Originally written by John Bunch on June 6, 2008 5:28 PM Thank God for the U.S. Constitution and 1st Amendment !

Yup. As Noam says, the US has the most free press in the world. His opinion on France: Post #124548.

Jacek

It depends on what you mean by "free" as well as by "press."  The mainstream press (e.g. New York Times and CNN) is largely free from official governmental interference, but it is largely controlled by narrow corporate interests who dramaticly restrict what is covered and the range of opinions presented.

But more importantly, "freedom of the press" is only one aspect of the more expansive concpet of "freedom of expression," which includes, among other things, the right to express oneself in art.  In that respect, the U.S. is one of the MOST restrictive of western countries, as works which address sex or eroticism are subject to many constraints that inhibit creativity.  Countries such as the Netherlands and Germany allow a wider range of artistic expression.

Not the mainstream press; the press I mostly quote from.

"freedom of expression," .... In that respect, the U.S. is one of the MOST restrictive of western countries,

Yes.

Jacek

As for walking with a beer, what you say is true for most American cities, but not in New Orleans, or at least in the French Quarter, (and at least before Katrina hit).

Several problems arise with your differentiation between the print medium and "public artistic speech."  First, you introduced an element of publicness that I did not include; American law censors artistic speech even when made in private for private consumption.  And the "press" is also curtailed on the argumetn that it is foisted upon the public; broadcast television and radio (which is treated as "the press") is censored on the theory that people can unwittingly tune in to offensive material (the Supreme Court held this in a case in which it upheld a fine against a radio station which had aired George Carlin's famous "Seven Dirty Words" bit).

Even more fundamentally, however, is I think you miss the point that free speech is not limited to the press; in fact those are two separate freedoms, and both of which are explicitly protected by the First Amendment ("Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...").  Note that "freedom of speech"is something different from, and seems to have priority to, freedom of the press.

Art is perhaps the most important field of human expression, for it is there that our humanity can most accurately and movingly be revealed.  Great works of art can echo through the ages, whereas very few newspaper articles are remembered.  And ultimately, there can be no free political speech if there is no free artistic speech.

Originally written by John Bunch on June 6, 2008 11:28 AM The Brigitte Bardot case in France is similar: fines for words. Are we in the West heading toward totalitarian rule (even if it is in a softer form than the USSR with its gulags) ? Will free speech in future be a thing of the past ? It appears that in Canada and France, it already is. Thank God for the U.S. Constitution and 1st Amendment !

John,

I posted a similar article about Internet restrictions in the name of 'common good', it is in French and can be found here. Curiously enough, I also dared to compare these 'vacuum-cleaning' regulations to Stalinism.

It looks like we're heading for a Western society directed by some ilk of political hypercorrectness, the question being: Who will control the controllers? or, more correctly: To whom will the crime benefit?

Laurent K.