Friday, January 19, 2007

Speak no evil


Teachers censored for speaking their mind.

A filmmaker assassinated.

A Russian journalist murdered.

And now, a Turkish-Armenian journalist has been shot dead.

These are but a few incidents in a world of increasing intolerance for freedom of speech and expression.

Their viewpoints may have been incendiary. Their words may have induced hatred among some. Even so, do we really want to live in a world where artists can’t speak their mind without the threat of violence?

Whether the Armenian slaughter was genocide or not, a man should be able to walk the streets of his country without being gunned down for his words.

Hrant Dink has become another martyr for freedom of speech. We don’t need anymore.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whether the Armenian slaughter was genocide or not

Is the pope catholic? Let's not be so politically correct that we not speak the horror.

melusina said...

Yea, well, the point was not to politicize this post. It is happening too frequently, in too many places all over the world, to be about any one single issue. I've spoken my mind on that before, and I did not feel like it had a place in this post.

Miss Kim said...

I just saw the piece on CNN about the Turkish journalist and it is a tragedy. There is a huge need for more outrage about this type of behaviour. When the artists of a country are silenced, it isn't long bfore the whole population is without a voice. I read somewhere this week that the world needs more artists in leading political positions, and I agree.

Miss Kim said...

I just saw the piece on CNN about the Turkish journalist and it is a tragedy. There is a huge need for more outrage about this type of behaviour. When the artists of a country are silenced, it isn't long bfore the whole population is without a voice. I read somewhere this week that the world needs more artists in leading political positions, and I agree.

Anonymous said...

While I do agree with your first example of censorship in the classroom because I don't think a school is a place for political discourses but for learning, I do agree that there is a lot more intolerance in the world. Why can't people just write letters to the editor instead of illing filmakers or journalists.
It's a shame really.