Some links to accompany today’s lecture on the limits of free speech and the increasing number of legal powers being granted to curtail it, mostly on grounds of ‘incitement to hatred of race, religion’ and ‘incitement to terrorism’.
Index on Censorship: very worthwhile site, tracking examples of censorship around the world.
Should extreme pornography be banned? The Guardian asked the opinion of various people, and they said some interesting things: check it out.
Backlash: anti-censorship site.
This discussion (particularly the comments-thread) is interesting: it’s Crooked Timber (a site usually worth a gander), and discusses whether incitement to hated on grounds of sexual orientation merits the same legal sanction as incitement to hatred on religious or racial grounds
Steven Poole is eloquent and pretty funny on ‘extreme images’ and ‘thoughtcrime’.
How far should freedom of speech extend? What, for instance, do you think of David Irving’s prosecution as a holocaust denier? Or the recent arrest by UK authorities of Frederick Toben?
