freedom of speech vs social responsibility!!!
Freedom of speech is the liberty to freely express one’s opinion, as well as hear what others have stated. It is also the right to speak without censorship or restraint by the government. Freedom of speech has been granted formal recognition by the laws of most nations, but in some countries, some government censorship is enforced. Singapore is one such country. In my opinion, Szilagyi’s view of more focus being placed on social responsibility should be adopted in the context of Singapore multi-racial society, instead of Singer’s belief that freedom of expression should not be limited and is essential to any democracy.
In Peter Singer article of Free Speech, Muhammad, and the Holocaust, he said that “freedom of speech is essential to democratic regimes, and it must include the freedom to say what everyone else believes to be false, and even what many people may find offensive”. Yes, I agree that freedom of speech is a basic human right and everyone should be allowed freedom of expression, but only if it does not cause any social disturbance or cause any harm. In the context of Singapore’s society, it is difficult to adopt Singer view on that freedom of expression should not be limited. Singapore is a multi-racial nation, where individual communities maintain their unique cultural identities and different religious groups co-exist in harmony. Thus, any issues on racial and religious matters are sensitive and people may take offence to statements or actions by others who show disrespect intentionally or unintentionally to their religion or racial groups. Racial harmony is of great importance to Singapore. Without cultivating this harmony, it may bring about devastating consequences. An example is the 1964 race riots, which resulted in a high number of casualties and threatened the peace and stability of Singapore. Race, language, religion and culture are very sensitive issues. Just a small spark may damage the stability, peace and racial harmony in Singapore. Therefore, there is a need to limit freedom of expression in Singapore, so that it does not cause social disturbance or harm.
I agree with Zsofia Szilagyi on his stand that “the press needs to serve the ever-evolving public interest, and it needs to do so by focusing on responsibility, and not solely on freedom”. Social responsibility comes first. We have to understand the consequences of our actions and the impact it will bring about before we carry out our actions. Few years back, 12 cartoon images of the Prophet Muhammad printed in a Danish newspaper sparked violent rioting across the Muslim world and controversy over religious imagery. Even though they had no ill intentions, the press shouldn’t have published these cartoons when they know that there is prohibition of images of Prophet Muhammad and furthermore, the cartoons are an insult to the Muslims too.
Singapore police have wide powers to intercept online messages, and Internet service providers are required to block websites containing material that may be a threat to public security, national defense, racial and religious harmony and public morality. Political and religious websites must also be registered with the authorities. Thus, in Singapore, social responsibility as well as control actions are necessary to maintain ethnic harmony among its 4.2 million people.Although freedom of speech and expression in Singapore continues to be curbed by restrictive legislation, the government has made some improvements, for example, by allowing free speech at Hong Lim Park, allowing the people free rights to vote and also freedom of choice of religion.
In conclusion, freedom of speech comes with responsibility. One has to be responsible for what he/she says and not do harm or cause social disturbance in the process- abusing his/her right of freedom of speech. We have to take into account local circumstances and interests particular to Singapore, for example, multi-ethnic communities; priority of communitarian ideals over individual ideals; and the need to promote racial harmony and create a national identity, therefore social responsibility of both the press and the people is vital in Singapore’s society.
Prejudice is a disease we can never get rid of. Discuss.
I agree with this statement “Prejudice is a disease we can never get rid of”. Prejudice is an adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts. The reason for prejudice is the fact that human is generally more suspicious and biased against others who are not like themselves in significant ways. You may have heard others saying “Jews are …”, “All black people…”, “Gays always…” “Poor people are…”This forms of prejudice give rise to discrimination against other races, religions, sexes and even against people of different age groups. It is impossible to totally remove prejudice as the society has been creating and perpetuating unfavorable stereotypes which are passed down through many generations, which is to say, prejudice simply exists too widely in the world.
A form of prejudice is racism. Nowadays, racism still thrives almost everywhere. Countries such as USA, Europe, and Australia have recognized the harm of racial prejudice and have tried to stop it but to no avail. In USA, there is widespread racism among the “whites” and the” blacks”. For example, most people in the US perceive that crimes are generally committed by blacks against the whites, as media often portrays African American as the” bad guys” in shows and depicted them as violent. But, in truth, 97% of crimes are committed intra-racially. The society, media and family has instilled these racist values in children since young, resulting in stereotyping. This prejudice can never be gotten rid of and will still remain very evident.
Prejudice may be reduced through some ways such as passing down of laws to stop racism, giving subtle education to prevent prejudice and more. However, it is hard to change the perspective and beliefs of people. No matter how hard the government and leaders of the world tries to combat prejudice, it will still remain all around us. So, I feel that it is impossible to remove prejudice completely from the world today.
GP Blog question :
1. “YouTube has no ethics, it's been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money.” Do you agree?
YouTube is a popular free website where people can watch and share videos through websites, blogs and emails. There is no need to download codes or files to view the videos. Youtube makes viewing video content simple and pleasant. It also has a lot of free videos and shows without having the legal rights, thus attracting more people, who want to view the videos for free. Does YouTube has ethics in allowing its users to post copyrighted materials? My answer is no. To me, ethics is a set of principles of right conduct, and, using copyrighted materials without the permission of the copyright holder is not acceptable. Although the user is at fault if he posts copyrighted or insulting materials, the distributor is also to be blamed for not setting up restrictions. Thus, I agree that Youtube has no ethics in allowing users to publish copyrighted and offensive contents.
Recently, YouTube is banned in Thailand after a 44 second film showing graffiti over the king’s head was aired. Youtube declined to remove it even though the Thai government requested them to. While You Tube’s intention is commendable in promoting free expression and speech through the uploading of contents and medium of all types, it is however an infringement of personal privacy and rights if such contents are illegally obtained or published without the consent of the original holder.
Youtube is created with the sole purpose of entertainment. It has millions of users and viewers and up to 60,000 videos are uploaded each day, with unauthorized clips of popular videos being viewed more than 1.5 billion times. I believe almost everyone has at least viewed a video on YouTube before. The popularity of YouTube is increasing, with more and more people visiting the site for entertainment purposes. However I do not agree that it had been created for money and profit. The main purpose for the creation of YouTube was to allow others to watch and share videos for free. Moreover, the creators of YouTube didn’t expect it to be such a huge success in the first place. Therefore, I feel that YouTube has been created with the sole purpose of entertainment but not for money.
On mar 13, Viacom Inc. announced that it has sued YouTube and Google in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for massive intentional copyright infringement of Viacom’s entertainment properties. The suit seeks more than $1 billion in damages, as well as an injunction prohibiting Google and YouTube from further copyright infringement. The complaint contends that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom’s programming have been available on YouTube and that these clips had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times( http://www.viacom.com/view_release.jhtml?inID=10000040&inReleaseID=227614) The lawsuit is a clear illustration that YouTube business model is under challenge and the outcome of the ruling will have a major impact on many people and companies. Some people may be unhappy if all these unauthorized contents are removed as they do not want to spend unnecessary money viewing these clips and music videos. Still, copyright infringement is illegal and it is best if those clips were to be removed.
In conclusion, I feel that YouTube has no ethics as it allows users to publish anything they want, ranging from copyrighted to offensive contents. However, this situation is improving as the site has taken off plenty of copyrighted materials recently. But, no matter how hard they try, there will still be more videos which are violating copyrights and are offensive to others. Therefore, I urge users to think twice before uploading and publishing these illegal contents.
intro
Hi everyone! This is my blog for gp(general paper)! As this is my 1st post(actually this is a compulsory blog assignment)I shall start off by introducing myself. I'm Shermaine from PDG 11/07.I was from RV concert band and now I’m in harmonica club! It rocks! But,i miss my band and my juniors so much! I love music and also playing the piano. My favourite piece is Marching Season by Yanni! It's a percussion ensemble but it also sounds as nice on the piano. If you want to hear it, just ask and i will send you the midi file! I'm currently trying to learn to play the piece and i hope that i won't give up on it just like all other pieces I've tried. I enjoy swimming but I hate sports and pe,especially anything to do with running! I hate studying(as i usually fail ALL tests and exams regardless of me studying or not)and doing howework. An important thing to know is that i hate chemistry(i hate all subjects just that i hate chemistry the most). I really really hate chem and anything to do with it! Because of it, i hate maths(due to my bad experience in mole concept) I also dislike chemistry practical as it usually require me to use the rusty old bunsen burner! Too bad my sec4 chem prac partner isn't here to help me=( But since its a complusory and important subject in my previous school, i have to bear with it for another one year plus. After that i shall burn all my chemistry books and have nothing to do with it ever again in my life! Hmm.. My favourite hobby is- staring into space(not the same as day-dreaming, as in, i do not think of anything at all) I know it's weird but i'm used to spending at least an hour doing that everyday. Next,one of my many flaws is that i love to complain- about the tie suffocating me every wednesday, about me having stomachache every pe lesson, the short pe shorts, about the toilet beside ohana always having no toilet paper and almost everything else.
I think that should sums up my introduction. Hope that you can know and understand me better. I also hope that through this gp blog, I can improve my language and writing skills as well as improve my accuracy in language. It's so hard to write in proper english lah! Please feel free to give me your comments and also correct my many mistakes=)
