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  • Free speech: What if Terry Jones went to Sweden?

    Christian Science Monitor
    Oct 2 2010


    Free speech: What if Terry Jones went to Sweden?
    A look at the global state of free speech.


    By Mike Sacks, Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor / October 2, 2010

    Washington
    In America, we can paint a Hitler mustache on the president's likeness
    without fear of the government's wrath.

    But in Jordan, a poem critical of the king can get a writer jailed.
    Hatim al-Shuli, a university student, was arrested in late July 2010
    for penning a poem insulting the king and causing internal strife,
    actions proscribed under Jordan's penal code. Mr. Shuli denies writing
    the poem, but remains in detention awaiting trial.

    "[A]rrests for things like writing poems unfortunately are regular
    occurrences in Jordan," reports Human Rights Watch, a New York-based
    advocacy organization.

    Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights states
    that "[e]veryone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression."
    Today, decades after the UN's 1948 adoption of the declaration,
    Article 19 continues to be an ideal actively pursued in some countries
    and aggressively denied in others.

    For example, in Turkey, a constitutional republic, expression
    considered insulting to the nation itself is a criminal offense under
    a 2005 penal code. And writers and journalists have been prosecuted
    for recognizing the Armenian genocide of 1915-17 - an event the
    Turkish government officially denies.

    Many European countries, on the other hand, have criminalized the
    denial of crimes against humanity. This summer, Hungary became the
    latest to do so, passing a law imposing three years' imprisonment for
    those who deny Nazi and Communist genocides.

    In addition, much of Europe has also enacted hate speech laws that
    allow for prosecution of expression where the United States does not.
    Had Terry Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in
    Gainesville, Fla., taken his "International Burn a Koran Day" overseas
    and arrived in Stockholm wearing one of the "Islam Is of the Devil"
    T-shirts that his church sells, he could have been charged under
    Sweden's prohibition on expressing disrespect for a group based on
    their faith.

    In the Netherlands, ultranationalist politician Geert Wilders is
    currently on trial for illegally insulting Muslims and inciting hatred
    against Islamic immigrants. As grounds for the prosecution, the Dutch
    government has cited, among other statements, Mr. Wilders's comparing
    Islam to Nazism and producing a film that included a Danish
    newspaper's inflammatory cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in the
    opening and closing frames.

    While the First Amendment protects such expression in the US,
    Americans may still find themselves to be targets of violence for
    their speech. Molly Norris, a cartoonist for the Seattle Weekly, has
    taken the FBI's advice to change her name and move after her
    "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" cartoon last spring landed her on an
    Islamic cleric's hit list.

    Indeed, as Middle Eastern and European governments create free speech
    loopholes - for better or worse - justified by national security, or
    historical or civil rights concerns, some governments constitutionally
    committed to free speech have become too weak to protect their
    citizens from violent nonstate forces hostile to dissent.

    Two young journalists were gunned down Sept. 16 in a shopping mall
    parking lot in Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican city on the US border. There,
    powerful drug cartels at war with one another and the state have
    sought to co-opt the press and intimidate those who dare exercise
    their free speech rights to challenge the cartels' authority.

    "Unfortunately," says Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee
    to Protect Journalists, such shootings have become "typical" in
    Mexico. This year, 11 journalists have been murdered there.

    Accordingly, says Mr. Simon, "stories of huge importance as well as
    bread-and-butter crime reporting are simply not getting covered
    because it can get you killed."

    The recent shootings prompted El Diario, a local newspaper, to run a
    lengthy editorial repeatedly asking, "What do they want from us?"

    Meanwhile, Iceland is erecting a legal framework to protect from
    prosecution those who seek to expose governmental and corporate
    whistle-blowers.

    Already one of the countries most protective of free expression,
    Iceland wants to be the most protective. In June, its Parliament
    passed the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI), a proposal that
    promises to turn the small North Atlantic island into a "transparency
    haven" for whistle-blowers, journalists, and concerned citizens.

    The creators of the IMMI believe that in addition to inspiring other
    countries to follow suit, the initiative will also encourage media
    organizations and human rights activists to use Iceland as the
    operational hub for their Internet-based communications.

    The IMMI includes an "ultramodern" Freedom of Information Act inspired
    by the laws of Estonia and Britain; whistle-blower, libel tourism, and
    legal process protections inspired by US federal and state laws; and
    source protection laws inspired by those in Belgium.

    These measures may not save the Russian reporter from assassination,
    the Iranian protester from torture, or the Chinese blogger from
    imprisonment. However, the IMMI does aim to provide cutting-edge
    protections for "the wide range of media and human rights
    organizations that routinely face unjust sanction," notes the IMMI
    website.

    http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/1002/Free-speech-What-if-Terry-Jones-went-to-Sweden




    From: A. Papazian
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