Freedom of Expression

• Author: George Verghese
• Pages: 59-78

EXPRESSION

reedom

of

speech

and

expression

are not

gifts

of

government,

but

inherent

in

life.

Jefferson

said, "The

God

that

gave

us

life

gave

us

Lib-

erty

at the

same

time."

Communication makes community

and is the

most

powerful

instrument

of

socialization. Indeed, language

is no

more

than

the

codified

memory

of

given societies

as

they evolve, each

word

sym-

bolizing

a

particular shared experience. Freedom

of

expression

is an

inher-

ent

human

right

because

it

exists,

and not

because

it was

enunciated

in the

Human

Rights

Charter

in

1948

or in any

other

instrument, national

or

international, either

before

or

since.

Freedom

of

expression

is a

vital basis

of

society

as it is the

means

by

which

the

citizen holds accountable

all in

authority. This

is

particularly true

in

a

democratic society

in

which

freedom

of

expression constitutes

the

orga-

nizing

principle around which public opinion (which

is but a

crystallization

of

the

freely

expressed wishes

of the

people) bears

on, and

prevails over,

all

aspects

of

governance.

The

perpetual importance

of

freedom

of

expression

is

particularly evident

in the

communications revolution

of the

contempo-

rary

information age. People

now

have access

to the

instant, global contact

that

accompanies

the

marvels

and

dangers

of

surfing

in

cyberspace.

This

was not

always

so.

Exceptions apart, ready acceptance

of

freedom

of

expression

is

relatively

recent.

After

all, information

is

power.

Down

the

millennia, kings

and

tyrants have sought

to

control information,

and

deny

it

to

others,

for

fear

of

being challenged. Information

has

traditionally been

divided between Caesar

and

God, with

the

priestly class playing

the

latter

role. Until

the

Renaissance, education

in

Europe

was

controlled

by the

clergy

who

thereby retained

a

cosy

monopoly

over power. Galileo

was

for-

mally exculpated

of

heresy

by the

Pope only

a few

years ago, even though

59

F

FREEDOH

OF

BY GEORGE VERGHESE

the

world

had

long accepted that

the

earth revolves around

the sun and the

scientific

progress associated with this notion.

Church

and

state have gone hand

in

hand

in

most societies

and

civili-

zations throughout

the

world.

The

Reformation brought about

a

divorce

between

the two in

Europe.

But

fundamentalism

in

various garbs

is

still

seen

in

many parts

of the

world, including

the

United States.

It

is no

surprise that

the

Renaissance

was

propelled

by the

invention

of

the

printing press

and

movable type.

The

publication

of

books, journals, newspa-

pers,

and a

whole series

of

inventions sped communications between people.

The

telegraph, telephone, wire services, rotary press, mass-circulation papers,

and

radio were precursors

to

television,

the

integrated

chip,

modern

telecom-

munications with switching devices, computers, satellites, data networks,

and

the

Internet.

The

transformation

has

been extraordinary.

At its

heart

lie

com-

munication technologies whose speed

of

development

reflects

the

growing

volume

of

expeditious

and

relatively inexpensive communication.

I

was a

member

of the

McBride Commission,

set up by the

United

Nations Educational,

Scientific

and

Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

in

1977

to

consider

the

changing

face

of

global communications. Decoloni-

zation

was

nearing completion, developing societies were

on the

move,

and the

consolidation

of the

European Economic Community presaged

the

beginning

of a new

thrust towards globalization.

The

communications

revolution

was

gathering momentum,

and the

question posed

to the

Com-

mission

was how to

ensure freedom

of

expression

in the

future.

Despite

global

consultation

and the

availability

of the

best expertise, none envis-

aged

the

scale

and

rapidity

of the

technological transformation that

has

since been

effected.

Many

Voices,

One

W

orld

was

published

in

1979, just

two

decades ago,

but

seemingly aeons since.

In

1977,

the

world

saw the

emergence

of

conflict

between

a

"free"

and

"balanced"

flow of

information. That

was

perhaps inevitable

at the

height

of

the

Cold War.

The

wide and, many

feared,

growing information

gap

between North

and

South

led to

concerns about

neo-colonialism,

cultural

hegemony (which even

the

French protested during

the final

GATT

nego-

tiations

on the

Uruguay round,

and the

Quebecois perhaps still

do),

and

the

deepening

of a new

global divide between haves

and

have-nots. While

a

North-South

gap is not

without substance, there

is a

north-south divide

within,

as

much

as

between,

all

countries.

The

concept

of

sovereignty

is by no

means dead, even

if

some proclaim

it

obsolescent.

The

idea

of

government

is,

however, yielding

to a

broader sense

of

governance

as

populations, nongovernment agencies, corporate

and

trans-

ESSAYS

ON THE

MEANING

OF

FREEDOM

OF

EXPRESSION

60