Freedom of Speech Down Under
Here are a couple of quick items that should give us a helpful glimpse into the state of freedom of speech in Australia.
First, the story of Aussie broadcaster Michael Smith, who is in hot water over comments that he has made regarding the prophet Muhammad. Heath Aston of the Sydney Morning Herald reports:
THE radio presenter Michael Smith is being investigated by the media watchdog over his assertion that the prophet Muhammad ''married a nine-year-old and consummated it when she was 11''.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority confirmed in a letter dated July 21 that it was investigating the remarks by the 2UE afternoon host.
Adem Cetinay, a Muslim from Bossley Park, complained that Mr Smith was inciting hatred against Muslims through his July 5 broadcast.
As to whether or not Michael Smith was right to associate the prophet Muhammad with pedophilia, according to the Sahih al-Bukhari, one of the collections of hadith attributed to Muhammad, Volume 5, Book 58, Number 236:
Narrated Hisham's father:
Khadija died three years before the Prophet departed to Medina. He stayed there for two years or so and then he married 'Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consumed that marriage when she was nine years old.
You be the judge. In the meantime, let's move on to our next item, shall we?
Here's Ted Lapkin at ABC making his case against Australia's Racial Hatred Act of 1995:
By definition, racial hatred legislation invokes the coercive machinery of the state to ban speech because some people deem its content to be offensive. The long arm of government is employed to stifle opinions considered politically incorrect by the dominant culture of the day. This is a recipe, not for democracy, but for tyranny.
Give the whole thing a read while you're at it. H/t to Blazing Cat Fur.
Finally, lest we forget the seminal Australian challenge to freedom of speech, I'll leave you with Mark Steyn's take from a couple of months back on the Andrew Bolt case:
Mark Steyn on Free Speech at the IPA from Institute of Public Affairs on Vimeo.
Walker Morrow is a Contributing Writer for The Propagandist
For a nation descended from lawless criminals, Australia sure has gone soft.
