Readers’ letters: Treasure that does not exist

For about a week now the media freedom stands in the centre of international common talk. Is the disgusting, hairy-heeled trolling, unscrupulous abuse of other people’s culture really a part of free speech? Is it a retreat if the media practises moderation in such things and is this situation can be held at all if we do not want to live in constant danger of terror? Important questions, we can meditate on them or argue about them, as we have seen numerous examples to this in the past seven days.

The truth is only that, this, here and now in 2015, in Europe, is a hypocritical debate. Because it suggests, currently we are living in a 100% freedom and we would have to decide if we want to keep it this way? Nevertheless, the free speech that the careful would temper but others protect with firesword until the last drop of their blood, simply doesn’t exist.

In 13 EU member states law prohibits the denial of holocaust, in some states denying the sin of communism as well or “indicating with less significance”. In other words there are laws in about half of the EU that handles opinion itself a criminal offence, and prescribes what we must think of certain parts of our past. Not only unkind, improper or harsh to think otherwise, but we have to think about something in a prescribed way. If this is the only fact we take into account we can not talk about having free speech on the continent.

Since yesterday, Hungary even has a document about it. One of the articles of kuruc.info has been banned by the court, in other words they have obliged the hosting provider to make the article inaccessible. What kind of freedom could be protected in such countries that legalise censorship?

We already know about fate that it has a murderous sense of humour. It is only a few days after the Paris mass-demonstration but countless cases have surfaced already which clearly point out, such freedom that a million people have gathered on the streets for is far from being available for everyone. The fact, that something is not right was clear after the first few hours. Those who were unwilling to join the “Je suis Charlie” campaign were branded by the mainstream media as “wuss”, “pro-terrorist”, “insensitive”, “brutish” (and these are the most conservative adjectives). Those, who dared to oppose the mass immigration and find connection in between the cohabitation of foreign cultures and the terrorism, had to face the same kind of attitude. Those who were fighting for the free expression of opinion and against the discrimination, did not even realize, the words are squelched into many and they are pretty much discriminated from the normal common talk.
Personalised freedom

We did not have to wait for long, words were followed by actions. Comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala has been arrested in his home because he was making jokes about the Paris assassinations. Mocking the death of so many is indeed quite disgusting, but is it not the freedom for why the demonstration of a million people and politicians of the world walking hand in hand to allow us to have? Interesting, but it is not the first time the 47-year-old son of a Cameroon father and a Breton mother, faces the limitations of the non-existing unlimited free speech. For the initiation of the Minister of the Interior his performances were banned (again: pro-hi-bi-ted) in the entire country. Because, for the “wise” common opinion and the “completely independent” mainstream media those were anti-Semitic. Dieudonné has organised a protest against the decision of banning his performances. Naturally, the number of attended protesters were not a million. Not even the representatives of the free-speech-sensitive-media have expressed their support.

Le Monde, that made headlines of they are also “fully Charlie”, said such “personalised application of law” is a threat to constitutional state, although banning the “unacceptable sentences” of Dieudonné was still acceptable.

All the duplicities of this system is in this particular weasel little sentence. Freedom of speech is theoretically for everyone, but practically if your opinion is “unacceptable” we will decide whether you are also part of “everyone”. And the “completely free” media explains that why it is good when not everybody is free.

Free speech is not something to be protected in Europe but something to be created. And the enemies of this, are not the Muslim terrorists but often those who are in opposition with them and so vehemently protecting their “common treasure”, the freedom. The treasure, that actually does not exist.

by T.S.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters