freedom of speech

Cory Doctorow, proponent of history's greatest free-speech machine, talks about artist’s rights—to get paid, to control copying, to have their work attributed and, most important, the right to free expression. Holding web-hosting platforms responsible for users’ copyright infringements, as some artists are calling for, would limit this freedom and hand complete control over to the big boys.

New PEN president Lisa Appignanesi urges the repeal of Britain’s antiquated law against blasphemous libel. “The government's current attempt, using the threat of prison, to determine what it is permissible to write or say, is misguided.” Might be a bit of a polite understatement.

“A Turkish prosecutor is considering whether to prosecute the Turkish publisher of Richard Dawkins' bestselling atheist polemic, The God Delusion, on the grounds that it incites religious hatred.” Can free speech ever prevail over religious…ah…doctrine?

Orhan Pamuk, the author and Nobel laureate, was prosecuted under the law for his comments on the mass killings of the Armenians. Numerous other writers, journalists and academics have also been prosecuted. EU concern over the law, which makes it a crime to insult Turkish identity or the country's institutions, prompted the change. Without the change, Turkey would have a hard time joining the EU.

My god, yet another journalist murdered for being brave enough to put words on paper, and what will the world do about it? Nothing, most likely. It happened last October, and we’re only just talking about it now.