Staring into the abyss of special privileges
Take a vast chasm, a tightrope, pea-soup mists and swirling, vicious gusts of wind – then a person steps onto that rope, destination unseen. Such are the ingredients for the kind of ‘recipe for disaster’ if a country embarks on creating charter upon charter of special privileges for one or more interest groups – no [...]
Comment to the Press Freedom Commission on regulating the print media
The Press Freedom Commission “released a call for the SA public to voice its opinion about press freedom and the regulation of print media”. What follows is a submission made by the FSI Chairman (not a consensus statement by the FSI generally). To whom it may concern, SUBMISSION WITH REGARD TO PRESS FREEDOM AND [...]
Stop Secrecy Week
Anyone in Cape Town and surrounding areas is encouraged to attend any of these events – but particularly the march on Saturday, in protest of the POI Bill. Students Against Secrecy, a coalition of student organizations have put together a week of action to raise awareness about and activism against the Protection of Information Bill. [...]
Moralistic outrage chills free speech
The Kuli Roberts column, Bitch’s Brew, has been cancelled by Avusa and the Sunday World newspaper following the publication of a “racist” column which expressed various stereotypes related to a subsection of South Africans sometimes described as ‘coloureds’. But as offensive as the column might have been to some, is there ever a good reason [...]
Leo Igwe arrested (again)
Despite the stated commitment of Awka Ibom State Governor Goodswill Akpabio to rooting out the exploitation of children for the Pentecostal witch industry, people like Leo – who are allies in that cause – are frequently arrested and subjected to other rights violations.
South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms
The South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms should be of concern to all who are committed to South Africa’s Constitutional values, particularly those endorsing and defending freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech and burning holy books
What is missing in the protests against Terry Jones’s plans to burn a Quran, as well as Mohammed Vawda’s plan to burn a Bible, is why anyone else should care about your beliefs, or desist from offending those beliefs. We can agree that doing so is rude, offensive, insensitive and all the rest, but these [...]
Threats to a free media
Free speech is not the only value that democratic societies subscribe to. Nor does, or should, our commitment to free speech always have to trump competing values such as national security or personal dignity. But the principle of free speech nevertheless stands in need of exceptional, and exceptionally strong, counterarguments in cases where we are [...]
Thought police impede liberty
Difficult choices and their consequences are what we learn from, and removing choices can make children more difficult to protect – simply because part of what you are doing by limiting choice is turning adults into children, and thereby making your problem larger.
Pornography should be embraced as freedom of expression
Indeed, there may be parts of the spectrum of adult entertainment that we find offensive in their presentation of violent and sexist themes, just as these themes exist in some of our films, advertising, music videos and consumer products. But one cannot legislate for offence, or on one group’s definition of what is offensive – yet this seems to be exactly what fundamentalists wish us to do.
Recent Comments