Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 05, 2010
A Gripping Love Saga
There is a feeding frenzy in the celebrity-hungry media of India and Pakistan over the Pakistani cricket star Shoaib Malik who is set to marry Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza next week.
Shoaib Malik is facing an investigation in his fiancee's home country over allegations he harassed a woman who has claimed to be his wife, police said Monday.
Malik is currently in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad for his wedding to Mirza. Police commissioner A.K. Khan told CNN that officials have launched a probe into a complaint filed on behalf of Ayesha Siddiqui, who is Indian.
Siddiqui has accused Malik of "harassment, cheating and criminal intimidation," Khan said. Immigration authorities will be alerted to the investigation, as Malik is a foreigner, he said. Officials have taken a statement from the former Pakistan captain, police said.
Siddiqui claims Malik married her by telephone eight years ago and is seeking a divorce. Malik maintains he was deceived and the marriage is invalid, saying the agreement was based on a series of photos sent to him -- photos he claims were not of Siddiqui.
Malik and Mirza, in a joint news conference Monday in Hyderabad, said their April 15 wedding will be held as scheduled. Malik vowed to cooperate fully with Indian investigators and said he would stay in India until the probe is complete. (Link)
Shoaib Malik is facing an investigation in his fiancee's home country over allegations he harassed a woman who has claimed to be his wife, police said Monday.
Malik is currently in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad for his wedding to Mirza. Police commissioner A.K. Khan told CNN that officials have launched a probe into a complaint filed on behalf of Ayesha Siddiqui, who is Indian.
Siddiqui has accused Malik of "harassment, cheating and criminal intimidation," Khan said. Immigration authorities will be alerted to the investigation, as Malik is a foreigner, he said. Officials have taken a statement from the former Pakistan captain, police said.
Siddiqui claims Malik married her by telephone eight years ago and is seeking a divorce. Malik maintains he was deceived and the marriage is invalid, saying the agreement was based on a series of photos sent to him -- photos he claims were not of Siddiqui.
Malik and Mirza, in a joint news conference Monday in Hyderabad, said their April 15 wedding will be held as scheduled. Malik vowed to cooperate fully with Indian investigators and said he would stay in India until the probe is complete. (Link)
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Freedom of Speech and Hate Speech
Maldives has embraced freedom of speech as espoused by the democracies of the western Europe and the United States of America. For the citizens of these countries, this type of democracy- the liberal democratic model requires effective guarantees of freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, petition and of equality before the law.
The First Amendment of the United States constitution prohibits the government from regulating the content of speech, subject to a few recognized exceptions such as defamation and incitement to riot. Even in cases where speech encourages illegal violence, instances of incitement qualify as criminal only if the threat of violence is imminent. In Canada, Europe and other countries, hate speech is, outside the law, any communication which disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race or sexual orientation. In law, hate speech is any speech, gesture or conduct, writing, or display which is forbidden because it may incite violence or prejudicial action against or by a protected individual or group, or because it disparages or intimidates a protected individual or group.
In Maldives, those who pushed for the multi-party system for political governance did so because of the popular revulsion against the previous all-encompassing domination by the same government that remained in power for 30 years.
Now we have political parties and we do have freedom of speech. Political parties and their politicians are the catalytic agents that make democracies workable.
The two main political parties in Maldives, the ruling MDP and the opposition DRP and their allies disagree about nearly every issue, just for the sake of disagreement. The parliament is in gridlock and no beneficial work gets done. It polarizes the public who are supporters of these political parties. As we saw recently, the country was on the verge of erupting into violence consequent to the fist fighting inside the parliament. Cynics claim that every speech, every vote, every single thing these politicians do is for the sake of political posturing to help them get elected the next term, or help their party motives.
Journalists of the free media have an important responsibility to educate the public about various issues from all sides, using logic, reason and analysis to determine the different points of view. The public can then make informed decisions about the policies of the different political parties. The opposition political party should compete by offering better ideas and solutions rather than just becoming the party of saying 'no' to everything that the government does.
Maldives needs to find a way stop the the hate speech mostly driven by politics between the political parties. One way to do this is by the enforcement of legislation against hate speech. Our members of the parliament in the interest of the public good need to legislate to determine the acceptable boundaries of free speech. Also what kinds of speech should be considered out of bounds subject to prosecution.
Read this article "When free speech means hate speech" to understand how bad this situation is in the United States of America. There are hate-mongers both on the left and the right of the political divide in America who make a living by spewing hatred in the name of free speech.
The First Amendment of the United States constitution prohibits the government from regulating the content of speech, subject to a few recognized exceptions such as defamation and incitement to riot. Even in cases where speech encourages illegal violence, instances of incitement qualify as criminal only if the threat of violence is imminent. In Canada, Europe and other countries, hate speech is, outside the law, any communication which disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race or sexual orientation. In law, hate speech is any speech, gesture or conduct, writing, or display which is forbidden because it may incite violence or prejudicial action against or by a protected individual or group, or because it disparages or intimidates a protected individual or group.
In Maldives, those who pushed for the multi-party system for political governance did so because of the popular revulsion against the previous all-encompassing domination by the same government that remained in power for 30 years.
Now we have political parties and we do have freedom of speech. Political parties and their politicians are the catalytic agents that make democracies workable.
The two main political parties in Maldives, the ruling MDP and the opposition DRP and their allies disagree about nearly every issue, just for the sake of disagreement. The parliament is in gridlock and no beneficial work gets done. It polarizes the public who are supporters of these political parties. As we saw recently, the country was on the verge of erupting into violence consequent to the fist fighting inside the parliament. Cynics claim that every speech, every vote, every single thing these politicians do is for the sake of political posturing to help them get elected the next term, or help their party motives.
Journalists of the free media have an important responsibility to educate the public about various issues from all sides, using logic, reason and analysis to determine the different points of view. The public can then make informed decisions about the policies of the different political parties. The opposition political party should compete by offering better ideas and solutions rather than just becoming the party of saying 'no' to everything that the government does.
Maldives needs to find a way stop the the hate speech mostly driven by politics between the political parties. One way to do this is by the enforcement of legislation against hate speech. Our members of the parliament in the interest of the public good need to legislate to determine the acceptable boundaries of free speech. Also what kinds of speech should be considered out of bounds subject to prosecution.
Read this article "When free speech means hate speech" to understand how bad this situation is in the United States of America. There are hate-mongers both on the left and the right of the political divide in America who make a living by spewing hatred in the name of free speech.
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