SOLO-International Press Release: Free Speech—Use It or Lose It!

June 10, 2009

Supporters of free speech should rally to their cause before it is lost altogether, says SOLO Principal Lindsay Perigo, in the wake of an increasing tendency among politicians in traditionally free-speech nations to proscribe it.

In Australia, visiting celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has just apologised for calling TV current affairs anchor Tracy Grimshaw a pig (while denying he had called her a lesbian). Ms. Grimshaw responded by calling Mr. Ramsay an arrogant narcissist. Airhead "celebrity-watcher" Perez Hilton weighed in from California accusing Mr. Ramsay of "sexist, homophobic remarks."

"So far, so funny," says Perigo. "All part of life's rough-and-tumble, signifying, in this instance, very little.

"What's ominous is that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd saw fit to put his oar in, calling Ramsay a new form of low-life, and the Deputy-Prime Minister also, saying Ramsay should return to his kitchen.

"What does it have to do with them? Were they expressing their views as private citizens (in which case who cares?) or as finger-wagging politicians with an itch to censor?

"Mr. Rudd was fresh from telling everyone associated with the satirical programme, The Chaser's War on Everything, that they should 'hang their heads in shame' over a skit sending up the Make-A-Wish Foundation's work for terminally-ill children. The premise of the skit was that if terminally-ill children have only a short time to live, it is not worth spending money on lavish gifts for them; one girl who wanted a trip to Disneyland was given a pencil case instead, another was given a stick instead of a meeting with Zac Efron. The programme has now been suspended for two weeks by the government-owned ABC.

"As one blogger observed, 'People are so precious and keen to be offended that all sense of humour is lost. You couldn't get a dingo joke going nowadays! Bad taste it may be, but it's hardly a national disgrace.'

"In Britain, now-disgraced former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has made a habit of banning 'hate-speakers' from entering that country. These have included Dutch MP Geerts Wilder, American talk-show host Michael Savage and anti-gay cleric Fred Phelps. This is the same Jacqui Smith who pushed Britain's infamous 42-day detention law through the House of Commons.

"Smith says she wants to keep those who 'spread extremism, hatred and violent messages,' heedless of any distinction between speech and action and contemptuous of Britain's venerable tradition of unbridled free speech.

"President Obama, who has renamed the War on Terror an 'Overseas Contingency Operation'; President Obama, whose Congressional supporters want a reimposition of the Fairness Doctrine; President Obama, whose policies have just been described as leading to 'America's descent into Marxism' by Russia's Pravda newspaper; President Obama, friend of William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright; this same President Obama saw fit to say this in his recent speech grovelling to Islam in Cairo: 'The Internet and television can bring knowledge and information, but also offensive sexuality and mindless violence.'

"What business of the President, sworn to uphold the Constitution and its First Amendment, is the content of the Internet, other than when it threatens the security of America and the individual liberty of Americans? Why does he mention it in a seminal international speech? Does Chavez-Obama have it in mind to follow China's example and require Internet Service Providers to block access to sites of which its rulers disapprove?

"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Worldwide the trend is away from free speech, usually in the name of not causing offence. It behoves those who still enjoy and value freedom of speech to use it lest they lose it," Perigo concludes.

Lindsay Perigo: editor@freeradical.co.nz

SOLO (Sense of Life Objectivists): SOLOPassion.com

ENDS

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