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Wednesday, January 17, 2001
Expediency still prevails in a country that has yet to grasp democracy's inner spirit By James Pitkin On Jan. 3, Czechs marched on Wenceslas Square en masse. What brought them was the specter of the nation's public television becoming a political tool. With a measure of innocence, even naivete, they chanted the mantras of liberal democracy: Freedom of speech. Freedom of the press. Freedom from censorship. Freedom. I thought of Michal Zitko. Barely a month ago, Zitko was given a 3-year suspended sentence and fined 2 million Kc ($50,000) for publishing Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf without a proper introduction. Something to the tune of: "The following ideas are dangerous and wrong. They killed millions of people." Zitko's crime was to let the words stand on their own, without a state-sanctioned historical or ideological context. I was reminded that 10 years is not such a long time. And that in the Czech Republic, as in much of Europe, abstract rights hold a dim candle against the demands of political expedience. After the Zitko verdict was handed down, I had a conversation with Monika -- a Czech university student, a diplomat's daughter, raised among an international smattering of politically conscious adults; as acute as they come. Like most Czechs I know, she accepted the court's decision and the assumptions behind it without batting an eyelash. A conversation became a debate. Her argument was a practical one. Freedom of speech would be fine if the people could be trusted. They cannot. Look at history. Look at the present, for that matter. The neo-Nazi movement is alive and well. The risk is simply too great. Certain ideas can't be allowed into the wrong hands, the wrong minds. Not uncensored. It's a belief that holds sway in much of Europe, codified in law. Zitko would have been similarly convicted in Germany, Austria, Russia and Hungary. My argument was grounded in principle. Censorship is always wrong, whoever is attempting to impose it. Putting this power in the hands of a seemingly just regime is the same as granting it to an unjust one. It's a line in the sand -- a sacred one for most Americans. Despite the Zitko ruling, for a brief time during the height of the demonstrations that belief seemed equally sacred to Czechs. Was it possible Zitko had been redeemed; that the nation had experienced a change of heart in the crisis over Czech TV? Why, after all, were 100,000 citizens rallying on Wenceslas Square? Weren't they standing up for exactly the principles I'd defended to Monika? If those beliefs were really what brought the masses to Wenceslas Square, they've long since been obscured by the fog of business as usual in the Czech Republic: the bare-knuckle brawl of the politics of expediency. As the bold slogans die in the winter air, former Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus, Prime Minister Milos Zeman and, yes, even President Vaclav Havel are seen scrambling for position. The accusations and calls for resignations fly. Conspiracy theories abound. And the people scratch their heads and wonder whom to believe. The question of what to believe in gets lost in the melee. And therein lies the root of the problem. Freedom of speech isn't a perk that comes with living in an open society. Open societies grow out of a deep commitment to such ideals -- to compromise is not only corrosive but ultimately pointless. Because even on practical grounds, you were wrong, Monika. Bad people will read Mein Kampf with evil intent, whether it bears a politically correct warning or not. Ban Mein Kampf altogether; they will still hate with equal fervor. Purge the powers that be at Czech Television; political influence will remain. Until the foundations of a liberal democracy are firmly in place, not only in the law books but in the hearts and minds of the Czech people, it doesn't matter who runs Czech Television, or who sits in the Castle for that matter. In a land where expediency is the rule, the media and everything else will always be up for grabs -- be it to the highest bidder, or the most cunning political animal. -- The author is a staff writer for this newspaper. |
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