Announcement to Readers Regarding Free Speech; A Call to Fellow Bloggers

As of Friday, January 23, I instituted a policy regarding free speech issues. Any time I find a report of someone being jailed or prosecuted for using the right of political free speech, I will reserve the right to print the offending material or to link to it. I will in fact seek to do so. I am hoping that other bloggers will follow my example. My logic is as follows.

If "offensive speech" is disseminated more widely in response to attacks and threats, it will serve as a powerful disincentive to silence dissent. I do not object to rebuttal articles and videos. To the contrary, this response to that which gives offense contributes to the robustness of free speech.

I make a distinction between pornography and political discussion. It is interesting that the tolerance for pornography has increased as of late while political discourse has been riddled with taboos. This is itself a topic for discussion.

More troubling to me is the issue of holocaust denial and spreading disinformation about an ethnic group to create hatred. I have come to the carefully deliberated opinion that the cure for disinformation is information. People like David Irving who deny the holocaust should in my opinion be swarmed in cyberspace with information and thereby shamed into silence. It is neither possible nor effective to silence such individuals.

Most disturbing to me is speech which is direct incitement. In Rwanda in 1994, radio announcers used to directly coordinate the genocide of the Tutsi tribe with on air logistical support and information to extermination squads. They interspersed this with open incitement. The only free speech such chromosomal humans have is the last words they utter in front of a firing squad.

I hope my fellow blogger will join me in defending free speech by disseminating materials that are under attack. When our governments abdicate their responsibility. We are the last line of defense. We dare not surrender.

http://www.rudistettner.com/2009/01/free-geert-wilders-free-speech-in.html