http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/panel-deliberates-democracy-in-all-walks-of-life/article6854433.ece?ref=tpnews
Panel deliberates democracy in all walks of life
“Any discussion on freedom of speech and expression can’t be removed from its political context. One should not fall into the intellectual trap of seeing an issue as one between free speech and non-free speech,” said N. Ram, chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd.
He was delivering a talk, ‘Diminishing democratic spaces’, as one of the four panellists speaking on ‘Reclaiming Democratic Spaces: A dialogue on freedom of Expression’ at IIT-Madras on Tuesday evening.
Stating that it would be an exaggeration to claim that democratic spaces are diminishing in the country, he said threats to free speech had certainly increased after the 2014 general elections.
Independent Islamic researcher and secretary-general of the Islamic Forum for the Promotion of Moderate Thought, A. Faizur Rahman questioned the double speak of the Western liberal democracies as he spoke on the topic ‘Is Freedom of expression an absolute right?’
To make his case, Mr. Rahman cited the example of how Sydney Morning Herald was recently hounded into editorially apologizing for an “anti-Jewish” cartoon it had published to depict Israeli State violence in Gaza.
“Praising the apology, the Australian Press Council ruled that the cartoon had an ‘implied linkage with the Jewish faith’, and breached the Council’s standards of practice on ‘the ground of causing greater offence to readers’ sensibilities than was justifiable in public interest. Why can’t anti-Islamic cartoons be judged and restricted based on the same standards,” he asked.
Examining the role and place of women in democracy, Kalpana Karunakaran, faculty member, IIT-Madras, raised a question on existing democratic spaces and democratic institutions. “In India, freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution for a woman is rationed out by caste groups. Social media was thought of as democratic, but are women not threatened with rape and murder for speaking their mind,” she asked.
The last speaker was Arya Prakash, a student of IIT-Madras, who spoke on the democracy of academic spaces in India. “The fear of authority could affect his/her creative faculties. Students must be more engaged to ensure that academic spaces remain democratic,” she said.
Four panellists spoke on ‘Reclaiming democratic spaces: a dialogue on freedom of expression’
(Courtesy: The Hindu dated 4th February 2015)
Panel deliberates democracy in all walks of life
“Any discussion on freedom of speech and expression can’t be removed from its political context. One should not fall into the intellectual trap of seeing an issue as one between free speech and non-free speech,” said N. Ram, chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd.
He was delivering a talk, ‘Diminishing democratic spaces’, as one of the four panellists speaking on ‘Reclaiming Democratic Spaces: A dialogue on freedom of Expression’ at IIT-Madras on Tuesday evening.
Stating that it would be an exaggeration to claim that democratic spaces are diminishing in the country, he said threats to free speech had certainly increased after the 2014 general elections.
Independent Islamic researcher and secretary-general of the Islamic Forum for the Promotion of Moderate Thought, A. Faizur Rahman questioned the double speak of the Western liberal democracies as he spoke on the topic ‘Is Freedom of expression an absolute right?’
To make his case, Mr. Rahman cited the example of how Sydney Morning Herald was recently hounded into editorially apologizing for an “anti-Jewish” cartoon it had published to depict Israeli State violence in Gaza.
“Praising the apology, the Australian Press Council ruled that the cartoon had an ‘implied linkage with the Jewish faith’, and breached the Council’s standards of practice on ‘the ground of causing greater offence to readers’ sensibilities than was justifiable in public interest. Why can’t anti-Islamic cartoons be judged and restricted based on the same standards,” he asked.
Examining the role and place of women in democracy, Kalpana Karunakaran, faculty member, IIT-Madras, raised a question on existing democratic spaces and democratic institutions. “In India, freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution for a woman is rationed out by caste groups. Social media was thought of as democratic, but are women not threatened with rape and murder for speaking their mind,” she asked.
The last speaker was Arya Prakash, a student of IIT-Madras, who spoke on the democracy of academic spaces in India. “The fear of authority could affect his/her creative faculties. Students must be more engaged to ensure that academic spaces remain democratic,” she said.
Four panellists spoke on ‘Reclaiming democratic spaces: a dialogue on freedom of expression’
(Courtesy: The Hindu dated 4th February 2015)
No comments:
Post a Comment