And those yet to be discovered. What idiots this UN???

Reporters sans frontière/ Reporters Without Borders Releases 
 
“The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution condemning defamation of religions”
 
Reporters Without Borders is extremely concerned by a resolution condemning “defamation of religions” which the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted on 25 March. It was submitted by Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
“Under the pretext of trying to reconcile freedom of expression and religious freedom, some member states are establishing a mechanism with the sole aim of forbidding criticism of religions, above all Islam,” Reporters Without Borders said. “This is a dangerous process that needs to be stopped. Respect for freedom of expression is as fundamental as respect for religious freedom. One cannot exist without the other.
“Caricature, artistic freedom, the right of opinion and all other spheres of intellectual activity that constitute freedom of expression are endangered by this resolution. Its unfortunate result will be to even curb exchanges of views within religions while invoking the need to protect them. Will it be possible to debate ideas within a religion without running the risk of being accused of defamation by the dominant group seeking to impose its viewpoint?
“Respect for free expression and democratisation is conspicuous by its absence in several OIC member countries. They use blasphemy laws for political ends, in order to ban all forms of debate and reinforce their authority. Journalist Mohageg Nassab had to flee Afghanistan because his newspaper, Women’s Rights, dared to call for a stop to the stoning of women. As a result, he was convicted of insulting Islam and sentenced to death. The authorities in many countries cast any debate about intellectual or social issues as a religious debate – a practical way of banning any criticism of the way they govern and preventing any evolution in moral standards.
“This kind of resolution gives governments that show little respect for human rights more scope to continue discriminatory policies against religious minorities, dissidents and secularists. One may also wonder whether multinationals will not be tempted to introduce forms of prior censorship to avoid violating an international resolution. We have already seen leading international corporations filter their content to avoid upsetting certain markets, as in the case of cartoonist Pierre Kroll, some of whose bawdy drawings were censored by Apple from an iPhone app.”..................... http://thegambiaecho.com/Homepage/tabid/36/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1862/Default.aspx
Haruna.





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