Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Free Speech Threatened in the "Free World":
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_04_12-2009_04_18.shtml#1239669380
In yesterday's Washington Post Orin's colleague [1]Jonathan Turley
wrote about the decline of freedom of expression throughout the West.
Ever since 2006, when Muslims worldwide rioted over newspaper
cartoons picturing the prophet Muhammad, Western countries, too,
have been prosecuting more individuals for criticizing religion.
The "Free World," it appears, may be losing faith in free speech.
Among the new blasphemers is legendary French actress Brigitte
Bardot, who was convicted last June of "inciting religious hatred"
for a letter she wrote in 2006 to then-Interior Minister Nicolas
Sarkozy, saying that Muslims were ruining France. It was her fourth
criminal citation for expressing intolerant views of Muslims and
homosexuals. Other Western countries, including Canada and Britain,
are also cracking down on religious critics.
Among other things, there are serious efforts to get the United
Nations to pass a "ban" on religious defamation, and many western
nations once protective of free speech have begun prosecuting the
expression of anti-religious and bigoted speech.
History has shown that once governments begin to police speech,
they find ever more of it to combat. Countries such as Canada,
England and France have prosecuted speakers and journalists for
criticizing homosexuals and other groups. It's the ultimate irony:
free speech curtailed for the sake of a pluralistic society. . . .
Not only does this trend threaten free speech, freedom of
association and a free press, it even undermines free exercise of
religion. Challenging the beliefs of other faiths can be part of
that exercise. Countries such as Saudi Arabia don't prosecute
blasphemers to protect the exercise of all religions but to protect
one religion.
Religious orthodoxy has always lived in tension with free speech.
Yet Western ideals are based on the premise that free speech
contains its own protection: Good speech ultimately prevails over
bad. There's no blasphemy among free nations, only orthodoxy and
those who seek to challenge it.
References
1.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/09/AR2009040903155.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
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