COLORS 65: Freedom of Speech

COLORS 65: Freedom of Speech celebrates the 20th anniversary of Reporters Sans Frontières which is constantly working to protect everyone's right to be informed.

Reading the pages of COLORS 65 may put you at serious risk depending on your location at the present time. This is because the information contained in this magazine is for general public awareness and is undertaken with the purpose of an investigation into free speech.

So COLORS requests readers to take note of the following terms and conditions.

Please be aware however that the application and impact of local laws on a group or individual vary widely and that legal, religious and ethical codes and/or regulations may impede your right to view this material in certain nations, regions, areas, territories and political zones. Be further advised that most of the stories covered in COLORS 65 have in one way or another been blocked, censored or banned.

Please understand that legal institutions and laws relating to the free or impeded flow of information ensure that two-thirds of the world’s population now live in places where the incumbent powers would prefer that everyone simply keep their mouth shut.

Please note that you may as such be beaten, jailed and raped for taking photographs of people on a street in Iran; charged with blasphemy for drawing cartoons about Jesus in Greece; murdered for making a film about a Muslim woman in the Netherlands; forced to break rocks for cracking jokes in Burma and banned from talking about your sex life in China.

Please further note that 907 journalists were arrested in 2004 and 1,146 were attacked and threatened. Twenty-two journalists are currently detained in Cuba under article 91 of the country’s Penal Code for “acts against the independence or territorial integrity of the state,” while one is currently imprisoned in the United States for refusing to reveal her sources about a story she never wrote.

Always remember that freedom of speech regards all of us, both as individuals and as a society. It is not only about journalists or only certain countries. As a form of free expression and communication among people, it favors understanding and a sense of community. Freedom of speech is a luxury, when it should be a right.

Until that time, if you are at risk, dissatisfied or offended by any portion of COLORS 65, you should at least have the freedom to stop reading.

Available at newsstands from September 24th, 2005.

 

For further information:

+39 0422 516209
colorsmagazine.com

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COLORS 65: Freedom of Speech