Fighting for the right to speak without fear

FREEDOM of speech and a free press are among the freedoms we take for granted in Australia. To those unfortunate enough to live in other nations, principally those outside the West, such freedoms are as rare as clean water.

Yet we treat our freedom to publicly exchange ideas without fear with scant regard for its immeasurable value. Just hours from here, the Fijian junta run by Commodore Frank Bainimarama has this week deported the third newspaper publisher in less than a year after The Fiji Times, owned by The Daily Telegraph publisher News Limited, was fined $F100,000 ($83,000) for publishing a letter critical of the island nation's High Court. Clearly, the criticism found its mark. The Fijian economy is all but wrecked and the Fijian people need the rest of the world as few other nations do but this coconut dictatorship is attempting to disguise the true state of its affairs by intimidating the messenger. The Fijian reporters and editors I've met are tough and will stand up to the thugs as long as they can, just as brave reporters in Papua New Guinea have continued to plug away despite threats they receive. Weak authorities traditionally have attempted to hide behind prohibitive censorship laws and the current Thai Government is no exception. With a revolving door political leadership, the Thai judiciary obviously feels it cannot risk any questioning of the Thai royal family, even in works of fiction, after 41-year-old Melburnian Harry Nicolaides was sentenced earlier this month to three years in a Bangkok jail after pleading guilty to insulting the Thai royal family. In 2005, Nicolaides, a teacher, wrote a book which made a brief reference to Thailand's crown prince. The book is reported to have sold 10 copies, which have should been sufficient indignity yet five Thai judges imposed a six-year sentence - reduced because he pleaded guilty. Thai prisons are apparently run much the same as the Turkish slammers which made Midnight Express a chilling reminder of the perils of drug-running - but a fleeting reference in a little-read novel to a minor princeling is not in the same league as running heroin into Europe and neither should the penalty be equivalent. While we Westerners might comfortably sneer at Fijian coups and anachronistic Asiatic royalty, a Netherlands appeal court has charged Dutch MP Geert Wilders with a hate crime for making a film about Islam called Fitna. With the horrific memory of filmmaker Theo van Gogh's murder at the hands of an unrepentant Islamist still fresh in the minds of many Dutch folk, it would seem only natural someone would attempt a film exploring the Muslim religion. Wilders does so forcefully, making comparison between Hitler's Mein Kampf and the Koran. It may not be the most pleasing comparison but it falls into the same category of merit as the portrait of the Christian Madonna made from elephant dung which has been exhibited in Australian galleries. The Dutch court's decision to prosecute reverses centuries of liberal philosophy and therein lies the danger of this attack on expression. It has been obvious that a double standard exists in the West when it comes to religions - Christianity is fair game but Islam has a protected and privileged status. The West has buckled before the protests of Muslims in a way it does not when Christians are involved. As the economic meltdown continues, expect similar protective favours to extend to such nations as China, which will no doubt continue to press the West to ignore its appalling record of human rights. Weak Western nations will not find it difficult to knuckle under and sacrifice their democratic values to appease those who (temporarily) might hold the whip. Undermining our own value system to curry favour with monsters is not the answer, though many academics cheerfully subscribe to the notion and champion terrorist organisations over nations with strong traditions of common law and liberty for all. Values such as freedom of speech and freedom of expression should not be traded away for oil imports or mineral exports - or Danish butter, no matter how impressive the riots against a series of harmless newspaper cartoons. Dictators don't want the truth told about their governments, kings don't want to be shown to be mortal and religious zealots want to be able to dictate to their followers without fear of being questioned. Civilisation has progressed through a series of challenges and enlightenments, not through censorious diktats. We must cherish the freedoms of speech and press that we have and we must fight to maintain and expand them or we, too, will see our culture retrogress into the dark ages of humbug and zealotry.