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Free Speech Crushed Again In Armenia!


nairi

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This time over sex.

Nairi

it's not about sex or sexual content.

it's about the language that is used in the book. (i think)

i think it's too vulgar.

 

while the guy has the right to write any way he wants, the others have the right to refuse to sell them. (i think)

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while the guy has the right to write any way he wants, the others have the right to refuse to sell them. (i think)

I think the caveat should be:

 

while the guy has the right to write any way he wants, the others have the right NOT to buy the book

 

And what follows from that - if people aren't buying the book, than the bookseller has the choice to carry it on his shelves... But government agencies should NOT be dictating what can be published and what can't - especially as a result of 'language'.

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while the guy has the right to write any way he wants, the others have the right to refuse to sell them. (i think)

I think the caveat should be:

 

while the guy has the right to write any way he wants, the others have the right NOT to buy the book

This is actually my point. However, in this case, fortunately perhaps, it is not the government that suppressed free speech, but booksellers. Although it is an agreed fact that booksellers have the right to be selective in their collection, I find it utterly hypocritical that these booksellers in Yerevan tolerate and sell foreign (e.g. Russian) books containing sex and vulgarity, but not Armenian.

 

As for vulgarity, Harut jan, you're right. But from what I understood of the article, it was a combination of sexual content and vulgarity; vulgarity, that is, in terms of how Armenians define it.

 

I think Bnagir's quote illustrates the consequence of such practices very well:

 

"Just like the leaders in the country are imposing their power, so too, many people in society are trying to impose moral norms," says co-editor of the journal "Bnagir" Violet Grigoryan. "Both of those dictatorships are based on falsification (false elections and false literature). People run away from the country because of those reasons so that they choose who they want and read what they want. Both of these are obstacles for freedom and the development of the country."

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