First - The ideals (and frequent practices) of America have historically defended and expanded freedom of expression. It have been horrific for Americans who have cherished these to endure the opening years of this dark century, in which the best of what has often been peculiarly American has been betrayed by leaps and bounds. The biggest threat to America comes from American nationals. (And the censure of art criticism is far less important than the censure of political expression.)
Second - Freedom of the press is manifested in ownership of a press. Refusing to use your press to publish what someone else writes is no abrogation of freedom, but rather a genuine expression of your own freedom. I have no right to demand that someone else publishes what I create. That is not the issue in the material which follows below.
Now, on to Alizée.
As explained in detail at The real Alizée is not a Taliban pinup girl, my artwork and art criticism have recently been rejected at Alizée America because of
...the slight increase of controversial(and in my eyes, "somewhat offensive") comments you have made in your essays recently...
Please remember that a person of a given nationality might hold attitudes popular in his nation, or ones contrary to them. But when you deal with a large group of a certain nationality, it is not unreasonable to suspect its members hold a collection of attitudes which reflect those dominant in their nation as a whole.
In recent times, a vast numbers of Indian nationals have come to frequent Alizée America, as documented at Alizée America traffic through February 2011. They are roughly as numerous as Americans.
I was even told that Alizée India had basically shut down at the end of 2010, which would explain why so many Indians would naturally seek out a new English-speaking Alizée fan site. It is no secret that an Indian national has been the top de facto administrator of the Alizée America Web site for some time now, which certainly would not discourage such a migration.
The reason I bring up the issue of India is the new development reported in India Puts Tight Leash on Internet Free Speech. This dateline Mumbai article published April 27, 2011 writes in part:
Free speech advocates and Internet users are protesting new Indian regulations restricting Web content that, among other things, can be considered 'disparaging,' 'harassing,' 'blasphemous' or 'hateful.' ...The country’s constitution allows 'reasonable restrictions' on free speech but lawmakers have periodically stretched that definition to ban books, movies and other material about sensitive subjects like sex, politics and religion.
Not all Indians are happy with the reforms. The New York Times quotes Pushkar Raj, general secretary of the New Delhi-based group People’s Union for Civil Liberties as saying: What are we, Saudi Arabia? We don’t expect this from India. This is something very serious.
But one can only wonder what cultural effect this new legal regimen has on the citizens of India when they participate in a venue like Alizée America. Of course, citizens of other nations, not excluding the United States, could well be sympathetic to such restrictions on expression and even regret its absence in their own country.
