Standing up for freedom of speech

This freedom surely is the bedrock for credible journalism in any open and democratic society. Yet it is a freedom that seems to be under attack like never before – both nationally and now, it appears, locally.

The recent attempt to rattle the foundations of our local free press was engineered by certain proponents of same-sex marriage. They were unhappy that the Guernsey Press had reported the forthright views of a dozen island churches all opposed to the idea.

The fact that these churches had banded together to write to all deputies to outline their collective stance, just ahead of the States debate, made it a story that the paper had an absolute duty to report to its readership. Not to do so would have been a dereliction.

Unfortunately, the waters surrounding that very legitimate news story were muddied by the hostile reaction to an advertisement against same-sex marriage which had been placed in the same paper by a UK organisation.

Those who wished to see the churches silenced sought to conflate the advert with the news item. However, let us be clear that commercial advertising is not editorial.

Personally I saw little or nothing 'wrong' with the 'offending' ad, although I am no expert. But nor are the complainants experts.

So now to the real issue, which is the insidious chipping away at our free speech bedrock by those who delight in taking offence, especially on behalf of others.

Whatever the subject, whether it is gay rights, women's rights, religious freedoms, freedom from religion or the vexed and highly topical question of migrants and refugees, the preferred strategy of these knee-jerk offence-takers is to shut down discussion.

Forget about engaging in substantive debate with the perennially offended. The main tactic employed by these self-appointed arbiters of all things right and decent is to name and shame any transgressors with the aim of intimidating them into a speedy withdrawal. Incendiary terms such as bigot and homophobe are thrown in like verbal grenades, but they are now so misused and overused that they have lost much of their explosive potency or the pin just gets stuck.

The Guernsey Press was on the receiving end of one of these devices last week when it was accused of 'supporting bigotry'. Thankfully the editor dismissed this pathetic squib of a charge for what it was and refused to be bullied, cajoled or swayed into censorship.

Yes, he agreed in one of his columns, there are limits to free speech when it comes to libel, defamation and incitement. But his most important point was this: '… just because people find an argument offensive does not mean it should not be heard. That way lies censorship and tyranny.'

Sadly, the tyranny of the serial offence-takers is all too prevalent these days. Go onto any social media site or any news forum and you will find them there in their legions.

'That really offends me' and 'you're being offensive', they whine – as if not being offended has morphed all of a sudden into some kind of basic human right backed up by the full force of the European Convention.

With no sense of irony, their next recourse is to brand as 'bigots' those who have offended them so sorely – just as they attempted to do with the local church leaders and this newspaper.

In my long experience I have found that those who resort most readily to the 'b' word as a term of abuse, including one or two current and former States members, simply have no idea what it means. So let me help them out a little.

A bigot, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is 'a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions'. And I can think of none so intolerant as those who wished to suppress the opinions of the 12 local church leaders.

Mercifully, the local rights group Liberate managed to rise above this crude attempt at censorship and so we must congratulate them for standing up for freedom of expression. It is such a pity that some of the group's more offended fellow travellers sought to shut down debate rather than have it opened up.

MARTYN TOLCHER.