Freedom of Expression of the 60s and in the 21st Century!

                                     I HAVE A DREAM.....    

  

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A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over over
If you want it
War is over
Now... 

John Lennon! That was the decade of 1960s. World was going through trauma of different tragic wars of Korea, Vietnam, many ones in Africa, Cuban Missile Crisis and assassination of US president John F. Kennedy. This was also the decade for the emergence of arts, aesthetics and resurgence of love and passion across the continent through Youth, Beatles, Feminism, Fashion and much more. Intellectual currents flowed all across the world alongside a powerful critique of cultural and political authority. The spirits of counterculture lead to a critique of family, the creation of alternative lifestyle and drug culture. Latin American experiences of revolutions, military terror and violence, anti-colonialism and racial oppression in Africa; the resonance of Cultural Revolution in China reverberated locally and globally. All theories of civilisation, race, history, politics, culture and identity were put to tear.

It would be not be incorrect to suggest that cultural creativity was never quite the same after the sixties. Music, fashion, design, art, architecture, cinema, theatre and performance bear the mark and traces of turbulent period of global upheaval. In all this Pandora`s Box of happening, one thing was noticeable; rise of assertive right og Freedom of Expression. Foundation of UNESCO was just a decade later as well as Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We were and are still witnessing the convergence of momentous historical events and huge chances to our audiovisual media, an inevitable and welcome consequences of which is a global reassessment of how images are compiled, constructed, valued and received. The rise of New Journalism, Investigative journalism`s triumph in Watergate scandal resulting in resignation of USA President, worldwide opinion building by UN agencies and domestic political movements about the freedom of expression made solid commitment for the framing of the benchmarks for the Freedom of Expression of everyone.

‘It is widely recognized that freedom must be reconciled with an obligation to obey the law and must not be exploited to injure the freedom of others; also that the exercise of freedom has a counterpart which is the need to exercise it with responsibility, which in the field of communication means primarily a concern for truth and the legitimate use of the power it conveys. We need to ask moreover, on what grounds a claim for freedom is being made. The freedom of a citizen or social groups to have access to communication, both as recipients and

contributors, cannot be compared to the freedom of an investor to derive profit from the media. One protects a fundamental human right; the other permits the commercialization of a social need. Yet when all these reservations are made, the principle of freedom of expression is one that admits of no exceptions and that is applicable to people all over the world by virtual of their human dignity.’

While freedom of expression should be viewed as a fundamental right, it needs to be seen in the larger context of competing values and interests. Equality and diversity of expression are a subset of a wider range of values and interests critical to understanding the key values that support freedom of expression and also those that are putting it at greater risk as we head into the second decade of the 21st Century. That is why it is necessary to look at the wider, developing ecology that is reshaping freedom of expression in the network society, but without deflecting attention from protecting this core value. Then the limitations to the freedom of expression defined by European Union are considered to be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.

In the 1970s, international debates on communications issues had stringently reached points of confrontation in many areas. Third world protests against the dominant flow of news from industrialised countries were often constructed as attacks on free flow of information. Defenders of journalistic freedom were labelled intruders on national sovergenity. Varying concepts of news values and the roles, rights, responsibilities journalists were widely contended, as was the potential contribution of the mass media to the solution of major world problems. Freedom of thought and freedom of expression have always been contested ground between public and private authorities and the independent spirit. These days there are four revolutions being considered as far as information access is considered. First one was definitely the invention of printing by Gutenberg. The second one being the wireless radio and television. Third one was invention of computer and microprocessors. In the 21^st century is driven by search engines, database, social networks and cloud computing. In all these revolutions technology has always taken lead while formulating the rights and responsibilities of freedom of access and delivery of information. When printing press, wireless radio, TV, computer, internet were invented very few people had the knowledge and access of those instruments and services so as to make sense of access of knowledge through them. But basic issue remains. Rights are inalienable. Rights are inherent. Rights are natural. Rights are legacy of human kind. Freedom of expression and Freedom of Information are thus these kind of rights. Technology evolves, and then it is the responsibility of Public Policy of the Governments, innovative capability of the corporations and adaptability of the mass markets driven by certain cultural norms to proliferate these technologies; products and services.

Then I must conclude by singing another song from sixties. This one is from Veera Lynn. I do not what it conveys; at one instance it conveys deep sense of hope and on another instance it connects very subtly the pessimism we want to overcome by just saying that do not worry, everything will be OKAY !

We'll meet again
We'll meet again,
Don't know where,
Don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day
Keep smiling through,
Just like you always do
Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away

So will you please say "Hello"
To the folks that I know
Tell them I won't be long
They'll be happy to know
That as you saw me go
I was singing this song

We'll meet again,
Don't know where,
Don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day

[ We'll meet again,
Don't know where
Don't know when.
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day.
Keep smiling through
Just like you always do,
'Til the blue skies
Drive the dark clouds far away
So will you please say"Hello"
To the folks that I know.
Tell them I won't be long.
They'll be happy to know
That as you saw me go,
I was singin' this song.

We'll meet again,
Don't know where,
Don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day ]

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