Seems like a good time to reflect on how lucky we are in the First World, that its not until we make incredibly inflammatory, racially-charged, super-offensive cartoons, ridiculing highly specific political artefacts in a way that treads on the maximal number of toes possible, before someone uses violence to try to stop us. You know, there are journalists out there in the world who have it much tougher than most of us in France and Australia. We send guys like Peter Greste to places like Egypt, and they get arrested for doing (lets say it) nothing wrong. Dudes like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden get effectively locked up after spilling state secrets – not to say either of those guys are innocent, but they certainly cant be blamed for being wary of the United States. Guys like Raif Bawadi, doing the right thing and bringing the discussion into the 21st century in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East in general, they get sentenced to be publicly flogged on trumped-up charges because they threaten the people in power. I dont even need to talk about North Korea, but, as much as people got upset about The Interview being cancelled (regardless of whether it was actually a funny movie — of course, reviews were mixed, but, even not having seen it for myself, I would guess that some of the people who claimed to like it were more chuffed to be politically avant-garde than actually challenged by the comic material), to do so does miss the point, which is that North Korea itself has effectively no journalism culture — dissension of any kind is completely quashed, and the only reporters are propagandists, something which makes browsing your least favourite subreddit seem like auditions for the Pulitzer. Sure, the occasional rapid religious extremist might seem like a great threat to free speech. But when you look at the challenges that our friend free speech faces worldwide, its incredible that its in such healthy condition here. And when you read the latest shit from the likes of Rupert Murdochs Twitter or his Daily Telegraph headlines, or watch a particularly exploitative segment on 7.30 or A Current Affair, you wonder if we even deserve it.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 15:02:34 +0000
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