IHT: Europe could discover self-censorship
American bloggers are wondering why the good people of the USA are suffering the scorn of Pakistanis and Muslims during the current protests. Europeans are wondering how a bunch of countries expect them to rethink their principle of freedom of expression. Muslims are wondering why it is difficult for the West to understand this isn't about a cartoon, its about provocation during difficult times for the international community.
- Robert Wright does acknowledge that small, peaceful demonstrations held in Denmark back in September never made it to the media/international radar screens.
- He also draws an interesting analogy between the civil rights movement of the 60s and the current spate of voilent outbursts across Asia ("what triggers an uproar? what fuels it?" and that history is littered with voilent movements).
- Wright muses what's making the Europeans shirk in horror over the concept of self-censorship. "The Danish editor's confusion was to conflate censorship and self-censorship. Not only are they not the same thing - the latter is what allows us to live in a spectacularly diverse society without the former; to keep censorship out of the legal realm, we practice it in the moral realm. Sometimes it feels uncomfortable, but worse things are imaginable."
Well said, Wright, well said indeed.