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When freedom of speech threatens national security
When freedom of speech threatens national security
18/7/15
Recently, Western
countries have been shaken by a incident in which self-proclaimed Al-Qeada
militants rushed and shot at Charlie Hebdo headquaters in Paris, killed 12 and wounded 10 people. This
satirical magazine has been attacked once for publishing caricatures of the
Prophet Mohammed in the name of free speech and France’s cherished secular laws.
You should remember that the Prophet Mohammed to muslims like Jesus to
christians, and you must not mess with the Muslim! Charlie Hebdo don’t know it,
so the tragedy happened.
After that, France declared national mourning,
EU member nations also made memorial ceremony to victims of the incident.
Thousands of French marched on streets with slogans of “I am Charlie” to show
their solidarity. This slogan also flared all many electronic boards. Many
French newspapers turned into black-and-white background with this slogan on
first page “I am Charlie” to memorize their colleagues. In Britain, Germany,
Switzerland,
Italia… people marched and bought milions of the papers as a way of supporting
victims.
In Vietnam, some groups, self-proclaim
as activists for democracy, and hostile forces abroad have quickly exploited
the event to praise for freedom of speech and consider that this value has
absolute quality and is protected by the world, in an attempt to slander the
Party and State of Vietnam of violating speech freedom. On the Internet, there
are images of a football team and an “intellectual” holding a banner “I am Charlie”
by English and Vietnamese, and not forgetting their won banners “I am Ba Sam”,
“I am Bo Lap”… These acts have been criticized by social network communities,
because we are so familiar with their acts of showing patriotism but calling
relief for those individuals who commited criminals of tax dodges, disturbing
public order and violating national interests, and are being charged by
authorities like Le Quoc Quan, Nguyen Van Ly, Ta Phong Tan… Even, some also use
satires of the Le Monde publishing porn pictures of leaders of Russia, France… to prove the unlimited
quality of speech freedom as a criteria of civilized community.
Reviewing history, in 1970, the precursor of
Charlie Hebdo was banned by the French Ministry of Home Affairs because of
posting ironical title of Charles de Gaulle’s funeral.
Stéphane Charbonnier, Editor-in-chief, must and has
understand risks of insulting the Prophet Mohammed, but still, he did that.
And, it’s not the first time. In 2012, Charlie Hebdo published series of satire
about Mohammed like naked or sitting on a wheel-chair pushed by a Jew… After
that, French government must close their diplomatic agencies and other cultural
organizations in 20 nations for fear of revenge. The weekly satirical magazine
has been threatened by many extremist elements, but it seems they don’t care.
They don’t know their “freedom of speech” has violated others’ freedom of
religions, offended others’ worship. Now, they obviously know that, but it’s a
little late for the victims.
The U.S. and Western
countries have separated around viewpoint on limits of speech freedom after the
attack. New York Times is one of Western newspapers does not publish satires of
Charlie Hebdo, many readers accused it of being coward and not supporting and
showing solidarity with Charlie Hebdo and speech freedom. Explaining that, New
York Times published a article “I am not Charlie Hebdo”, in which, there’s a
sentence that freedom of speech needs to respect others’ belief.
So, it might be cruel
a bit, but Charlie Hebdo has reaped what it sowed. Experts have discussed that
extremism can’t be resolved by extremist thoughts. Though no one tolerates
violent force and terrorism, we must seek civilized solutions to deal with
these kinds. The Charlie Hebdo tragedy will be a warning sign raises a need
that there must be a strict limit on individuals’ atcs who always claim
themselves protecters or supporters for speech freedom in extremist ways./.
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All comments [ 10 ]
When a situation arises which threatens the national security of the state, and thereby of the human rights of the entire population, international law permits certain proportionate measures to counter that threat. This includes restrictions on freedom of expression.
I totally agree with you, Yobro. Human rights can not threaten national interests.
All the international instruments which guarantee the right to freedom of expression also recognise national security as a legitimate ground for limiting that right.
We should focus on how or on whether the restrictions at issue are necessary, just don't let national security bind human rights.
No government accepts freedom of expression to harm national interests.
Even in US, Many people were arrested merely for membership in groups regarded as "radical" by the government.
Some in US and Western countries believe free speech that criticizes Islam poses a national security threat to national security and that those responsible should be investigated by the authority.
The US and Western countries like France must have known this specifically.
In Vietnam, now there are many people, bloggers, facebookers, even some of the press have abused rights of speech freedom to unintentionally or intentionally undermine our national interests.
I support government to have restrictions on freedom of speech in harmony with national security. We must have laws to manage this.
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