h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Protest Against BBC Policy Over Iraq at A1000080 is still continuing. 73 people have joined so far. If you have not joined, please do.

Some people have not joined because of the wording of the petition, as it uses the words free speech. I put this as restricting what you can say on an issue for the safety of people is fine, but restricting speaking of an issue takes away free speech about that issue, as we do not have the freedom to talk about it.

The reson the BBC give for this is to allow their moderators to focus their efforts on one site, so that discussions can be balanced. Why should all discussions be balanced? People can share the same view in one convo, others can share a different view in another, and in others people can discuss their views, and if it ain't balanced it doesn't matter. No-one cares about balance. The world isn't balanced, why should conversations?

And why do the BBC need to focus moderation? where do you think mst people are gonna get their information from:

1. News channels like Sky News and BBC News, which won't reveal information that may be dangerous to troops, as war correspondants in that area follow rules of what information they can give out and when
2. Newspapers, and since war correspondants includes writyers for newspapers, they are also only allowed to reveal certain information.
3. The internet, and since the internet is either news websites that provide the information, or discussion sites where information is discussed, no dangerous information is revealed there.

So, the 3 places in which people would find information and post to somewhere like h2g2 are 3 places where everyone goes so the information is therefore in the public domain, and no dangerous information would ever be revealed. In fact, any talk that would be moderated if we were allowed to talk about the Iraq war on h2g2 are posts that are against the House Rules anyway.

If you are against the policy but do not agree with the phrasing of the petition, then don't let that stop you from joining it. Join the petition, tell me your problems with the phrasing and I will add a footnote next to your name saying what you agree/disagree with regarding the petition. The important thing is that you are showing your protest against the petition.

spook

Hi spook,

I'm finally convinced by what others have said that this is technically not an issue of "free speech." However, I think it's still worth protesting and asking BBC to stop the policy on the basis that it harms the community, and as members of the community, we should have some voice in how it runs.

If the comparison is more like visitors to a party than members of a community, then our only real options are to leave the party or to ask the hosts to change their policy before we leave.

Either way, I think it's fair to ask for a change of policy if they expect us to keep coming here. Even guests at a party would be allowed to comment on the dj, or let the hosts know why they're considering leaving.

i've head lots of discussions about the fact it is freedom of publication, and things such as that, but i consider h2g2 to be about speech as it uses conversation forums, which means they are basically permanent messanger services that everyone can see and respond to.

would you like me to put a litle footnote next to your name saying you do not think the policy is technically about free speech?

spook

No, I don't feel that strongly about it. I was just clarifying for those people who feel that the only basis for protest is "freedom of speech" that I would argue against the Iraq conversation restrictions for other reasons. I honestly think that it is like a part of the website that is broken. It doesn't work if you want to talk about Iraq.

Spook- you may add me to your petition as long as you make it clear that I do *not* feel it is an issue of free speech, merely an issue of the h2g2 service suffering from the restrictions.

i've added you Egon with a footnote. you may want to check it out to make sure i've got it right.

spook