Graphic: Oliver Uberti / National Geographic, source: World Press Freedom Committee
Biggify here: Link
Most Americans take our freedom of speech for granted - after all, such an idea seems like a basic and universal human rights. But be careful what you say in other countries: saying insulting things may just get you fined, land you in jail, or worse.
Here in the US we have our fair share of free speech limitations and we ought to be slower to brandish our brilliance before others. Time, manner and place restrictions are more limiting than one might think, while incitement to hatred which is punishable in other countries could do with being addressed here. The likes of the Westboro Baptist Church idiots may be taken as fools, but there are plenty of religious people with great power whose words cause violence towards gays, abortion clinic workers, blacks, etc.
Let's not wag our fingers at others without considering our own flaws.
Viva la constitution.
Im'a wag my finger at anyone I want to, 'cause I can.
Thx for the soap box to wag my finger Neato :D
Try saying “sh!t, f*ck, c*nt” [the first time I tried to write the full words but my free speech was limited by the blog engine - seems this soap box has limitations too, BenJ] on network TV and see if there are laws restricting your free speech. The constitution isn’t as powerful as we’d like to think, and saying you’ll do something just because you can is the attitude that gives America problems like Iraq.
Which reminds me: remember GWB and his warrantless wiretaps? Another case of losing a freedom we supposedly had.
why do people make up nonsense??
When you enter a community like Neatorama for example, you agree to a certain set of rules that make sense and help develope a healthy community of people based on the respect of each other, we discuss, we agree or desagree, but we do not insult or menace, and when that happens the admins take care of it. And that is NOT against freedom of speech.
BTW, the norwegian case is from 1912, come on. Every now and then we hear from bloggers getting arrested in China and Morocco, two journalists investigating the government killed in Russia in the past few years, yet none of those is in the picture?
I don't know where Neatorama is based, but it seems that there is a big difference in what I (coming from the Netherlands) perceive as non-appropriate and what this blog thinks on the same.
I guess I grew up with the idea that rudeness and faul language not only come from the words that actually are used, but moreso from their context.
I find it at least strange that examples going back as far as 1914 are presented here. In that case why not also bring up examples from countries like the Netherlands and Belgium in 1945...? ;-)
Alot of my comments get tagged by the auto mod, even when my comments arn't filled with a litany of curses(which are usualy the more interesting ones). All information here is linked from other sources, so my guess is that you will have to investigate their sources to get your answer. Welcome to Neatorama!
http://torontoist.com/2009/03/galloway_speech_metropolitan_united_church.php#comments
...The times they are achanging... And not alwasy for the better I might add....
As in the realm of email, spam is a pernicious, whack-a-mole problem on the blogosphere. We get about two thousand spammy comments a day here on Neatorama. It's likely that we flush out legitimate comments at the first automatic spam filter (Akismet) but there's not much I can do about that ... The secondary spam filter is hand-checked.
No gripe here, I love Neatorama. Just occational frustration from the filters. :)
@Foreigner1
I'm all for free speech, but in the Canada even I can feel the restrictions getting tighter, and tighter. The last thing we need is to be just like China where free speech is accepted... as long as you clear it with the government first. When I hear a song on the radio, I hate those sound effects they put in to cover up swear words. They were put in the song for a reason; I feel either they play the song as it was meant to be played or should not play it at all.
@Gauldar- To me it seems that these things go like waves- Times with all the liberties in the world are followed by times with lots of repression. And in societies like ours where we have no direct dictatorships, these liberties grow and shrink by public social agreement. Like in the Victorian time in England, showing skin -any skin- was a fellony and highly Not Done. And the way you spoke about certain topics could make you an outcast bound for the Penal Colony of Australia. Nowadays overthere it is quite the opposite. :-?
OMG, that sounds like China already... and I keep reading about far-right minded Americans calling Obama a communist. Wow.
George Orwell was right.
Oh, and Arbiton- the wiretaps you attribute to GWB were built on an "anti-terror" groundwork laid by Zio-puppet GWB's Zio-puppet buddy CLINTON and are continued by your presumably preferred Zio-puppet Messiah today.
How did I tacitly reinforce meaningless establishment taboo jargon? By pointing out the obvious racist element in your comment? In my opinion, the word "zio-puppet" is based on a paranoid delusion that a certain group of people are ruling the world, and when you use it, you throw your credibility to the four winds. It's a racist thing, in my opinion, and I am allowed to express my opinion here. Would you deny me that?
Plus, if you've read any of my previous posts, I'm more of a grammar nazi than a thought-cop.