CENSORSHIP AND THE STIRRER

27-08-2007

The debate on our Message Board following Jesse Jackson's visit to Birmingham last week prompts the question - how far should The Stirrer censor its content?

In some cases, of course, there's no question about it - if posters make comments which unfairly or inaccurately defame an individual we are obliged to remove them so that we're not sued for libel.

But what if someone makes comments thatsome readers might find offensive, but which then go on to provoke an intelligent and revealing debate which helps(for some of us at least) a greater understanding of the issues.

Such was my dilemma when Message Board regular Iron Chicken replied to our article"The Line Of Slavery Is Not Broken” (see link here) which reported Revd. Jackson's call for anapology for slavery.

Iron Chicken suggested that instead, Jackson should apologise to him for a culture of "gun crime....street gangs....fatherless children ....[and] filthy music” which he associated with black people.

It seemed to me to be a deliberately provocative and even aggressive contribution, and as such I knew it wouldupset some readers.

Yet by the time I logged on to the debate, it had already triggered a series of robust and considered responses which certainly expanded my knowledge of slavery and associated issues.

To makes sense of these replies, you had to understand what the original contentious post had said - removing or otherwise censoring it would have left readers to mull over only one side of an argument.

On balance I decided to leave Iron Chicken's response as it was - at the same time as weighing in with my own challenge to his views.

Stirrer readers come to this site, I hope, because they know that this is an arena for grown-up discussion; and I presume they understand that the risk of being (occasionally) offended and (frequently) challenged goes with the territory - and so too does the right to reply in robust terms.

Free speech, though not an absolute, is one of the most cherished values we have. The Stirrer intendsto make the most of it.