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FREEDOM
HAS ALWAYS been Western civilization's most
powerful metameme. The idea of a free citizenry
was born with the ancient Greek notion of
democracy and has continued to evolve ever
since. The English Magna Carta gave it weight
and permanence. When the meme spread to the
New World it inspired the end of slavery;
later, it led to universal suffrage and the
dream of equality among all people.
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The
march of freedom has been humankind's gradual
awakening. We have come to accept the simple
truth that oppression does not have to stand.
We are under no one's thumb. In every way
we control our own destiny.
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At
the heart of freedom lies the freedom to talk
to one another - to communicate. That, too,
is as old as the ancient Greeks, who recognized
the right of citizens to express their opinions.
When the world's first mass medium - the printing
press - was introduced, it became clear that
"freedom of opinion" was not enough to ensure
free speech. (Many "Gutenberg revolutionaries"
were censored and repressed when they tried
to express their opinions about kings and
popes.) So the higher notion of freedom of
expression was born. This new freedom was
first guaranteed in the English Bill of Rights
and then expanded to freedom of the press
in the US constitution.
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Article
13 of the 1979 American Convention on Human
Rights reads, in part: "The right of expression
may not be restricted by indirect methods
or means, such as the abuse of government
or private controls over newsprint, radio
broadcasting... or any other means tending
to impede the communication and circulation
of ideas and opinions."
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Article
19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human
Rights reads, in part: "Everyone has the right...
to hold opinions without interference and
to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media regardless of frontiers."
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a century after the signing of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, citizens have access
to a mind-numbing amount of information. Hundreds
of newspapers and magazines are at our fingertips.
The 500-channel universe has turned out to be
a conservative guess - try 5,000. CNN beams
news live across the world 24 hours a day. Cyberspace
expands exponentially from the Big Bang of the
digital revolution. It would be easy to conclude,
in this climate, that the long struggle for
freedom of opinion, expression and speech is
over. |
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| Half
a century after the signing of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, citizens have access
to a mind-numbing amount of information. Hundreds
of newspapers and magazines are at our fingertips.
The 500-channel universe has turned out to be
a conservative guess - try 5,000. CNN beams
news live across the world 24 hours a day. Cyberspace
expands exponentially from the Big Bang of the
digital revolution. It would be easy to conclude,
in this climate, that the long struggle for
freedom of opinion, expression and speech is
over. |
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| But
it's not. |
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| In
the past 20 years, an unprecedented situation
has developed with grave implications for democracy
and freedom of speech: the emergence of a global
communications cartel. The flow of information
worldwide is controlled by an ever-shrinking
number of transnational media corporations led
by seven giants: Time-Warner, Disney, Tele-Communications
Inc. (T.C.I.), Bertelsmann, General Electric,
Viacom and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
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| The
great power of the media megacorporations lies
in their vertical integration. They can produce
a film and distribute it through their own partially
or fully owned theater chain, promote it through
their own TV network, play the soundtrack on
their own radio stations and sell the merchandising
spin-offs at their own amusement parks. A property
can enter this vertical chain at any point and
be sent in either direction. A film becomes
a book, a hit single, then a TV show, a video
game, a ride. Between them, the media giants
have the means to produce a never-ending flow
of social spectacles, to nurture them, feed
them, massage them and keep them resonating
in the public mind. And with the exception of
a few wild domains still left here and there
(public-access TV, pirate radio, 'zines, some
unexplored reaches of cyberspace) the media
megacorps have pretty well taken over the whole
global mindscape and "developed" it into a theme
park - a jolly, terrifyingly homogenized Las
Vegas of the mind. |
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What
does freedom of speech mean in this kind of
mental environment?
Zaheer Alam Kidvai 300-237911 |
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| Solutions
Unlimited Enabling Technologies Beaconhouse
Information Technology Services (Pvt.) Ltd. |
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Head
- Department of New Media@HIIT/HU
E-mail: zak@cyber.net.pk |
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