Law, incitement & freedom of expression

Freedom of expression is vital for a properly functioning society but serious concerns arise when people incite racism and violence. Indeed British laws now prohibit expressions of opinion that may incite racial hatred and/or incite violence. There is clearly a huge difference between Words and Deeds, but as the history of the last century has shown, racist incitement can lead to horrendous violence and human rights abuses. Further, respect for the Law is vital for a secure and orderly society - but what should happen when the fundamental human right of freedom of expression conflicts with laws passed by a democratically-elected parliamentary majority? This essay briefly explores these issues using some seminal examples.

1. Convictions for anti-war defacement of the Sydney Opera House (Sydney, 2003)

Three years ago two antiwar activists (Will Saunders, 42,  and Dave Burgess, 33) were sentenced to nine months’ periodic detention (weekend detention) and ordered to pay $151,000 clean-up costs for writing “No War” in red paint on one of the iconic Sydney Opera House’s “sails” in March  2003 in protest against Australian participation in the illegal US invasion of Iraq. Their physical desecration of the Sydney Opera House followed an earlier demonstration when two people ascended the iconic building and unfurled a banner opposing the impending Iraq War.

The punishment of these “red paint” anti-war activists aroused considerable controversy. Thus Richard Phillips writing in the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) (4 February 2004) declared:  “The unprecedented prison term, handed down three months after they were found guilty of “malicious damage” charges last October [2003], is a serious attack on democratic rights and a clear attempt to intimidate future protestors” (see: HERE ).

Libertarians would argue that (a) freedom of expression and (b) duty to publicly oppose an illegal war and consequent war crimes that would kill thousands of innocent people justified violation of the Sydney Opera House and of the Law. However it can be legitimately argued that non-damaging ways of exercising freedom of expression were available (e.g. use of banners rather than red paint and use of celebrities to gain public attention rather than defacement of an iconic public building) and that the real issue was surely opposing war rather than challenging the Law.

Heroic people in all kinds of contexts have legitimately challenged unfair Laws, and especially Laws that violate human rights conventions.  However in this instance law-abiding conservatives (such as myself)  could argue that Saunders and Burgess, while evidently courageous, humanitarian  and well-intentioned, could have exercised their imagination better and publicized their vital message in a legal and yet even more effective way e.g. draping the Sydney Harbour cliffs with a giant “No War” sign after the fashion of the celebrated 1969 event when the international artist Christo and his wife Jean-Claude came to Australia and made the world’s largest sculpture: “Wrapped Coast – One Million Square Feet, Little Bay, Sydney, Australia”  (see: HERE ).

The following example may be instructive in this context. The Indigenous (Aboriginal) people of Australia have been subject to horrendous genocide since the first European invasion in 1788.  The Indigenous population dropped from about 1 million at the time of the European Invasion in 1788 to merely 0.1 million a century later due to dispossession, deprivation, disease and massacre. In the 20th century the genocide continued by forcible removal of about 0.1 million Aboriginal children from their mothers (the Stolen  Generations), appalling discrimination and still continuing Third World living conditions. The Aboriginal Genocide (described as such by Australia’s top genocide expert, Professor Colin Tatz) is continuing – thus the “annual death rate” is 2.2% (for Indigenous Australians), 2.4% (for Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory), 0.4% (what it should be for the high birth rate Aboriginal community), 0.7% (for White Australians) and 2.5% (for sheep in pre-drought paddocks of Australian sheep farms). Words having failed – the Aboriginal Genocide continues in extremely prosperous Australia -  I painted a huge painting, the “Sydney Madonna” to bring the continuing Aboriginal Genocide to international attention (see MWC News).

Thanks to MWC News this painting and its acutely serious message is being exhibited around the World on the Web – but my earnest suggestion that it be projected onto the biggest “sail” of the Sydney Opera House has not yet received a response from the authorities.