World View: Fundamental Rights

During the last few weeks, there has been much talk in the media and in everyday conversations about basic freedoms that we take for granted: freedom of the press and freedom of expression in whatever form—in newspapers, magazines, Internet video or film.

Everyone has been talking about whether magazines should have printed pictures of a topless Kate Middleton, the wife of Prince William, and if the French magazine Charlie Hebdo should have printed cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad, and whether Google’s YouTube should have taken down the vile video Innocence of Muslims, which denigrates Islam.

At dinner tables, in work break rooms, in coffee shops, on campuses, we have all been debating whether there should be limits to what the press can print and what individuals have the right to say, criticize, mock or disparage; and whether, in the volatile and incendiary times we live in, particularly with the wave of violent fanaticism that has arisen in recent decades, members of the press and owners of media outlets should not exercise some self-censorship, particularly when innocent lives are at stake.

Rather than expound on my views (although if I were Kate I just wouldn’t go topless, thus avoiding the whole unsavory mess she got caught up in), I would like to share what others much more knowledgeable and eloquent than I have said on the issue of freedom of expression.

Recently, Christiane Amanpour, on her eponymous show on CNN International, had as a guest Bernard Henri-Lévy, the French writer, intellectual and philosopher, known in France as BHL, whose numerous works include Who Killed Daniel Pearl? and American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville.

Amanpour asked BHL, “Now, I know you come down on the side of freedom of expression. So do we all. But the question is, is [publishing the cartoon mocking the Prophet Muhammad] a smart editorial choice at this moment? Do we have responsibilities—you, me and those cartoonists?"

And BHL answered, “My opinion is the following: I don’t like these cartoons. I respect the Koran deeply and I don’t like [gratuitous] offense like this. But those who feel offended must know three things. Number one, they have to appeal to the law [to the courts]. This is the way of democracy. Number two, if Charlie Hebdo or whatever newspaper makes a mistake, [the newspaper] is responsible for the mistake, not the state, not the embassies,”—if someone is offended by an article or cartoon in a publication, the offended must not confuse the publication with the government of the country where that publication is based. “The newspaper is the beginning and end of democracy,” BHL continued. “And number three, the right to blasphemy is a key point of freedom. This cover of Charlie Hebdo mocks a Muslim man—and a rabbi. I don’t like it. I don’t like blasphemy against my creed. But I know that since Voltaire, the right of blasphemy is really the nuclear core of freedom in general. Everybody must understand that, even if we feel offended in our hearts.”

BHL was referring to a quote often attributed to the French philosopher Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” 

It’s not surprising that the American Founding Fathers took so much inspiration from the French when drafting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, whose First Amendment protects the freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. Former President Bill Clinton, in fact, referred to those very tenets when discussing Innocence of Muslims in an interview with Charlie Rose.

“We weren’t disrespecting Islam by not squelching a film trailer that nobody in authority knew anything about, that 99 percent of us think was crude, and disrespectful, and awful,” he said. “We have learned the hard way, over more than 200 years, that in order to preserve freedom and liberty, including the freedom of religion, you have to allow people to say and do things that you find abhorrent. And you can’t react every time you’re insulted…. If you live in a shame-based society where you think nothing good’s going to happen, the temptation is to wait for somebody to say something you’d find offensive and you can lash out against it. But free people absorb destructive things and refuse to be destroyed.”

Freedom of expression is at the core of democratic societies, but it’s also central to the health and viability of the filmmaking industry, many of whose constituents will be gathering in Santa Monica at the American Film Market. As they discuss the challenges of pitching their ideas, finding financing and mastering marketing techniques, there is one thing they won’t have to worry about: their right to express their visions.