Publish! Publish! Publish!
Sony and the American people should take a lesson from the French and Charlie Hebdo about freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Last month, Sony caved to nebulous, anonymous threats and did not release The Interview after North Korea's little despot got his knickers in a twist about the film. I was outraged. Not because I planned to see the film, but because a little dictator on the other side of the world managed to take a bite out of free speech with mere threats. No one took to the streets in protest. No one.
Charlie Hebdo has, for many years, refused to be silenced by threats of violence. Following a brutal attack for exercising their human right to free expression, the people of France took to the streets in a show of solidarity. Cartoonists around the world unsheathed their pens, drew their deadly drawing pads, and fired off a series of deadly cartoon attacks on fundamentalist Islam.
The mere threat, with virtually no evidence of ability of the perpetrators (whose identity is still unknown) to carry out those threats, sent Sony scrambling to cancel the release of The Interview. We Americans boast that we are the land of the free and the home of the brave. Well, in my humble opinion, we weren't very free and certainly not brave when faced with a vague threat of violence.
Charlie Hebdo has given a big middle finger to the Islamic fundamentalists for years and says, "We will NOT be silenced by your hate and violence."
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