"flipper" wrote in message ...
When a country makes even discussing history a crime then those who
believe in freedom of speech should not be quiet.

Then you should speak to the French because their parliament voted to
make denying it was genocide a crime and in 1990 they made it a crime
to deny the Jewish Holocaust.

Might want to speak to the Swiss too because they apparently also
passed a law making it illegal.

Seems the E.U. has a case of pot-kettle-pot=kettle.

I do not think that any government should put any constraint upon the free speech
of its citizens. This includes both denying and requiring that the events in
Turkey in 1915 be called a genocide, or requiring or denying the Holocaust, etc.

What happened in 1915 in Turkey was terrible. However all of the people
involved are dead. Thus I consider the issue only important as a lesson to
be learned about what should not be done. To me, history is important as
a means to learn about both the good and bad things that people can do.

I am bothered by the current government in Turkey (or any other
government) prosecuting its citizens for crimes like 'an insult against
the Turkish state' (also known as Article 301). Nobel laureate Orham Pamuk
was convicted under that law. The journalist Hrant Dink was also convicted
under that law for writing about those events. He was latter murdered.

In defense of Turkey, the government is currently prosecuting people for Dink's
murder and there are efforts by various groups to change Article 301:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/wo.../Dink,%20Hrant
(You will note that this URL is from the NY Times since a previous poster refused
to believe the BBC.)

I am bothered by many in this country (U. S.) that consider any disagreement
with the Bush government as being 'treasonous'. I consider this a violation
of the basic concepts of free speech that this country has as one of its
founding (and greatest) principles.

I do realize that pretty much all peoples and all governments have
committed hypocrisies with regard to both prosecution of sub groups and
also limitations on free speech. This does not mean that we should not try to
improve both ourselves and our governments.