Wednesday, April 02, 2008

No freedom of speech about teachers in France

In France, teachers join Muslims and homosexuals as a privileged group who must not be criticized:

"A website went live in January allowing students in France to grade their teachers online based on six specific criteria such as motivation, interest, and clarity. The teachers were named. The students, for obvious reasons, remained anonymous.

This did not go over well with teachers. The main teachers' union sued to shut down the site, and a French trial court ruled in its favor, citing that freedom of speech ends when it affects teaching and that an uncensored discussion forum risked "becoming polemical." ....

Freedom of expression is guaranteed in France and the other 46 countries of the Council of Europe by the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that "this right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas."

Source

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Freedom of expression is guaranteed in France and the other 46 countries of the Council of Europe by the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that "this right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas.""

Article 10 of the ECHR also states that "The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or the rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary."

To anyone with half a brain it's quite obvious that the European Convention on Human Rights in fact does not guarantee freedom of expression. I don't know which is more sickening - the fact that we haven't got freedom of speech, or the fact that most people think we do. People can't demand something when they think they already have it.

Anonymous said...

ruben,
sad isn't it? That level of blind ignorance.

John,
if you make it any harder to comment here, this place will look like the outback. Few people and far between.

Anonymous said...

"Freedom of Speech" does not include anonymity. Let the students grade the teachers but don't allow them to hide their own names. A teenager could post libelous, untrue comments about a teacher if he/she thought that their identity would remain hidden.

Anonymous said...

Technically people are too damn sensitive these days. Teachers are now worthless.
It made more sense to home school your children, the teacher unions don't care about the welfare of children, only they're concern about is the money.
Teachers are now getting away with molestations of children and youths.
Teachers were meant to educate, not indoctrinate children. This is starting to become the Soviet Union-style.
Homosexuals, transgenderists, pedophiles, anti-Semites, and other organizations are now protected class.
Where does it leave us, no-where.
People are moronic to think that there is freedom of speech.
Let's face it, regardless of creed, ethnicity and background, we're all second class citizens.
The bible is considered hate speech, being born into another group alone constitutes hate speech.
As the saying goes, take a moment and think.

Anonymous said...

And the world has already witnessed one such regime that the free world finally realized it had to go to war against and destroy. It cost millions of lives and billions in coin, and as it turns out, we still didn't get it all - it has reappeared, this time in the Arab world to once again pose the same threat.