virtual philosopher

First Amendment, Free Speech, Art, Obscenity

Yesterday was the 50th Anniversary of an important First Amendment decision, see Fred Kaplan's interesting article in the New York Times. A nice formula emerged: if it's both prurient (or lustful, lewd, or lascivious) and utterly socially worthless, it's OK to censor it; if it has some miniscule social worth, then prurience doesn't justify a ban. Judges are there to determine in particular cases whether or not the communication in question is utterly without social worth...

Geert Wilders and Free Speech

Dutch MP Geert Wilders' film Fitna which includes very disturbing scenes of violence (including 9/11,the aftermath of Madrid and London bombings, beheading and execution), incitement to violence and hate speech carried out by Muslim extremists in the name of their religion, juxtaposed with verses from the Koran and an 'anti-Islamisation' message is on YouTube in two parts here. Wilders implicitly generalises from what some extremists have done in the name of their religion to the idea that Islam in every aspect is an evil. There is no sense that there could be a moderate Muslim. This is not a balanced documentary treatment. Islam is presented as a ticking bomb within the Netherlands (and presumably elsewhere). There is no serious suggestion of how this alleged threat to Western democracy can be addressed.  This is why this film is so controversial and why the British Government has prevented him from entering the UK despite his being a democratically elected politician from an EEC country. There are also links immediately after this movie to response videos of various kinds including by Muslims.

On the free speech issue here, the easy availability of the video on the Internet means that his rather crude message is not, as yet, censored in the UK. To that extent his freedom to communicate his ideas does not seem to have been radically curbed. In fact the UK Government's refusal to let him enter the country means that many more people will now watch this video in order to try to understand the ban. So indirectly they are increasing the number of people who watch Wilders' movie - which is presumably the opposite of what they intend. Whether the UK Government can now consistently apply the principle on which his ban on entry was made - that his presence is likely to incite violence -  remains to be seen.

More on Free Speech at www.vsi-free-speech.com

Read Oliver Kamm on why he thinks we should support Wilders (written prior to this ban)

A Short Talk on A Very Short Introduction to Free Speech

I will be giving a short talk on Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction at the Oxford Literary Festival on 30th March 2009 at 1.15. Further details are here.

Free Speech Discussion at the School of Life, London

I will be speaking about free speech at the School of Life in London on Friday 27th Feb. at 7 p.m. Further information about the event is available here: 'How to Speak Your Mind'. (By ticket only). This is to coincide with the publication of Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction.