Channel 4’s Christmas message
December 25th, 2008 | This post was written by Fiona MelvilleI haven’t seen it (no-one has yet!) but I’ve just found the full text of President Ahmadinejad’s alternative Christmas message for Channel 4.
Despite the ravings of various people, I don’t see much wrong with it. True, he doesn’t say all that much of substance. It’s too reliant on religion as the one true path for my taste – but then I also think that the Pope’s recent comments on homosexuality were just as blind to reality.
I’m not defending Ahmadinejad’s views on the Holocaust or any of his other prejudices, but I absolutely believe that there is a duty on broadcasters to provide information to allow us to make up our own minds AND a duty on all of us to try to see past our own prejudices.
It is a bit strange that a country’s president has agreed to what is effectively a commercial broadcast on a (sadly) minority channel. But doesn’t it say a lot that the knee-jerk response to this is to call for the privatisation of Channel 4, a ban on Ahmadinejad’s broadcast and for advertisers to boycott the channel? Surely if there’s one thing we pride ourselves on, it’s the freedom that we all have to choose. And think on this – he is able to broadcast this in the UK but would probably not allow such freedom in his own country. I’m assuming that there will be some coverage of this event in Iran…
As for the rest of us: there is an off button, you know.
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Tags: Foreign Affairs, Liberty, Society
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December 27th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I think the point about allowing freedom of speech whilst not necessarily providing a platform is a valid one. That said,I wonder what one could get away with at Speaker’s Corner nowadays. It’s generally thought you can say anything – but if someone takes exception and complains to the Police you will end up in the magistrate’s court. Profanity is also not allowed.So would the Pope be arrested if eg Iain Dale objected to what he was saying on Homosexuality?