Freedom of speech

[gerbie]

Freedom of speech

In several discussions I have heard Americans referring to their own country as 'the best country in the world'. "At least we can give our opinion whatever happens. Freedom of speech is in our constitution", were points that were brought up more than once.

How true is this? Soon after the twin towers collapsed a list of 150 songs was distributed amongst radio stations. These songs were inappropriate apparently. And rightly so in some cases. It isn't difficult to know why people wouldn't want to hear AC/DC singing about a Highway to hell. Even Aeroplane by the RHCP and Learning to fly by Pink Floyd, even though fairly innocent songs, were on the list. Not strange either. But who decided that John Lennon's Imagine had to be on that list? Why is one of the best songs in history banned from radio stations? Could it be that the government didn't want the people to think about "all the people living life in peace"? Could it be that Bush didn't want "the world will be as one", happening sometime soon? Am I cynical if I think that by putting Lennon on the black list the real agenda of the government becomes clear.

Only a couple of days later I heard a story about the Voice of America that couldn't air an interview with one of the leaders of Afghanistan. "The people don't want to hear things like this in times like this", or something a long that way was the argument to ban the interview.

Wouldn't it be against the American constitution to ban it? What happened to freedom of speech?

Comments

[gerbie.livejournal.com]

Your example is just one of the few. You are absolutely right in stressing out that the attacks, who were obviously extremely hurtful, puts other disasters in the shadow. What about Beograd? What about the hundreds of illegal bombings of the USA in Iraq, in which plenty of innocents died? What about the tens of thousands who have suffered from the Taliban in the last decade? What about Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Timor, Somalia and other countries? And those were only in the last couple of years. The list could go on for ages if we go further back in time.

However bad the catastrophe was, people should ALWAYS pay attention to similar disasters happening around the globe.

Thanx for stressing that out!