Freedom of speech: How free is free speech?

Yesterday Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke before the prestigious Columbia University in New York right in the heartland of American Democracy, which has now triggered a fresh new debate on how far Free Speech should be allowed. Here’s a world leader who espoused terrorism, asked for the destruction of Israel and denies that the holocaust ever happened and yet, an American university invited the Iranian leader despite his unpopularity with Americans and Jews.

Just last week, the Cebu media had a terrific celebration of Press Freedom Week. Once again we are talking about this issue as it strikes right at the heart of this most basic of human rights. We may disagree with one another’s opinion, but we must all agree that anyone has the right to speak out his mind without any fear of being sued in court or worse getting shot and killed for speaking our your mind! That’s exactly what happened in New York City yesterday when they allowed a ruthless dictator to come to the shores of America and speak before them.

Watching both CNN and BBC interview Americans on the street you can say that a great majority of Yanks believed that it was wrong for Columbia University to have invited the Iranian President. While Columbia University President Lee Bollinger defended his school for inviting the Iranian leader, somehow perhaps because of some kind of pressure, when he introduced Pres. Ahmadinejad, he said that this person was a “petty and cruel dictator” to which he too was lambasted by Ahmadinejad. If any, Columbia U Pres. Bollinger violated a most basic rule in introducing his invited guest speaker to at least give some kind of praise to the speaker he is introducing.

Of course in his speech Pres. Ahmadinejad merely repeated what he had been saying in the past. Perhaps the only new statement coming out of the Iranian President was when he was questioned about Iran’s killing of gays. He said, “In Iran we don’t have that in our country… in Iran we do not have this phenomenon, who told you that we have it?” For what it was worth, at least the Iranian President knew from experience what Freedom of Speech is all about and he knows too well that ordinary Iranians do not have the luxury of speaking their minds freely on any subject.

During his New York visit, Pres. Ahmadinejad even wanted to see Ground Zero, the hole which once held the twin towers of the World Trade Center, but the New York City Mayor Bloomberg would not allow him to go there. As we leave this issue behind, a question lingers on our mind, whether the Iranians would allow US Pres. George W. Bush to also speak before an Iranian University. So back to the question: How free is Free Speech or do you espouse thought control? This is what we want you to ponder

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Call it a tactical move if you wish, but I must say that Mayor Tomas Osmeña took many people by surprise when he announced that he wouldn’t be fielding any Bando-Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) bets in the coming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections next month. I really have no idea what’s going on in the mind of Mayor Osmeña. I can only reckon that he is preparing for his eventual retirement from politics, otherwise logic would have dictated that he should field his own candidates as they are a crucial part in delivering votes in the coming Presidential and local elections in the year 2010.

What this ultimately means is that those seeking to run for the post of barangay captain must now find their own funding source. Of course, it goes without saying that those people who are already eyeing to run for Mayor of Cebu City in the 2010 elections might just consider reaching out to these barangay captains or their potential rivals and fund them in preparation for that coming political battle. The elections of 2010 is a Presidential elections therefore, whatever money they spend on these barangay captains can be recovered when they end up supporting a particular Presidential candidate who, too, must shell out some money to fund their Presidential campaign.

Indeed, money is the bottom line for our current democratic form of government and more often than not, these political expenditures result in more corruption, especially because political candidates actually spend more than what is allowed by the Comelec. Already certain pundits are asking: “What if Mayor Osmeña changes his mind and decides to fund his barangay captains?” This is a good question, especially from people who are wary of what political tactics Mayor Osmeña may be trying to use. But this is the first time in 20 years that barangay captains do not rely on major political parties to fund their own political ambitions.