Free speech in the US faces different threats
- Source: Global Times
- [20:55 November 26 2009]
- Comments
By Rong Xiaoqing
My mom won't like that I am writing this piece.
Like many Chinese people, she follows the traditional view that if you are taking advantage of something, you should only express your appreciation, not your complaints.
But as a journalist trained in the US, I was told by professors and editors not to hesitate to criticize anything, even if it is the major advertiser for your own newspaper or a charity you admire a lot.
Nothing is perfect, and the US journalists' mantra is that freedom of speech is an essential right. So I decided to exercise my right to take a close look at the right itself.
While I am writing this, my media colleagues in China are fretting because of the recent incident at Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly when the paper's exclusive interview with US President Obama was delayed for publication and severely cut because authority insisted on checking the content before it went public.
Hardly a surprise, but it did once again make those of us working in the US feel lucky. Here journalists won't get the do's and don'ts list from the authorities and other than the editor, no one has the right to read your copy before publication, let alone alter it.
US authorities sometimes also try to interfere in editorial matters, but the courts, thanks to the First Amendment that protects freedom of speech, thwart most of the attempts.
In fact, even within the Western world, journalists' right to tell a story has much better pro-tection in the US than in many other countries.
The US protections may be good for journalists, but the reality is that not everyone is as lucky as we are. The President of Columbia University Lee Bollinger was blasted two years ago for allowing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at the university.
And while American computer manufacturers were complaining earlier this year about the Chinese government's plans (later aborted) to demand all new computers carry Green Dam software, TV manufacturers in the US have long been required to install the V-chip, a device that allows parents to block their kids from accessing certain TV programs.
Even in American journalism, many people find that they don't have much freedom to speak their minds.
It is true that there is no such thing as a Propaganda Department here, but almost all entities have a public relations office, which can work in a similar way.
In a more sophisticated corporate empire like the US, the function of the PR office is not only spreading "good" news and trying to prevent "bad" news. By designating a spokesman, a company also sends out a message to the rest of its employees to keep silent.
This doesn't only happen in the private sector. Few government officials will talk to the media before being cleared by their PR office.
