Britain’s High-Tech Thought Police

Britain’s High-Tech Thought Police

Brendan O'Neill|Oct. 17, 2012 4:30 pm

What country has just sentenced a man to eight months in prison for wearing an anti-police t-shirt, and another man to three months in prison for telling an “abhorrent” joke on Facebook? Iran, perhaps? China? No, it’s Britain.

Something has gone horribly wrong in Britain in recent years. The birthplace of John Milton (“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience”), and John Stuart Mill (“Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is so far doing a public service”), has become a cesspit of censoriousness.

The frequency with which the police and legal system now throw into jail anyone judged to have committed a “speech crime” is alarming.

For the entire aricle with links to references:

http://reason.com/archives/2012/10/17/britains-high-tech-thought-police/print


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That's very sad news...

I know the rest of my post is not related to the topic at all, but please read it and answer me!

But here I have a problem, why Iran's name became like this? Why people think here there is no justice?

I'm not saying here everything is great, but there is justice here. The only different is that, law's here are written based on Islam, not anything else. You may say you don't have freedom of speech, yes, that's correct, but at least we don't say we have it, like other countries who don't have this and claim to have it!

Please let me know why these days most of people think this way about Iran, and about my people...

That's why we left. Just saying. (Bad joke, don't taze me bro!)

Sajjad Heydari, are you living in Iran now? Are you connecting to this site from there?

Br. John wrote: Sajjad Heydari, are you living in Iran now? Are you connecting to this site from there?

Yes

Sajjad Heydari wrote:

Br. John wrote: Sajjad Heydari, are you living in Iran now? Are you connecting to this site from there?

Yes

Is it dangerous for you doing that? Could it be considered blasphemy or some crime? I'm asking because I don't know how this works in your country and you've said there is not freedom of speech.

I appreciate any help you have on educating us about this.

Br. John wrote:

Sajjad Heydari wrote:

Br. John wrote: Sajjad Heydari, are you living in Iran now? Are you connecting to this site from there?

Yes

Is it dangerous for you doing that? Could it be considered blasphemy or some crime? I'm asking because I don't know how this works in your country and you've said there is not freedom of speech.

I appreciate any help you have on educating us about this.

By the freedom of speech, I mean talking behind Islam and politics. And There is no problem with being in this site, (otherwise it would be banned)

So back to the first question, could you please let me know why?

I can only guess why the author used Iran as an example. I imagine he perceives the people in Iran and China have far less freedom than in The US.

I can certainly say and publish things criticizing any religion, any person and the government and it's not a crime in The US.

Sajjad Heydari wrote: And There is no problem with being in this site, (otherwise it would be banned)

I think you might have answered your own question? The article is about freedom of expression and you do point out that sites are banned in Iran.

Irrelevant tidbit; my sister-in-law is married to an Iranian/Persian.

I'm not talking about freedom only, yes I agree freedom of speech is not as it must be here. my question was this "Why others think the great emperor of Persian, in 2000 years had become like this?" In clergy section, there is an article, and it is talking about cultures, and it say "Persian(yet Turkey)" while Persian is for Iran, not turkey.

Statics show Iran has the fastest producing of technology, and even by this fact, people in other countries believe Iran is living in ... I don't know, 300 B.C.

Other countries believe we are terrorist, and if you look closer, just in this year in Persian Calendar, 11 scientists whose job was related to Nuclear Power had been terrored, by who? Not Persian of course.

Not only these facts, but because of some problems, Jobs of Persian Scientists who lived before is not counted, like laws of Lens, like telescope, like many things, and now, each of those is named after a European scientist.

My question is, why?