Students have the last word in free speech

Students had a one-up on their teachers yesterday after the teenagers of the Qatar National Team won a debate over the Teachers Team.

With the potential to stir up public emotions, the motion “this House believes that freedom of speech in media is absolute with no restrictions” was opposed by the three-member winning side and generated some clinching arguments throughout.

The event was organised by QatarDebate in collaboration with the Doha Media Freedom Centre at the Qatar Foundation.

Setting the momentum, Naaz Hafiz from the proposing side advanced her argument that freedom of speech in media holds governments accountable while lack of it leads to oppression.

“It is logistically impossible now to decide how much can be restricted in this era of proliferation of information,” Hafiz said.

Terming the former argument flawed, Dana al-Ansari from the opposing side maintained that the speaker failed to mention why “we have problems with restrictions.”

“The fact is that people are going to get wrong information (without some sort of restrictions), as some media is going to be always biased and that will lead to panic,” she said.

Reasserting the opposition, the second speaker from the proposing side, Keath Heath, began by suggesting that the opposition has been “making nod-and-hood-winks.”

“The opposition took pains to point out the power of media, yet failed to point out the power of people… Freedom of speech is a fundamental human right. Only an independent media can work to seek the truth,” he said.

However, from the other side of the divide, speaker Sara al-Rumaihi deliberated that they are not calling for extreme restrictions on media - and actually subscribe to the idea that total restrictions lead to propaganda media - but are rather putting their weight for a “balanced media.”

“Who will decide whether the journalists working ‘independently’ are ethical enough since most people actually end up believing whatever comes on our TV screens and newspapers,” she questioned.

The verbal exchange of blows was taken a step further with the last proposition speaker Salman al-Attasy who pointed out that the opposition is only playing on “people’s fears”.

“We reiterate that a media without restrictions is needed for accountability, that people need to be able to express themselves, that it’s the duty of journalists to uphold ethics while it is a citizen’s duty to ensure that media is doing its job,” he said while defending his side’s views.

“Freedom of speech is a fundamental human right. Only an independent media can work to seek the truth”

The cut and thrust was even further heightened when the last speaker from the opposition side, Fatima Hijran inquired which is more important: the freedom of speech or responsibility.

“Total freedom of speech is harmful,” Hijran said while referring to the Danish cartoon incident, “and it creates divisions in the society. Most Danish Muslims felt isolated from non-Danish Muslims after the incident.”

Established in September 2007, QatarDebate is a civic engagement initiative that aims to develop and support the standard of open discussion and debate among students and young people in Qatar and the Middle East.