For those regular readers of The Daily Reveille, you know we have a minor controversy over the publication last week of a cartoon drawn by Alice Wack. The cartoon, which provoked strong feelings in some, both inside and outside the Islamic faith, was created in response to the caricatures of the prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper.
As her editor, I approved the cartoon and defended Alice against the criticisms of some. We bore no malice towards practitioners of Islam, nor any other faith. We simply sought to exercise our rights as Americans to state our piece in a free and open debate.
Indulge me, however, for a moment. Let’s say you are not an American. Let’s say, instead, that you are an Englishman attending the University of Cardiff in Wales. Let’s say you are editor of your newspaper, Gair Rhydd, a paper that only last year won the award for best student paper in the United Kingdom. Now, let’s say you publish one of those cartoons.
What do you think would happen?
In this country, such a cartoon’s publication would be an occasion for robust debate on freedom of speech with generally decent behavior, as happened in our case. In Britain it has led to the suspension of the paper’s editor, Tom Wellingham, and three other student journalists.
Such is life without a First Amendment. “God Save the Queen,” I suppose.
Yes, there are places on this earth, in the so-called free west, including our noble ally Great Britain, where one can be booted out of one’s job for merely republishing a cartoon that has been widely shown on the European continent as well as the Near East.
Of the 10,000 papers distributed, only 200 remain at large. The rest of the copies of this “heresy” are ready to be shredded.
Why am I writing about this? Why should you and I give a damn about the doings in a foreign country that the majority of us have never set foot in?
Freedom. The freedom to be offensive, to say and do things that make others mad.
While Great Britain has no First Amendment, they have a tradition of a combative and open press, one that, especially in its coverage of the Iraq War, has shamed our own in the superiority of their coverage.
I have no way of knowing what end Wellingham had in republishing this cartoon. I know not whether he did it to illustrate a point, to be deliberately offensive or to simply stand up for freedom of speech. I do know that his rights, not only as an Englishman, but simply as a citizen of the Western world, a world that used to stand for something close to freedom, were quashed.
As a student journalist, I shudder to think of the implications of this action. Though it is in another country with different laws, I was told by an old teacher that Europe was always 15 years ahead of America. Given the current climate that we live in, and the fact that our government seems to hold precious few of our civil liberties sacred, aside from the Second Amendment, such a thing could happen here without too much of a problem. One only needs to look to the past to find an example at this paper.
It was 1934, during the reign of infamous Louisiana politician Huey Long, a senator at the time. The folks at this paper had the temerity to run a letter to the editor that raised his ire. The fallout included a mass resignation of the staff and the expulsion of seven students from the University.
While some may argue this is simply an example of extraordinary times, I believe it can happen here again.
So let us wish our best to Wellingham and his three compatriots. Let us marvel at the indecency and cowardice of those who would bury freedom of speech in the name of cultural sensitivity. Let us reject those who demand illusory “responsibility” in order to speak freely; there can be responsibility in speech, but it is not a requirement. Instead, in this country and around the world my fondest hope is that folks simply are given the chance to say their piece and stand by it.
Interestingly enough, Gair Rhydd translates into “free word” in English.
Funny stuff, chaps. For those regular readers of The Daily Reveille, you know we have a minor controversy over the publication last week of a cartoon drawn by Alice Wack. The cartoon, which provoked strong feelings in some, both inside and outside the Islamic faith, was created in response to the caricatures of the prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper.
As her editor, I approved the cartoon and defended Alice against the criticisms of some. We bore no malice towards practitioners of Islam, nor any other faith. We simply sought to exercise our rights as Americans to state our piece in a free and open debate.
Indulge me, however, for a moment. Let’s say you are not an American. Let’s say, instead, that you are an Englishman attending the University of Cardiff in Wales. Let’s say you are editor of your newspaper, Gair Rhydd, a paper that only last year won the award for best student paper in the United Kingdom. Now, let’s say you publish one of those cartoons.
What do you think would happen?
In this country, such a cartoon’s publication would be an occasion for robust debate on freedom of speech with generally decent behavior, as happened in our case. In Britain it has led to the suspension of the paper’s editor, Tom Wellingham, and three other student journalists.
Such is life without a First Amendment. “God Save the Queen,” I suppose.
Yes, there are places on this earth, in the so-called free west, including our noble ally Great Britain, where one can be booted out of one’s job for merely republishing a cartoon that has been widely shown on the European continent as well as the Near East.
Of the 10,000 papers distributed, only 200 remain at large. The rest of the copies of this “heresy” are ready to be shredded.
Why am I writing about this? Why should you and I give a damn about the doings in a foreign country that the majority of us have never set foot in?
Freedom. The freedom to be offensive, to say and do things that make others mad.
While Great Britain has no First Amendment, they have a tradition of a combative and open press, one that, especially in its coverage of the Iraq War, has shamed our own in the superiority of their coverage.
I have no way of knowing what end Wellingham had in republishing this cartoon. I know not whether he did it to illustrate a point, to be deliberately offensive or to simply stand up for freedom of speech. I do know that his rights, not only as an Englishman, but simply as a citizen of the Western world, a world that used to stand for something close to freedom, were quashed.
As a student journalist, I shudder to think of the implications of this action. Though it is in another country with different laws, I was told by an old teacher that Europe was always 15 years ahead of America. Given the current climate that we live in, and the fact that our government seems to hold precious few of our civil liberties sacred, aside from the Second Amendment, such a thing could happen here without too much of a problem. One only needs to look to the past to find an example at this paper.
It was 1934, during the reign of infamous Louisiana politician Huey Long, a senator at the time. The folks at this paper had the temerity to run a letter to the editor that raised his ire. The fallout included a mass resignation of the staff and the expulsion of seven students from the University.
While some may argue this is simply an example of extraordinary times, I believe it can happen here again.
So let us wish our best to Wellingham and his three compatriots. Let us marvel at the indecency and cowardice of those who would bury freedom of speech in the name of cultural sensitivity. Let us reject those who demand illusory “responsibility” in order to speak freely; there can be responsibility in speech, but it is not a requirement. Instead, in this country and around the world my fondest hope is that folks simply are given the chance to say their piece and stand by it.
Interestingly enough, Gair Rhydd translates into “free word” in English.
Funny stuff, chaps.
 
Ryan is a history senior. Contact him at [email protected]