FREEDOM OF SPEECH

[memesenespanol1]

[speakingfreelyhr]

National front for the family

Frente nacional por la familia The "frente nacional por la familia" its a clear example of how someone expressing their opinion can harm the rights of others. First of all i would like to start this post explaining what was this movement about with an extract from https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/over-1000-organizations-unite-against-mexican-presidents-gay-agenda "A coalition of more than one thousand civil organizations have come together from 27 Mexican states to oppose the homosexual agenda of the country’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, who announced last week that he would lead a campaign to amend the constitution to impose homosexual  “marriage” on the entire country. The coalition, called the National Front for the Family (Frente Nacional por la Familia), is lead by Consuelo Mendoza, president of the National Union of Parents (Unión Nacional de Padres de Familia or UNPF).  The organization has sent a letter to the president’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) expressing “our most clear rejection of the equalization of same-sex unions with marriage,” as well as “our most absolute rejection of the attempts to indoctrinate our children through educational content that entail discarding fathers and mothers.” In addition to his proposed homosexual “marriage” amendment, the president has also promised to launch nationwide propaganda campaigns for the general public as well as in the public schools, to indoctrinate students in homosexual and gender ideology. The organizers say the campaign is “a severe blow against Mexican families, an attack on the rights of children and shows a totalitarian zeal that seeks to usurp the right and duty of fathers and mothers to educate their children." So this movement consist of 120 marches around the Mexican Republic against a constitutional right, NO DISCRIMINATION REGARDING YOUR SEXUAL PREFERENCES. although it is not wrong for someone to have a different opinion on this topics, it is wrong to take away the right for someone to have their family, you're not only damaging the LGTQB community but also thousands of orphan kids living in poor conditions in need of love and care. Even though we have the right to speak out for our ideas and to disagree with other people we should also keep in mind that our ideas can also harm the life quality and right of other people. We should speek freely respecting other opinions. "Respect for the rights of others means peace" This is also my last post for this project, hope you enjoyed the topic. SPEAK UP

[speakingfreelyhr]

Carmen Aristegui- White house case

One of the most polemic cases of censorship in Mexico´s contemporary history is the one that involves the non-socially accepted president of the Mexican Republic , Enrique Peña Nieto, the Mexican actress Angelica Rivera (also known as “La Gaviota”), Carmen Aristegui and the acquisition of a really humble home of only 7 million pesos (around 4 million dollars).

To start this discussion first I would like to introduce the protagonist of this case. Let´s start with Carmen Aristegui, according to the internet: “She is a Mexican journalist and anchorwoman. She is widely regarded as one of Mexico's leading journalists and moderate opinion leaders, and is best known for her critical investigations of the Mexican government” here in Mexico she is really popular for giving her opinions regarding shady stuff that the president and workers of the government often do, she has a lot of enemies for doing this.

Then we have Enrique Peña Nieto, the actual president of the Mexican Republic and if we search for his name on the internet we will find that the Mexican people are not very fond of him. He´s been involved in many scandals, including the death of his first wife and the plagiarism of his thesis (cases also investigated by Carmen).

And the last protagonist of this case of censorship and exhibition of the huge control over the media the Mexican government have is Angelica Rivera, the second wife of Enrique Peña Nieto, a very successful actress and part of the monopoly that Televisa was back in the 90´s. As the first lady se hasn´t been very discreet regarding the luxury life she has been living, it is very common to see her and her daughters traveling all around the world in shopping sprees, buying purses and jewelry leaving us with the question: Who is paying for their luxuries?

The scandal started with an interview of the first lady for the “Hola!” magazine, in which she received the reporters in a very fancy home located in #150 Sierra Gorda Street, Mexico City saying that this place was her actual home, not the presidential residence named “Los Pinos”,

The construction of this house coincided with the cancellation of the Train Mexico-Queretaro’s construction bidding, this coincidence made Aristegui intrigued because the both projects (the train bidding and the white house) where signed with the same constructor Higa group.

After this, Aristegui decided to make a complete research based on this facts (http://aristeguinoticias.com/0911/mexico/mexican-presidents-white-house/). This caused a huge fuzz in the Mexican republic, did our president just made it completely obvious that he is deviating funds and stealing our money??

To defend her husband and herself, Angelica Rivera made a youtube video clarifying that the house was purchased with her money, in this video Angelica states that Televisa payed her a crazy and unbelievable amount of money just for her exclusivity. To make a contrast on what she gained by working as an actress, Roberto Martinez (a young, popular social critic) made a video contrasting the salary of Angelica to the average salary of a Mexican working person. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAL_9Nga7gk)

Angelica decelerated that she earned 132 million pesos (including a house that was valued on 3 million pesos) in the year 2010, an average Mexican salary is around 8,000 pesos, which means that an average Mexican will take 1,800 years of working to earn that amount of money, sounds crazy right?

The presidential family was left under the eye of the whole republic and the whole world, how can this be solved? How can the people behind Peña Nieto could clean his name? They all were mad at Carmen because this was uncovering all the truth and the corruption of Enrique´s presidency.  

With the cards on the table they fired Aristegui form her radio station, this clearly wasn´t a clever move, it was pretty obvious that the influences of the government had caused that injustice, leaving clear that here in Mexico we live under the control and the corruption of an absolutory government. How can this still happen?? How can the Mexican people after living 70 years under the dictatorship of The PRI can choose this party again?

This leaves me very sad and concerned that my country has a government that mutes everything that doesn´t fit into their mold, that mutes a voice that wants to wake up a whole society, and it leaves me even more concerned that situations that kills our freedom of speech are happening in front of our eyes and we are doing NOTHING ABOUT IT.

MEXICO IS TIME TO WAKE UP!!!!!!

[speakingfreelyhr]

Essay

Freedom of speech

First of all I want to start this essay with the question, What is freedom of speech?

“Freedom of speech is the right to articulate one's opinions and ideas without fear of government retaliation or censorship, or societal sanction. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used.”- Mill, John Stuart (1859). "Introductory". On Liberty (4th ed.). London.

On my opinion this value is one of the most important, this allows us to give our opinion and to show our disagreement in certain topics. Imagine a world in which all of us agree in everything, that would be a very plain and non-exiting world, sharing our different points of view allow us to build a new opinion, even more complex. All though this value is one of the most important it is also one of the most violated ones, we have all heard about governments trying to censor certain groups just because they disagree on something, in many cases the groups their trying to mute have excellent ideas to improve certain subjects, but because the government has a very closed mind they do not give them the chance to express themselves and to share their ideas. But not only government censor different opinions and violate our right of freedom of speech, also big corporations, businesses and even us as individuals often take away our freedom.

We have all heard about people all around the world trying to change people’s closed minds and also trying to share different ideologies, unfortunately the brave people who take action in their hands are the most prejudiced. Here in Mexico we have many cases such as Tlatelolco, where hundreds of students and innocent people died trying to demand a better quality in their study programs, they did not wanted money or something material, they just had the desire of being better and more qualified students. The government of Diaz Ordaz, instead of hearing their peaceful protest, he sent the police to shoot them. Mexico was under the eye of the world because the Olympics, so everyone knew about the altercation, so the voices of hundreds of students and innocent people didn´t disappear. We also hear a lot of reporters and writers being killed and threatened for their posts and publications, just because they do not fit in the mold that the government (or big corporations like I´ve said) have created to have a “controlled” way of people reviewing and giving their point of view about them.

To give you a little context on this situation:

“Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for writers. Since 2000, dozens of journalists, bloggers, & other writers have been murdered and at least another 15 have disappeared. Few of these crimes have been properly investigated and fewer still have brought prosecutions and convictions. PEN published an open letter, signed by over 700 writers and cultural figures, calling on President Nieto to investigate these murders and establish mechanisms to protect their lives. The letter inspired an Avaaz campaign that has amassed over 750,000 signatures. Despite mounting domestic and international pressure—pressure which helped secure a law federalizing crimes against media workers—the killings have continued. PEN is committed to ending this “censorship by bullet” in Mexico and restoring the right of all Mexico’s citizens to a free and open exchange of information and ideas. Take action to end the impunity for crimes against writers and journalists in Mexico.”- https://pen.org/campaign/freedom-expression-mexico

I think that this kind of violations are the ones that had been stopping us from developing as a country, people prefer to remain in silence instead of protesting because it has been clear that the ones that speak up for their needs are always shut up in horrible ways. We need to stop fearing the system and to stand up not only for ourselves but also for every injustice that we see.

But not only big institutions violate our freedom of speech, we as individuals also close up to others opinion if they are different than ours. WE FEAR WHAT WE DON´T KNOW.

I think we all should give people a chance of expressing themselves, via protest or just by commenting. Like I have said, the interesting part of being humans is that we all think differently than each other, so if we took our time to listen to what other people have to say, we could take that suggestions or comments and use them in our favor to build a better and more complete thought. This could give you many solutions to problems. Because our way of thinking is different maybe people can see the situation from another angle where you haven’t see it and bring you quicker and easier solution for it.

We also have to be very careful with our freedom of speech, because we cannot think that just by having this right, people have the obligation of thinking our same way. We should be able to share our opinions and ideologies, but also the other persons have the right of thinking differently. We cannot violate other’s right in order to make ours valid.

“The respect for the rights of other people is what constitutes peace”- Benito Juarez.  

[speakingfreelyhr]

Tlatelolco

The first example of a government trying to mute a unconformity is Tlatelolco. In Mexico city on the year 1968, ten days before the olympics took place on this city, something horrendous happen. Under the eye of almost all international press, the massive student killing happened. An act that could never be justified. But what happened that day?

"On 2 October 1968, around 10,000 university and high school students gathered in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas to protest the government’s actions and listen peacefully to speeches.Many men and women not associated with the CNH gathered in the plaza to watch and listen; they included neighbors from the Residential complex, bystanders and children. The students had congregated outside the Chihuahua Building, a three-moduled thirteen-story apartment complex in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. Among their chants were ¡No queremos olimpiadas, queremos revolución! (“We don’t want Olympics, we want revolution!”). Rally organizers did not try to call off the protest when they noticed an increased military presence in the area.

Two helicopters, one from the police, and another one from the army, flew over the plaza. Around 5:55 P.M. red flares were shot from the nearby S.R.E. (Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations) tower. Around 6:15 P.M. another two flares were shot, this time from a helicopter (one was green and another one was red) as 5,000 soldiers, 200 tankettes and trucks surrounded the plaza.Much of what proceeded after the first shots were fired in the plaza remained ill defined for decades after 1968.“- http://www.blackstudies.ucsb.edu/1968/mexico_photos.html

The people from Mexico was muted by the most horrible action, more than 300 people died and many others are still missing, not only students died everyone was involved in that chaos. This is a clear example of a violation of the freedom of speech. Diaz Ordáz tried to stop the Mexicans from having a desire to grow to have the country they deserved, but he did not realized that people all around the world witnessed his act of injustice and the voice he had taken away from hundred of people was being replaced with hundreds of international screams wanting justice. We need to be brave, stand out, want more and not to live in fear like many leaders all around the world want us to. Keep fighting and never let anyone take your ideas and values away.

[speakingfreelyhr]

Intruduction post

My name is Valentina and I chose freedom of speech as my topic for this human right's blog. The reason behind why I chose this specific human right is because in my point of view this is the right that is more violated of all of them, we have heard of governments that had tried to silence people unconformities (ending in massive killings), social movements trying to oppress a minority or even us as individuals excluding people for thinking a certain way. We often demand that other people should listen to our opinions, should respect our way of thinking but we also want to force them to think the same way we do, aren't we being incongruent? People should express freely but also should respect what other people says and thinks. So this blog will be conformed by examples and opinions that should give us the tools to be congruent in our petitions and will be also very helpful for us to build the right path to the FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Also this is a community so feel free of leaving your opinion in the comments so we can grow together as better persons exchanging facts and points of view.