Re: Talk of interest to visual studies folks

From: Mark Freeman <[email protected]>

I believe that art and politics are (often) intrinsically related.   
Certainly the removal of historical work by a governor objecting to  
the content of the art is an explicitly political act.

Political speech, no matter if intemperate or offensive, should be the  
most protected speech, and the least subject to censorship--- even/ 
(especially) in the context of an academic forum.

I believe that the appropriate response to characterizations and  
opinions that some find objectionable is more speech, not less.

I would be very uncomfortable with empowering a moderator to edit  
remarks found to be politically motivated and/or opinionated.  It's a  
slippery slope.  In my "opinion" if we believe that Ai Wei Wei should  
be able to speak freely in China, we should also staunchly defend free  
speech and the rights of artists in our own forum, and in our own  
country.

I would hope that protocols for moderating the H-FILM  list would  
explicitly safeguard free speech.


Mark Freeman
Chair SDSU Senate Freedom of Expression Committee

Professor
School of Theatre, Television, and Film
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Dr.
San Diego, CA 92182-7601
Ph  619 594-5497
Fax 619 594-1391
http://www.markfreemanfilms.org

"Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of  
nearly every other form of freedom." - Benjamin Nathan Cardozo

MODERATOR'S NOTE: Just so the list is clear on the process, when we  
suggest any rewording of a post -- which is VERY rare these days -- we  
ONLY do so with the consent of the original author. Ultimately it's  
supposed to be their words -- their name is attached to them -- so  
such editing requires their approval. Our greatest concern, of course,  
is anything that is potentially libelous (but this is exceedingly  
rare). More generally, our concern is just to keep the discussion  
focused on the purpose of the list ("encourages scholarly discussion  
of cinema history and uses of the media"). Such discussion is not  
useful when it disintegrates into name-calling.  "Bonehead" gets into  
that territory. Then it should be added, when the original author was  
made aware of this they agreed it was "inappropriate" and apologized  
for its use. Those who disagree -- and this is also rare -- have  
plenty of other forums at their disposal where they are free to say  
whatever they want. In our experience, most appreciate that H-Film  
endeavors to keep the discussion on-topic and civil. Again, our  
apologies to this list for not sorting this out beforehand.