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In South Africa free speech is also progressively being stifled through new laws, whos purpose is said to punish racism and hate speech, but is actually being u

In South Africa free speech is also progressively being stifled through new laws, whos purpose is said to punish racism and hate speech, but is actually being used to support the governing party in silencing dissidents and critics. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35235102 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35235102 "A spokesman for the ANC chief whip's office, Moloto Mothapo, told the BBC that current legislation was insufficient to tackle racism." "We haven't had a single person imprisoned for racism despite many instances of racism. We don't believe it addresses the crime of racism," he said." (he means the current laws) "Elsewhere glorification of Nazism and denial of Holocaust is a crime and perpetrators are tried and sentenced to a prison term," it added.

alanwatts 10y ago
>In South Africa free speech is also progressively being stifled through new laws, whos purpose is said to punish racism and hate speech, but is actually being used to support the governing party in silencing dissidents and critics. Stifling free speech, in any case, is always just like putting a band-aid on an infected boil which only serves to make the problem fester even more. >Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured. -Dr. King, Letter From a Birmingham Jail
talmand 10y ago
Likely those laws were never intended to actually do anything about racism. Racism was used as the boogeyman to justify expanding government powers to allow arresting of the "other". It's a growing trend in many nations around the world, using an exaggerated social issue to expand power.

alanwatts 10y ago

>In South Africa free speech is also progressively being stifled through new laws, whos purpose is said to punish racism and hate speech, but is actually being used to support the governing party in silencing dissidents and critics. Stifling free speech, in any case, is always just like putting a band-aid on an infected boil which only serves to make the problem fester even more. >Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured. -Dr. King, Letter From a Birmingham Jail

talmand 10y ago

Likely those laws were never intended to actually do anything about racism. Racism was used as the boogeyman to justify expanding government powers to allow arresting of the "other". It's a growing trend in many nations around the world, using an exaggerated social issue to expand power.