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The Meaning Of Freedom
In honor of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, journalists from 10
countries helped create the Internews "vox pop" video, "Freedom Of
Speech." MediaChannel presents images and quotes from voices across the
former Soviet Union and the United States.
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Uzbekistan: Freedom of speech is a blessing from God. He gave people speech so that
they could freely convey their thoughts. It is not given by the state or the government. |
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| Kazakhstan:
Our ancestors said: “You can cut a man’s head off, but you
can’t cut out his tongue!” Even before being executed, the condemned man would
ask to speak his last words. And when they let him speak, before the khan, before the
people, he would speak his last sincere words. That’s what I understand to mean true
freedom of speech. |
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Azerbaijan: You know what enters my mind when people talk about freedom of speech?
If I want to say “YES” and if that’s what I truly feel, I say
“YES”, without fear or hesitation. |
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Russia: It means that I’m able to freely express my thoughts to my bosses
without having to be afraid of anyone. It means that if I say “yes” today, I
won’t be in prison tomorrow. |
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| America:
I think freedom of speech is not an open and shut case. I think that some of our
media and such take advantage of our freedom of speech and carry it to an extreme where it
hurts people. And then the rest of freedom of speech I believe is good. So there's got to
be a line drawn somewhere.
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Uzbekistan: One shouldn’t
forget that “freedom of speech” is a very powerful weapon, and one needs to know
how to use it properly. ... If I’m not mistaken, it was Cicero who had this wise
thought: “To be truly free, a person must always be a slave to the law.” |
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| Ukraine:
Of course we need freedom of speech, as long as it doesn’t have to be bought.
If that’s the case, then whoever gets the most money, will write… For it to be
right: write the truth! |
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Georgia: I don’t need freedom of speech. I have nothing to say. I just want
there to be jobs for my kids. |
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| Tajikistan:
There’s no freedom of speech anywhere in the world. More precisely,
there’s no absolute freedom, only relative freedom. They don’t even have it in
America, or in other countries. |
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America: When you put people close together and pack 'em, you have to have a firm
set of rules, you have to have a structure on how they carry themselves daily. So free?
What is free? |
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Azerbaijan: To be able to look the truth in the eyes is a great richness and
blessing. But such richness isn’t expedient for those who control society through
fear. They’re scared by freedom of speech to the point of panic. |
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Georgia: The man who speaks the
truth must be on his guard. He who speaks the truth must have an enemy. I don’t know
who it would be, but it’s not possible for such a person to not have an enemy. |
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| Armenia:
In my opinion, there are no enemies of freedom of speech, because what people say or
write doesn’t change anything. It has no enemies, because everyone’s satisfied
with this. |
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Uzbekistan: Something keeps us from telling the truth — probably fear. On the
other hand, the authorities don’t want the nation’s problems to be revealed. I
think it’s not the journalists who are guilty in this case, but the officials who
fear the truth.
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Belarus: When a person has no
freedom of speech, you know, everything beautiful in him is destroyed: his
relationship to his motherland, to his parents, to other people. If there’s no
freedom of speech, it means a person will unquestionably become abhorrent and destroy
everything good. |
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| Georgia:
The minority controls the majority - that’s what happens when there’s no
freedom of speech. What could be worse than that? |
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| America:
I can't imagine that. That's like taking something away from me. Like I said, I've
probably always taken it for granted, because I've always lived in a freedom of speech
country, but I cannot even imagine it. |
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Russia: How can you live without truth?! If you don’t speak the truth,
you’re just like a little errand girl and do whatever you’re told. You
can’t speak your mind without freedom of speech. |
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Azerbaijan: Azerbaijanis have a wise
saying: “If I speak, they’ll kill me; if I don’t speak, I’ll
die.” Probably freedom of speech is needed so that they don’t kill the people
that speak and so that people don't die of heart attacks because they can’t say
what they think. That’s why freedom of speech is a panacea for many ills. |
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Azerbaijan: You’ve heard of such a thing as internal bleeding, right? A person looks healthy on the outside, then suddenly, in a very short time, he dies. I need freedom
of speech to protect my dignity. It’s a great satisfaction to know how to speak the
truth aloud. |
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