Free Speech or Racial Hatred?

This may be old news but I've just stumbled across it........................................



Authors of emails containing racist material are facing criminal charges in Europe.

Quote:

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"This proposal could potentially outlaw free speech," said Malcolm Hutty, general director for Campaign Against Censorship on the Internet in Britain, or CACIB. "That would be a great infringement of civil rights."

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It raises a few questions...


1. When do we draw the line on being told what we can and can't email....

2. What is considered racist? If someone sends a few Irish (sorry Ennis) jokes to a friend is that considered racist material?


3. How will it be policed?




Anyway, you can read the full story here.........

That's pathetic. It goes to show you that the bledding hearts everywhere are uniting against common sense.

I don't think a personal email should be watched for this sort of thing.

Here's my problem: With all this privacy crap going on, it pisses me off that I'm gonna have to teach a bunch of people how to use PGP. It's a damn shame.

Too much censorship already. good post

With freedom comes censorship, its inevitable... But this is going too far! They already censor TV, the internet, and other forms of media.... Its too much, there gonna start to use Carnivore/DCS1000 to censor email, its pathetic :mad:

Freedom always has a price, it comes with alot of things.. death, war, controversy, etc..
I agree that this is going over the line. Good post conf1rm3d_k1ll..

Remote_Access_

guess that means if your not expressing the popular opinion, you go to 'rehabilitation'.

this is all getting too real. maybe its time to memorize a book.

There is no freedom of speech in Europe and especially not in Holland.
A candidate for the next elections indicated that he wanted to change the law so people wil have freedom of speech. You can't say things like Holland is full/crowded or the islam is retarded or they wil drage your ass in court and even win the case.
We don't have freedom of speech as a result ot WW II.
people are affraid of Nationalists.
Let the people say what's on their mind why make it taboo?

There's always two sides to things ...

Back when I lived in the US, there was one man's freedom to carry a gun, but where did my freedom to live end ....

When you heard stories about people getting shot on the DC beltway because they honked at someone ... that was scary ....

The question is where does one person's freedom end and the other person's freedom start.

Cheers,

BrainStop

Focmaester, there IS freedom of speech in Europe (more than there will ever be in the States...). There's only one taboo: ignorant xenophobia... (and The King in some countries).

And nationalism and racism are two completely different things... If you'd sue every nationalist, you'd have to sue every American ;)

This discussion is not about 'free speech on the internet', it's about free speech period. Racist talk is not allowed in some European countries, and therefor it's not allowed in those countries emails...

BTW: the mails mentioned in the article are not just some 'personal emails'... They were mass-mailed (got a few examples if someone's interested), and they weren't just some racist mails... We're talking big-time xenophobia here.

Here's an interesting transcript of an (American) hate-speech symposium... it's not just a European problem, as you can see...

And here's a quote from The Speech that kills :

Quote:

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Article l9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights says that `everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference' and `everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression', though this is subject to restrictions necessary `for respect of the rights or reputations of others' or `for the protection of public order, or of public health or morals'. But Article 20 of the same Covenant states that `any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence must be prohibited'.

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i dunno.. all i can say is that its all about having common sense really.. and being sensitive to others.. i mean, two friends of mine got in a fight in the train station coz normally when they meet somewhere they normally greet eachother like "hey sup nigga?!" and da otha goes.. "nuffin much white boy" and its all cool to both of them.. but the people in the train station got offended by it.. and started a fight with them...