ICAR News Network

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Free Speech: Sink or Swim
Mark Jansson, ICAR Certificate Student
Posted: 07/03/07

In light of Michael Shank’s important article on the growing threats to free speech and democracy in Pakistan and Egypt, it is also troubling to note that censorship certainly has had its power-preserving successes in Iran and other places. Indeed, bad precedents have been set, so it's hard for Musharraf and Mubarak to resist censorship if, ultimately, they don't trust their people.

But if they have so much as a mote of confidence in their policies and their people, then they should take comfort in the fact that even the blogosphere is fairly self-correcting. No doubt, there are a lot of half-truths and outright fabrications floating about cyberspace, but often they are quickly exposed for what they are.

The danger, of course, is that sometimes bad ideas are not exposed until it's too late, and too late can come real quick for regimes with a tenuous hold on power. Times are indeed tough for U.S.-friendly leaders in the Middle East, but Mubarak, and even Musharraf, need not be so utterly insecure. They are their own worst enemies when it comes to political stability.

Smart political leaders understand that the best check on bad ideas isn't censorship: it is allowing better ideas to overcome them. Truth is, after all, timeless. But even when the truth is colored gray, it’s healthy to hear bad ideas because they make good ideas better and more complete. It’s a tumultuous process, but worth it in every way.

Even Musharraf and Mubarak should want to be on the crest of that wave. It is unfortunate that they’re afraid of the water. Eventually, they will have to swim or be sunk.


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