Legal systems and free speech
Expecting these three totalitarian countries to honor free speech and press freedom is a pipe dream.
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Expecting these three totalitarian countries to honor free speech and press freedom is a pipe dream.
In an official report made public recently, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization stated that the legal systems in several countries are being misused to muzzle free speech.
According to the report, some 44 states are strengthening punitive policies on libel, defamation and insult in their efforts to counter disinformation or hate speech. In particular, the report said that criminal defamation laws such as libel are utilized to restrict freedom of expression.
The UNESCO report also indicated that more than a hundred journalists worldwide have been imprisoned on defamation raps, often with side charges of ethnic or religious disrespect, dissemination of fake news, or subversion.
UNESCO recommended, among others, that states should repeal criminal defamation laws and replace these laws with statutes simply allowing civil damages to offended persons.
Unfortunately, the UNESCO report misses certain global legal, political and cultural realities. While free speech and press freedom for all countries may be the ideal norm, some states will be hard put to institutionalize this norm.
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Saudi Arabia is one. Its government is an absolute monarchy where the word of the Saudi king is the law. The Saudi legal system does not accommodate Western-style free speech and press freedom because these freedoms have never been a tradition in Saudi Arabian society. Saudi print and broadcast media do not carry any material that is critical of the government, or which is incompatible with or repugnant to Islamic religious tenets.
Like many Middle Eastern countries, Saudi Arabia censors international broadcasts which do not subscribe to their politics, including programs that mention Israel, its sworn enemy.
To impose the UNESCO standards of free speech and press freedom in Saudi Arabia and similarly situated countries will be virtually impossible. To insist on imposing those standards may be tantamount to meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.
Then there are countries like Russia, China, North Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
Russia, China and North Korea are totalitarian states each headed by a dictator who will not hesitate to use bullying tactics and even brute force to get what they want.
In February 2022, Russia waged an illegal, unprovoked war against its peaceful neighbor Ukraine.
China is making illegal territorial claims in the West Philippine Sea in contravention of a ruling by an international arbitration tribunal. Likewise, China seized the Paracel Islands from Vietnam and threatens to use military force to take Taiwan.
North Korea is obsessed with its decades-long dream of conquering South Korea and has threatened to use nuclear weapons against its enemies, the United States in particular.
Expecting these three totalitarian countries to honor free speech and press freedom is a pipe dream.
Singapore may be a Southeast Asian economic powerhouse, but it is a repressive society in terms of human rights. Its citizens are so obsessed with material wealth, and they do not respect the human rights of fellow Asians who happen to be doing domestic work there.
The island state's legal system is notorious for violating human rights. In March 1995, Filipino domestic worker Flor Contemplacion was executed by Singaporean authorities after she was found guilty of murder in proceedings marked by incredible speculations about her guilt.
Press freedom in Singapore is severely restricted. Because Singapore imports fresh water from Malaysia, the Singapore media are not allowed to criticize Malaysia. In turn, the internet in Malaysia is strictly censored for anti-government and anti-Islamic content.
How UNESCO expects these two countries to accept its recommendations on free speech and press freedom baffles.
Thailand may be a free country, but the Siamese tradition forbids Thai media from criticizing the monarch and Buddhist monks. The Thai king and Buddhist monks are venerated in Thailand and expecting Bangkok to ease up on this tradition may be next to impossible.
UNESCO should realize that it should not expect the legal systems of all countries to conform to UNESCO standards overnight.
