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Free Speech Event at Corbet Place Bar


Club Night: Thought Crime - from the Lyrical Terrorist to Beenie Man


At the end of last year BBC Radio 1 provoked widespread derision for its decision to bleep the words 'sl*t' and 'fa**ot' from the Pogues' Christmas hit, 'Fairytale of New York'. Within hours the song could again be heard uncensored, a decision justified by the BBC on the basis that there was no 'negative intent behind the use of the words'.

At our next clubnight, we have invited a range of commentators to make their case for freedom of expression - artistic and otherwise. There will also be examples of art and literature that has been banned over the past century.

For all the lampooning of Radio 1, we seem increasingly confused about what kinds of expression - creative or not - contemporary society is prepared to allow. Of course, there are many countries around the world where freedom of expression is limited, and there are many historic examples of attempts to ban and censor art and literature. But we seem equally confused in the UK IN 2008. Few have spoken out in opposition to Brighton Council's decision to introduce a city-wide ban on all music with homophobic lyrics. And there has been little said in public in defence of Samina Malik, the self-styled Lyrical Terrorist who was sentenced to a 9-month suspended sentence for penning jihadist poetry. Of course, it's difficult to defend the artistic merit of Beenie Man's rapping of a 'New Jamaica' after the 'execution of all gays'; still less, perhaps, Malik's nihilistic scribbling. Does freedom of artistic expression mean freedom even for bad poets, homophobes and nihilists, or is this a moral cop-out? Should people who have obnoxious thoughts be challenged legally as well as morally? Are there any limits we should set on what can or cannot be said or written?

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
John Fitzpatrick, senior lecturer in Law at the University of Kent in Canterbury
Aki Nawaz, rapper and musician, Fun-Da-Mental

When: Tuesday 26th February
Time: Doors open 7pm; event begins 8pm; bar open till 11pm
Where: Corbet Place bar, 15 Hanbury St, London E1 6QR
Cost: Free to Manifesto Club members; £5 non-members (pay on the door) - or join the Manifesto Club.

Nearest tube: Aldgate East

Date Posted: 09 Feb 08
Posted By: Paul Caffell
Keywords: None
Date: 01 Jan 01

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