Recently, legislation has come before the Russian government that would attempt to make it illegal to produce any form of written media that involved or created awareness about Gay, Lesbian, or Transgender people. President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin could silence an portion of their population by a simple approval. Several efforts are being made to make sure that this does not happen in Russia, including flashmobs, protests, and the sort, all of which could jeopardize activists' freedom.
This quite blatantly violates human rights. Freedom of speech, press, thought, and sexuality specifically. Speech, Press, and Thought all fall under the same category almost. The prohibition of any subject in media of any sort violates these immediately. Freedom of Sexuality is violated just in the act of silencing that entire section of the population. In what way is that fair to them as people?
I, personally, was surprised when this popped up on my facebook newsfeed. A friend of mine sent it to me, obviously knowing how passionate I am about this subject, earlier today and I was outraged. How could any country possibly think of censoring and whole sect of their population. What is so wrong about the subject? I do understand that this is a different country and there might be a context I don't quite have knowledge of, but it seems out of left field since Russia is supposedly considered on of the leading nations in the world (note its presence on the UN Security Council). It is unfortunate and unfair and I hope that the legislation does not pass.
Do you think that there are any grounds to censor such as this? What do you think the Russian government is trying to accomplish with this?
I personally believe different cultures view this topic in many different ways. If Russia believes their culture and society do not need to have that knowledge in their media then it is their decision. Just because the United States is so gung-ho about gay rights in the media doesn't mean every other country needs to be that way. It is a decision that needs to be made on a country by country bases. More importantly if a majority of a population doesn't agree with it, then I do not see any problem with keeping it from occurring. And yes there are countries that a majority of the population disagree with media being promoted pertaining to the gay community. They are not saying the gays do not have the right, but simply they do not want that in their media.
ReplyDeleteCensorship is wrong no matter what the topic is and speech is an international right for a reason. There would be no "cultural" question if it was a religious group that was being silenced even (or more likely especially) if that group was a minority. They are quite simply stating that if you are of a certain group then you do not deserve a public voice and that is wrong regardless of cultural aspects. The first thing hate mongers take away is a group's voice they happened not to agree with.
ReplyDeleteIf you do not like what a group has to say, don't listen, its that simple.
By taking away a person's voice you take away their power. Every person has the right to freedom of speech, no matter their sex, race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. It is fundamentally wrong to attempt to silence the voices of citizens. furthermore, such an attempt has been a sign of trouble ahead. just look at how Germany tried to silence the Jews by burning books.
ReplyDelete