Singapore has mulit-cultural background. Ever since Singapore gained independence from Malaysia, the Singapore government has place a lot of emphasis on racial harmony. One policy which the government has implmented is a quota to the percentage of different races living in a HDB estate to ensure even distribution of the different races so that they can interact and understand each other more so as to promote racial harmony. This implies that even the government is aware of the importance of racial harmony in Singapore. Hence i agree with Szilagyi that more focus should be placed on social responsibility than having total freedom of speech for the media.
Singapore's multi cultural backgroung meant that there is wide variety of races living in Singapore. If there is a racist remark published by the media and it sparked anger in a particular race , Singapore might end up having racial riots again like what happen in the 1964 racial riots, disrupting civil peace. All media should have freedom of speech so that it can report the absolute truth. However the truth may sometimes be misunderstood. The article said 'that once messages are out in public, they develop a life of their own and become subject to multiple interpretations, and often manipulation that serves political agendas', meaning that a remark which may have good intention may end up being interpreted as a racist remark. To overcome this problem, the media need to have social responsibility. That is although the media has the freedom of speech, it should evaluate the possible consequences of publishing certain sesitive topics that may cause serious civil unrest.
In the article by Peter Singer, it is mentioned that 'In his classic defense of freedom of speech in, On Liberty, John Stuart Mill wrote that if a view is not “fully, frequently, and fearlessly discussed,” it will become “a dead dogma, not a living truth.” The existence of the Holocaust should remain a living truth'. I agree that the Holocaust should not be forgotten since it has an important lesson to be learnt. According to the article, in order for the Holocaust to be a living truth, it need to be fearlessly discussed. The purpose of remembering the Holocaust is to learn from it so that the same mistake will not be repeated so as to ensure civil peace. However, if remembering it would cause civil unrest such as the riots caused by the cartoon from David Irving then it would be meaningless since more trouble is created. Hence i feel that the media should have social responsibility when sensitive issues are concerned so as to ensure civil peace even though it has the freedom of speech.
