Free Speech / Hate Speech

Anthony Lewis recently published a wonderful book on the history of the First Amendment: Freedom for the Thought We Hate.  The First Amendment guarantees freedom of expression in the United States, and is the cornerstone of the Free Press.  The text of the First Amendment is brief, but its implications are huge:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
(„Der Kongress darf kein Gesetz erlassen, das die Einführung einer Staatsreligion zum Gegenstand hat, die freie Religionsausübung verbietet, die Rede- oder Pressefreiheit oder das Recht des Volkes einschränkt, sich friedlich zu versammeln und die Regierung durch Petition um Abstellung von Missständen zu ersuchen.“)

The protection extends to "hate speech" as well: anyone can make racist or morally repugnant statements and not have to worry about legal consequences. Here the United States is unique among nations: Canada, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia and India all have laws or have signed international conventions banning hate speech. The British historian David Irving could travel around the US and make speeches denying the holocaust, but in Austria he was thrown in prison for making the argument.

In Germany the situation surrounding free speech is clouded by laws banning hate speech and also by the rather lax libel laws. It's fairly simple to bring a lawsuit against someone who you feel might have defamed you. So I can understand the frustration of of the journalist CIGDEM AKYOL, who complained in an article in the Tageszeitung (Die Meinungsterroristen - The Opinion Terrorists) about the proliferation of hate-blogs in Germany.  I've already written about the hate-blog Politically Incorrect which consistently publishes lies about Senator Barack Obama and his candidacy. But Akyol has many more equally repulsive examples. One of these hate-blogs- Die Grüne Pest - recently attacked Dialog International. 

All of the blogs cited by Cigdem Akyol claim they are merely exercising their right to free expression.  But some of these "free speech" champions use the courts in Germany to muzzle any criticism of their blogs and blog-content. A prime example, mentioned by Akyol, is Udo Ulfkotte, who successfully sued two bloggers for pointing out that the racist content on his site Akte Islam was, in fact, racist. Recently he took the journalist Knut Mellenthin to court because Mellenthin had the temerity to write that the numerous untruths on Ulfkotte's site were indeed "lies". This time, Ulfkotte did not fare as well.  Ulfkotte's views and actions have been pretty much discredited and ridiculed in the court of public opinion, so his only recourse appears to use the lax libel laws in Germany to silence his critics. Some champion of free speech!

Cigdem Akyol apparently wants the German government to take action and shut down these hate blogs.  He ends his taz piece:

Bald könnten Kritiker wie er (Götz Wiedenroth)  jedoch einen Maulkorb bekommen. Sebastian Edathy (SPD), Vorsitzender des Bundestagsinnenausschusses, hält Islamkritik wie die auf der Homepage "PI" nicht für grenzwertig, sondern grenzüberschreitend, rassistisch und gefährlich. Einige Inhalte der Kommentare hier seien durchaus strafbar, deswegen hat er sich an den Verfassungsschutz gewendet. Auf eine Antwort wartet Edathy noch. (Soon critics such as (Götz Wiedenroth - another hate-blogger) could be muzzled. Sebastian Edathy (SPD), chairman of the committee for domestic affairs, views the criticisms of Islam like we find on the home page of Politically Incorrect as not just as borderline cases; they have crossed the line and are racist and dangerous. The content of some of the comments here are certainly punishable under the law, and he (Edathy) has referred them to to Office for the Protection of the Constitution.  He is still awaiting a reply.)

But Edathy (and Akyol) would be making a big mistake in shutting down these sites. As repugnant as they are, they should be allowed to stand and spew out their poison.  But by the same token, the German courts should not punish critics of these sites for exposing the lies and bigotry that underpin them.

Of course, there are exceptions to the principle of free speech, even in the United States. Advocacy of violence or "immanent lawless action" is not always protected under the Constitution. And here Politically Incorrect crosses the line by publishing a banner ad on its site from the Jewish Task Force, a New York-based group with terrorist connections. This group maintains an on-line forum - Jews Against Obama - where people exchange ideas on "how to stop the black Muslim Nazi Barack Hussein Obama".  One ongoing thread is entitled "Get Obama!" and has images of Senator Obama together with Osama bin Laden. They also have attacked Dialog International for my criticism of Politically Incorrect.  Harmless? Perhaps, but the founder of the Jewish Task Force is Victor Vancier, a known terrorist and former chairman of the Jewish Defense League (JDL).

This is not my first encounter with Victor Vancier.  Back in the 1980s I was an employee at Deutsche Bank in New York City.  For a period of time the office was disrupted by daily bomb threats from Vancier's JDL.  Each time, we had to evacuate the office (on the 50th floor of a skyscraper in Manhattan) because we had to take these threats very seriously: the JDL was involved in numerous bombings and shootings around New York City.  Vancier was finally arrested an convicted in the 1986 firebombing of Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. After serving his prison sentence, he reappeared with his newest project, the Jewish Task Force. 

So when Vancier and his followers shout "Get Obama!" it is no longer constitutionally-protected free speech.  It is a clear incitement to violence.

 

Comments

[Hattie]

Re: the grüne Pest:
It's hard to take a web site seriously that has so many blinkies.