Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 14:37:27 +0000
From: "M.A.&N.G. Jones" <Jones_M-AT-netcomuk.co.uk>
Subject: Re: M-I: Free Speech Wars


This is wonderful.LM and the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts, a chic gallery
ensconced in the middle of the Royal Navy's HQ  and hard-by Buckingham Palace)
are hosting a 3-day free speech event (tickets 50 pounds, ie 80 dollars, but
only 30 pounds of you are unemployed - not bad considering that the national rate
for an unemployed COUPLE is 79 pounds per week and that is to live on -- 
I do not expect too many fustian-clad proles clamouring thru Admiralty Arch 
to get to this one).

And the speakers, passionate barrikadistas of freespeech? Who they?

Aside from cult-fuhrer Furedi and his few followers, a long list of 
rightwing journos, gliterati, cafe society lend-lease women, and minor 
literary figures, and other ingenues.

 The context of this spectacle is the following: the British Parliament is
passing  a law which will for the first time give Britain a Bill of Rights and
also attach us to the Strasbourg convention on the same. Everyone agrees with
this EXCEPT the fourth Estate: the tabloids, Murdoch and Harmsworth press etc,
resent a right guaranteeing personal privacy and are demanding that the Press 
(in the interests of Freedom, natch!) shd have an exemption --  medieval in
manner and feudal in spirit, they want medieval, arbitrary concessions to
apply to them exclusively.

How clever of Hreatfield and his gang to attach themselves to Rupert Murdoch's
extreme rightwing bandwagon in this way.

As far as I can see, the only stone in Furedi's shoe, in his campaign to make a
rightwing neanderthal out of Karl Marx, is this List.

I am waiting for the denoucners of betrayal, Bip Malecki, Hugh Rodwell et al,
to speak. Anyone for Habermas?

Mark

James Heartfield wrote:

>   ------- Forwarded message follows -------
>
> FREE SPEECH WARS
>
> Free Speech Wars is a three-day international festival of talks, debates,
> screenings and events organised by the ICA and LM magazine in association
> with Waterstone's.
>
> The Festival will explore the boundaries of contemporary taboo from the WWW
> to the corner shop and ask: how far should free speech go?
>
> 'I'm not in favour of censorship, but...' Of course everyone supports free
> speech in principle, but in practice it seems there is always an exception:
> privacy laws and the paparazzi; Prodigy lyrics and pictures of Myra
> Hindley; smoking on the screen and porn on the Net.
>
> Are the calls for restraint and bans an understandable response to a media
> free-for-all? Or are the exceptions to free speech becoming the rule? Do
> words and images have a power that needs to be regulated or is regulation
> itself the real threat?
>
> These are questions that require the fullest debate possible. The ICA and
> LM have organised Free Speech Wars as a contribution to such a debate.
>
> There is a website which will keep you up-to-date with developments before,
> during and after the event:
>
>         <www.FreeSpeechWars.org>
>
> Latest news, timetable changes and a discussion area ... please join in.
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-> ISSUES:
> Hate Speech, Publishing, Advertising, Disclosure - press freedom after
> Diana, Music, Comedy, Internet, Film, Reporting, Broadcasting, Abortion,
> Football, Photography, Computer Games and other topical controversies.
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-> SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
> Nadine Strossen - President, American Civil Liberties Union; Fay Weldon -
> Novelist; Dr Frank Furedi - Author, Culture of Fear; Alan Clark MP; David
> Banks - Consultant Editor, Sunday Mirror; William Bourdon - Defence lawyer
> for the photographers charged in connection with the death of Diana,
> Princess of Wales; Mick Hume - Editor, LM; Anthony Julius - Lawyer and
> critic; Cosmo Landesman - Art critic, Sunday Times; Frances Kissling -
> President, Catholics for a Free Choice; Tony Wilson - Factory Records;
> Jello Biafra - Dead Kennedys; Laetitia Sadier - Stereolab; Chris Ellison -
> Internet Freedom; Roger Gale MP; Tom Dewe Mathews - Author; Melanie
> Phillips - Columnist, Observer; Christopher Dunkley - TV critic, Financial
> Times; Beatrix Campbell - Columnist, Observer; Q.
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-> VENUE:
> ICA, The Mall, London, SW1
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-> DATES:
> Friday 27 February to Sunday 1 March 1998
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-> TICKETS:
> Festival Pass: UKP50 (allows entrance into all festival events over three
> days) or UKP30 (concessions)
>
> One Day Pass: UKP20 or UKP15 (concessions)
>
> Tickets are available ONLY from the ICA box office +44 (0)171 930 3647,
> open daily: 1200-2130. You are advised to book in advance. Full price
> tickets can be purchased by post (send a sterling cheque payable to the ICA
> plus 30p) or by telephone (with any major credit card). Concessions
> available to full-time students, OAPs, and claimants only at the Box
> Office.
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-> INFORMATION:
> >From the website or the Festival Hotline: Claire Fox +44 (0)171 278 9908 or
> +44 (0)976 628 584 or email: lm-AT-informinc.co.uk
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-> --
> James Heartfield
>
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