticised the Tamil Nadu government for failing to protect the ‘Freedom of Expression’ of the author.

Murugan is a Tamil professor at the Government Arts College in Namakkal and written four novels, three collections of short stories and three anthologies of poetry.

(Agencies)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Freedom of Expression, Madorubhagan, One Part Woman, Perumal Murugan, Tamil Nadu

Noam Chomsky on Charlie Hebdo: We Are All – Fill in the Blank

January 12, 2015 by Nasheman

Terrorism is not terrorism when a much more severe terrorist attack is carried out by those who are Righteous by virtue of their power

On April 23, 1999, NATO air strikes blasted Serbian state television off the air, just hours after Belgrade offered a peace proposal to allow an "international presence" in war-torn Kosovo under U.N. auspices.

On April 23, 1999, NATO air strikes blasted Serbian state television off the air, just hours after Belgrade offered a peace proposal to allow an “international presence” in war-torn Kosovo under U.N. auspices.

by Noam Chomsky

The world reacted with horror to the murderous attack on the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo. In the New York Times, veteran Europe correspondent Steven Erlanger graphically described the immediate aftermath, what many call France’s 9/11, as “a day of sirens, helicopters in the air, frantic news bulletins; of police cordons and anxious crowds; of young children led away from schools to safety. It was a day, like the previous two, of blood and horror in and around Paris.” The enormous outcry worldwide was accompanied by reflection about the deeper roots of the atrocity. “Many Perceive a Clash of Civilizations,” a New York Times headline read.

The reaction of horror and revulsion about the crime is justified, as is the search for deeper roots, as long as we keep some principles firmly in mind. The reaction should be completely independent of what thinks about this journal and what it produces. The passionate and ubiquitous chants “I am Charlie,” and the like, should not be meant to indicate, even hint at, any association with the journal, at least in the context of defense of freedom of speech. Rather, they should express defense of the right of free expression whatever one thinks of the contents, even if they are regarded as hateful and depraved.

And the chants should also express condemnation for violence and terror. The head of Israel’s Labor Party and the main challenger for the upcoming elections in Israel, Isaac Herzog, is quite right when he says that “Terrorism is terrorism. There’s no two ways about it.” He is also right to say that “All the nations that seek peace and freedom [face] an enormous challenge” from murderous terrorism – putting aside his predictably selective interpretation of the challenge.

Erlanger vividly describes the scene of horror. He quotes one surviving journalist as saying that “Everything crashed. There was no way out. There was smoke everywhere. It was terrible. People were screaming. It was like a nightmare.” Another surviving journalist reported a “huge detonation, and everything went completely dark.” The scene, Erlanger reported, “was an increasingly familiar one of smashed glass, broken walls, twisted timbers, scorched paint and emotional devastation.” At least 10 people were reported at once to have died in the explosion, with 20 missing, “presumably buried in the rubble.”

These quotes, as the indefatigable David Peterson reminds us, are not, however, from January 2015. Rather, they are from a story of Erlanger’s on April 24 1999, which made it only to page 6 of the New York Times, not reaching the significance of the Charlie Hebdo attack. Erlanger was reporting on the NATO (meaning US) “missile attack on Serbian state television headquarters” that “knocked Radio Television Serbia off the air.”

There was an official justification. “NATO and American officials defended the attack,” Erlanger reports, “as an effort to undermine the regime of President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia.” Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon told a briefing in Washington that “Serb TV is as much a part of Milosevic’s murder machine as his military is,” hence a legitimate target of attack.

The Yugoslavian government said that “The entire nation is with our President, Slobodan Milosevic,” Erlanger reports, adding that “How the Government knows that with such precision was not clear.”

No such sardonic comments are in order when we read that France mourns the dead and the world is outraged by the atrocity. There need also be no inquiry into the deeper roots, no profound questions about who stands for civilization, and who for barbarism.

Isaac Herzog, then, is mistaken when he says that “Terrorism is terrorism. There’s no two ways about it.” There are quite definitely two ways about it: terrorism is not terrorism when a much more severe terrorist attack is carried out by those who are Righteous by virtue of their power. Similarly, there is no assault against freedom of speech when the Righteous destroy a TV channel supportive of a government that they are attacking.

By the same token, we can readily comprehend the comment in the New York Times of civil rights lawyer Floyd Abrams, noted for his forceful defense of freedom of expression, that the Charlie Hebdo attack is “the most threatening assault on journalism in living memory.” He is quite correct about “living memory,” which carefully assigns assaults on journalism and acts of terror to their proper categories: Theirs, which are horrendous; and Ours, which are virtuous and easily dismissed from living memory.

We might recall as well that this is only one of many assaults by the Righteous on free expression. To mention only one example that is easily erased from “living memory,” the assault on Fallujah by US forces in November 2004, one of the worst crimes of the invasion of Iraq, opened with occupation of Fallujah General Hospital. Military occupation of a hospital is, of course, a serious war crime in itself, even apart from the manner in which it was carried out, blandly reported in a front-page story in the New York Times, accompanied with a photograph depicting the crime. The story reported that “Patients and hospital employees were rushed out of rooms by armed soldiers and ordered to sit or lie on the floor while troops tied their hands behind their backs.” The crimes were reported as highly meritorious, and justified: “The offensive also shut down what officers said was a propaganda weapon for the militants: Fallujah General Hospital, with its stream of reports of civilian casualties.”

Evidently such a propaganda agency cannot be permitted to spew forth its vulgar obscenities.

Filed Under: Opinion Tagged With: Charlie Hebdo, France, Freedom of Expression, NATO, Paris

#JeSuisCharlieHebdo?

January 8, 2015 by Nasheman

charlie-hebdo

by Javier Arbona

I. It’s surprising to have to spell out these notions, but here goes…

One can condemn violence and at the same time sustain a critical stance against Charlie Hebdo.

One can condemn the “asymmetric warfare” of masked gunmen and also reject racism, tyranny, and hate.

One can denounce cold-blooded massacres while also unsubscribe from the horrible, orientalist titillation of Charlie Hebdo cartoons and the mental passivity of liberalism.

II. It is imperative, at this frightening intersection, to resist the coercive call to stand behind a vacuous, hypocritical, shallow slogan about “free speech.” The response to the horrible tragedy in Paris already seems to become folded into the same previous mode of thinking that enabled the magazine to exist and thrive. It is a mode in which there is no deliberation of better or worse ideas; just a liberal “freedom” excuse to embrace hate (albeit hate selectively applied, despite liberal disclaimers otherwise).

Western culture is arbitrary in its principles; it is arrogant, self-centered, and self-deluded about its respect and care for the weak and oppressed. A glance at statistics about drone strikes tells the story. Ebola tells the story. Palestine tells the story. The migrant labor building imperial stadia for futbol and Olympics tell the story. The fact that a hashtag like #BlackLivesMatter exists. The deportations of millions and deaths on the high seas…

This is a frightening moment — a moment charged with reactionary simplifications and reductions. These reductionisms serve a purpose. Among other things, the point is to ignore the very complex circulations through which the killers were likely trained, funded, armed, and recruited. If we explored these circulations, more than the usual suspects that might be rounded up in the coming hours or days would be implicated.

Instead, political doctrinaires murmur slogans about an ancient religious cause behind the killings. They equate vast social processes with merely “terror,” nothing more; and none of it has anything to do with the actual, mediatized and quite modern ways in which the operation came about. These dimensions must remain unthought and unimagined.

Who identifies with “#JeSuisCharlieHebdo,” and who does not? It is exactly at these points where one should resist and explore ideas more critically and openly and generously, but this is politically dangerous for the neoliberal parties.

III. The cartoonists and reporters killed earlier cannot speak now, obviously. The voicelessness of death never dies. It lives on in martyrdom. We thus create Western martyrs, ventriloquizing with their corpses. Sadly, the victims themselves are appropriated. The dead suddenly appear solemn. They are actually being used as blunt tools against dissenting thought and radical ideas. The morbid fascination with the dead falsely assures the living that life isn’t meaningless. But ironically, it has been Charlie Hebdo and many more who have been complicit with precisely such a cheapening of life. The response pathetically shows exactly how we live in such terrible times; in societies of alienation. I would post the images of the covers, but it is not worth it to continue giving them more views.

To work in collective and common ways against alienation requires critical thought and analysis. But huge forces exist to force closure, such as #JeSuisCharlieHebdo. The massive public spectacles in plazas are smoothly incorporated into these forces.

To make matters worse, our Western governments and corporations have operated in the spaces of totalitarianism: they’ve spied, bombed, tortured, and killed in (semi-)secrecy.

What can be said or done to counter the outpouring of craven solidarity with nothing but an abstract notion of “free speech”? This outpouring insults real people who have differences and needs, but seek to live together. It also closes down a discussion that builds on a true public knowledge, exposing all that is done in our names. #JeSuisCharlieHebdo is patently antithetical to collective and common life, alienating entire groups of people who never saw their lives represented in this rag. And it is therefore contradictory to abdicate power, as happens at these moments, to the states which have proven time and again to be incapable of facilitating this shared life.

Filed Under: Opinion Tagged With: Charlie Hebdo, Freedom of Expression

The Interview, Hollywood and the politics of ridicule

December 23, 2014 by Nasheman

Is it ever okay to depict the assassination of living person? KCNA/Reuters

Is it ever okay to depict the assassination of living person? KCNA/Reuters

by Patricia Phalen, The Conversation

Sony’s decision to cancel the Christmas Day release of its film The Interview is drawing harsh criticism from Hollywood’s elite. George Clooney is asking everyone to stand up against the cancellation. Judd Apatow is defending comedy’s history of attacking people who are “bad to other people.” Rob Lowe, Steve Carell, Jimmy Kimmel and many, many more celebrities have added their voices to the mix.

The Interview, which features Randall Park in the role of North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, follows an absurd (and supposedly comical) assassination plot that ends with Mr. Kim’s violent death (evidently, his head explodes). The filmmakers might argue this is “all in good fun,” but the people ridiculed in the film are clearly not amused.

The North Korea-linked cyber-terrorists who hacked into Sony’s computer network last month threatened violence against theaters that screened the film and any moviegoers who dared to attend. When theater owners began backing out of their commitments to show the film, Sony pulled The Interview from distribution. The situation was, effectively, a bomb scare called in to every theater in the U.S.

So far, public discussion has centered on the hackers’ success at using threats of violence to derail an American film. Particularly galling is the notion that cyber-terrorists can dictate the business decisions of an American company. Because the entertainment industry is involved, most see this as a direct attack on freedom of expression. The loudest and most pervasive analysis of this situation is that Sony negotiated with terrorists, Sony caved, and the terrorists won.

On one level, this argument is a fair characterization.

However, we could use this incident as a springboard for a different – and more complicated – discussion, one that goes beyond the “they won, we lost” binary and introduces important questions: does the American entertainment industry have an ethical responsibility when it comes to representing real people? If so, what are the parameters of this responsibility?

The 2006 British film Death of a President portrayed the fictional assassination of George W. Bush. Many commentators couldn’t quite articulate the problem with showing the violent death of a living person, but there was a shock factor in this film that went beyond simple bad taste.

2006’s Death of a President depicted a fictional assassination of President George W. Bush. imdb.com

The Interview’s filmmakers probably thought Kim Jung Un was a safe target, given the overwhelmingly (and justifiably) negative public opinion of his regime. If the hackers hadn’t been able to make credible threats, the film might have gone virtually unnoticed by many Americans. Nonetheless, a fictional assassination of a real political figure is ethically problematic.

While Hollywood’s claim to the right of “creative expression” rings true, perhaps this freedom isn’t (or should not be) absolute. I am not suggesting any kind of externally imposed rules limiting the content of films; only from within the ranks of filmmakers can any kind of normative guidelines evolve.

In the end, Sony will most likely find a way to distribute The Interview – and the controversy is sure to enhance its profitability as an “on demand” option or even a theatrical release.

But the question of ethics in the entertainment world will – and should – persist.

Patricia Phalen is an Associate Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.

The Conversation

Filed Under: Opinion Tagged With: Film, Freedom of Expression, Hollywood, Kim Jong Un, Media, Movie, North Korea, Press Freedom, The Interview

Karnataka: TV9 & NEWS9 taken off air, D K Shivakumar blamed

November 25, 2014 by Nasheman

D K Shivakumar. Photo: The Hindu

D K Shivakumar. Photo: The Hindu

Bengaluru: Two news channels in Karnataka have alleged that they were taken off air in Bengaluru for several hours on the state government’s orders.

TV9 and NEWS9 – both belonging to the TV9 group – allege that cable operators blacked them out on Monday night in Bengaluru and surrounding areas. After criticism and backlash, both are back on air.

TV9 has alleged that the operators acted on a directive from the state Energy Minister DK Shivakumar but the government has denied it.

“The action of the cable operators emanates from a meeting between them and Karnataka minister for Energy D K Shivakumar a few days ago, at which the minister ordered them to stop telecasting TV9 and NEWS9. He threatened them that the government will impose heavy penalties on them if they did not stop telecasting TV9 and News9. As a consequence, the cable operators’ association sent the following directive to its members on Monday,” a press release issued by the channel said.

The minister was accused of telling operators that the channels had been working against industry standards. The channel alleged that it was being punished for airing an investigation against Mr Shivakumar.

Former union minister and Congress leader Janardhan Poojary on Tuesday criticized D K Shivakumar for the alleged orders to ban the two news channels.

Addressing a press meet in Mangaluru, Poojary said, “D K Shivakumar is curbing the freedom of the press. Media is an important part of the democracy.”

“The Indian Constitution clearly states the freedom of the press in Article 19 (1) (A). D K Shivakumar needs to read it,” he added.

“While taking oath as minister you (DKS) promised to respect and abide by the Constitution. Now you have done a mistake. Every human being commits mistake, but greatness lies in accepting them. Even Mahatma Gandhi committed mistakes and accepted them, so did Indira Gandhi after the Emergency,” he said.

Addressing DKS further, he said, “If you admit your mistake, will anyone behead you? The chief minister is doing good work in the state, do not embarrass him and the party with such actions. The Congress party has given you power.

“If this issue is raised in the Parliament it will be a matter of shame to Sonia Gandhi,” he added.

“You (DKS) are trying to spoil the image of the party. Correct your mistakes, I am saying this as your well-wisher,” he said.

“The CM should intervene in this matter. Freedom of press keeps democracy alive. Do you want to murder democracy?” he questioned DKS.

Filed Under: India Tagged With: D K Shivakumar, Freedom of Expression, Janardhan Poojary, Karnataka, Media, NEWS9, TV9

Janwadi Lekhak Sangh condemns police raid on FORWARD Press

October 12, 2014 by Nasheman

New Delhi: The Janwadi Lekhak Sangh, the city based writer’s forum, the Forum for Freedom of Expression and other organisations came in support of the ‘Bahujan- Shraman’ issue of FORWARD Press, and condemned the police raids against it today.

On the evening of October 9, the special branch of the Delhi police had raided the office of FORWARD Press on the basis of a complaint made in the Vasant Kunj police station which claims that FORWARD Press had published objectionable material about the Hindu deity Durga, on the basis of which students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) were organising ‘Mahishasur Martyrdom Day’.

Terming the raid by Delhi police as a “matter of deep concern”, the forum said that the police took these actions without order of any court or competent authority and said it deserves outright condemnation.

The latest issue of FORWARD Press, an independent Delhi based anti-caste magazine is focussed on Bahujan-Shraman tradition. The issue carries articles that interpret the Puranic story of the killing of Mahishasur by Durga as a struggle between the Aryans and the non-Aryans. “This may have angered the Hindutvadis, who have been routinely indulging in vandalism in the name of hurting religious sentiments,” the forum claimed.

The October 2014 issue of FORWARD Press. Photo: FORWARD Press

The October 2014 issue of FORWARD Press. Photo: FORWARD Press

“The Janwadi Lekhak Sangh strongly condemns the action against the magazine without any proper court order and views it as a violation of the fundamental right of freedom of expression. We also condemn the violence indulged in by the ABVP activists during the observance of ‘Mahishasur Martyrdom Day’ at JNU.”

“The Delhi police action and the ABVP vandalism are closely interlinked and manifest the growing assertiveness of the reactionary, communal-fascist forces since the Modi government coming to power and the aid being extended to them by the government machinery,” alleged the Forum in its press address.

The Forum demanded that action should be taken against police officials who ordered and conducted the illegal raid on FORWARD Press. It also called for “action” against those who do not “believe in expression of dissent while sticking to democratic norms.”

“VHP leader Praveen Togadia’s recent statement that history books written by Romila Thapar and Bipin Chandra should be burnt is an example of such tendencies.”

Om Sudha, the Convenor of ‘Forum for Freedom of Expression’,  has asked the Home Ministry to immediately withdraw the FIR lodged against FORWARD Press.

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Caste, Dalits, Delhi, Delhi Police, Durga, Forum for Freedom of Expression, FORWARD Press, Freedom of Expression, Hinduism, Hindus, Janwadi Lekhak Sangh, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mahishasur, Mahishasura, Praveen Togadia

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