tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post3986151691993767972..comments2024-03-29T15:01:27.866+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: Protecting Freedom/Preventing Harm. Can New Zealand’s New Chief Censor Do Both?Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-75560433779434825932022-06-17T13:31:33.421+12:002022-06-17T13:31:33.421+12:00You are not going to get the "clear explanati...You are not going to get the "clear explanation" of her position that you want - did other Chief Censors provide one on their appointment? We are just going to have to wait to see what she does in office. At this stage there's no reason to think she will be worse or better than, or substantially ideologically different from, her predecessors.<br /><br />Like you, my inclinations are to be liberal around speech and set a high bar on incitement to do harm - and to define harm as actions that are more individually directed, material or even physical in nature. Speech may hurt (even wound) but not harm. Except, except - what if the weight, one-sidedness and sheer quantity of wounding speech is overwhelming and mentally harmful? We can't dismiss this.<br /><br />"the censorious times we are living through"<br />I am the same age as you - and it seems to me that in aggregate we are much less censorious than we used to be. The difference perhaps is that for some people it just feels that the times are censorious - because in the past they were directing the censoriousness at the targets they felt to be appropriate, and now they are on the receiving end of some of it.<br />ABnoreply@blogger.com