Tuesday, October 9, 2012

There Is No Way to "Balance" Free Speech and "Hate" Speech

Whenever and wherever you set up such a balancing act, the scales are tipped in the censors' favour. In Egypt, for example, a man has been sentenced to three years in prison because he "insulted" Islam on his facebook page. In handing down sentence, the Egyptian court sounded remarkably like one of Canada's many kangaroo "human rights" courts:
The court said freedom of belief doesn’t excuse contempt that may offend believers and “subject the regime and the country’s security to serious dangers.”
Well, isn't that always the excuse the censorious use to silence the spirited, uppity and rude--that they are trying to ward off the "dangers" that could ensure from free expression? In other words, they're only doing it for our own good (while, really, it's about the desire of a few to exert control over the many).

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