Those newspapers or magazines etc......they are just a group of
people, they are publishers, writers, editors, cartoonists,
etc.....those people working in there.
If a publication do something provocative, its their own
responsibility, a group of people. It's not the responsibility of a
whole country, of other people who totally have nothing to do with
it, or might even disapprove it.
So for these cases, when certain publications offend some people,
but the protest is enlarged to a whole nation, it brings an awkward
situation. Nobody knows what to do.
This is just a mismatch or a misunderstanding due to a different
cultural environment.
In many Asian countries and Muslim countries, press is censored,
and also there is a greater emphasis on collective good over
individual freedom or group freedom.
In Western countries, press is not censored, and also there is a
much greater emphasis on individual freedom and group
freedom.
So I see these cases more as a cultural clash.
Mind you, some groups in Western countries have channelled and
targetted their 'freedom of expression' for a long time on the main
religion there itself, Christianity. They also have ridiculed
Christianity in many ways.
So again.......I see this more as a cultural clash, at the heart of
it. It's a difference of social philosophy.
But I think to myself.....maybe this cultural clash isn't
neccessary, because some newspapers or some magazines, they don't
represent any nation at all. A magazine is not a president. They
dont represent or symbolize a country. They dont speak on behalf of
a country. It's just a group of people, and they do what they want,
and other people of the entire nation should not be asked to be
responsible for what these people do.
Meat Pao.
