ROTHENBURGER – The world decides not to play the killer’s game
AS SURELY AS IF by referendum in every country, in every city and every house on every street and country road, the world made a decision on Friday. It was the right decision.
We voted as a global community to opt out of the long-held premise that if we’re to have freedom of expression, it must be absolute. That there must be no exceptions. Under the old way of thinking, once we deviate even an inch, all will be lost. We will inevitably descend into the world of Orwell’s 1984, controlled by the Ministry of Truth and the language of Newspeak.
That’s over. We decided there must be exceptions in order to protect the whole, and that we can manage those exceptions.
The turning point was the mass murder in New Zealand in which a killer (at this writing it’s unclear if he had accomplices) planned a live video production of the rampage in which he slaughtered 49 people.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops, former school board chair, former editor of The Kamloops Daily News, and a current director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He was awarded the Jack Webster Foundation’s lifetime achievement award in 2011. His editorials are published Monday through Thursdays, and Saturdays on CFJC Today, CFJC Midday and CFJC Evening News. Contact him at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Who can forget watching the videos of “9/11” that showed people jumping to their deaths from the twin towers?
Had the reporting of news crossed the line to a place that hatred was being incited?
Perhaps the point in history has been reached where live feed of massacres and saturation levels of real death situations is no longer acceptable.
LikeLike
A very thoughtful column in the wake of tragedy. Thanks.
“Freedom” is word which is bandied about without much reflection on what it means. I think its fair to say that talking about “freedom” is absolute terms, to the exclusion of everything else, is a mistake. One persons freedom might result in another persons loss. In light of the ever growing profusion of websites promoting hatred on the internet, the laws governing freedom of expression need to be reassessed. There is a difference between allowing a single person to rant in the town square, versus a website spewing lies and hate to a million followers. There should also be a higher standard set tv broadcasters. Stations like Fox News and Sky News (both owned by Murdock) should be reigned in because they promote the vilification of specific groups of people.
LikeLike