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Hear the Hezbollah Newspaper editor the Tory leadership wants to muzzle

Dialect | 02.03.2008 02:12 | Analysis | Anti-racism | Terror War

Bristol Broadband Co-operative's weekly podcast - Dialect - In Friday's edition of the Bristol Evening Post the leader column argued that this Lebanese Newspaper editor should not be allowed to speak in the city. So is Mike Norton's attempt to muzzle Ibrahim Mousawi motivated by a genuine concern to protect the city from terrorists? Or is he just an anti-Arab racist betraying his city on the gold-plated bandwagon of powerful corporations' illegal oil-grabbing wars?

Dialect 1st Mar 2008 - Hezbollah speaker the Bristol Evening Post’s editor wanted to ban

Features this week [Time in brackets index to the featured item in the mp3 file]:

(00:01:20) Stop the War meeting, and interview with Ibrahim Moussawi, a Hizbullah speaker and the editor of Lebanese newspaper Al-Intiqad.

(00:21:54) Excerpt from the weekly program World Crisis Radio where the rising force of Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski behind the scenes is examined. He was the National Security Advisor to US President Jimmy Carter, and we hear about the Obama connection.

(00:28:50) Performace by studio guest musicians Nicky Johns, Richard Riley and James Slater of ‘The Coalition of the Willing’. Hear more of their music via:
Nicky Johns -  http://www.myspace.com/nickyjohnsmusic
Richard Riley -  http://www.myspace.com/alsatiamusic
James Slater -  http://www.myspace.com/jslatermusic

Information on South West Folk musicians and local acts:
 http://www.crhmusic.com/
 http://southwestfolk.freeforums.org/
 http://open-mic.me.uk/

(00:56:08) Ben Griffin, a former SAS soldier who has been stopped by the MoD from speaking about his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here is his final speech which finished minutes before he was injuncted on Wednesday evening.

(01:03:26) What’s On Guide.

Producer: Tony Gosling
Reporter: Tony Gosling
Presenter: John Peters Coleman.
What’s On guide: Jeff Sparkes
Studio Engineer: Vilas Chitrakaran



So here is what Mike Norton actually said in the paper on Friday
COMMENT: WHEN FREEDOM OF SPEECH MAY HAVE TO SUFFER
10:40 - 29 February 2008
 http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=150288&command=displayContent&sourceNode=145403&contentPK=20020248&folderPk=83807&pNodeId=221339

The right to freedom of speech is one we should cherish. And only in the most extreme circumstances should it be denied. Take away someone's right to speak publicly and accusations of censorship quickly follow. On top of that there is the risk that banning someone results in them gaining extra publicity for their beliefs or their cause.

To outlaw someone is to give them instant notoriety. All of these concerns apply in the case of Ibrahim Mousawi. But because of his alleged links to Hezbollah they are multiplied. Yet there are occasions when the needs, or in this case the security of the many, outweigh the needs or the security of the few or the one.

And here there is a case for erring on the side of caution. To deny one man the right to speak may be the price we have to pay for preventing unpalatable extremist views from being aired. Protecting freedom goes much further than protecting freedom of speech. It involves safeguarding people from attack and injury.

And allowing extremism of any kind is always a risk. For democracy does not mean giving people the right to say what they like. It flourishes only because people agree to play by its rules and behave responsibly. And occasionally it means curtailing the freedom of one person for the good of others.

see also
Calls to ban speaker 'for Hezbollah'
 http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144913&command=displayContent&sourceNode=150288&contentPK=20020539
 http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=145365&command=displayContent&sourceNode=145191&contentPK=20030283

Dialect
- Homepage: http://www.dialectradio.co.uk

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