I am categorically opposed to any restrictions put on the presentation of information in the guise of protecting minorities from the risk of collective slander.
I ground my opposition not only on the right of the public to know. I consider a patronising, protective view of a “minority” as a subtle and sinister form of racism, which is more difficult to contend with than the more open racism. It serves to maintain and perpetuate often false “minority”/”majority” divisions without any perspective for improvement or change.
No amount of compromising, relativising, or minimising the truth component of reportage on an “honour” killing would make the unpleasant reality of the act (and its possibility to recur) vanish. The unacceptability of this reality is exploited and sensationalised by racist and antiimmigrant organisations, through appealing to superior values of the “majority” culture.
Responsible journalism deepens our understanding of the reality, rather than subverting it. It explores the historical and cultural background within the “minority” frame of reference, makes it graspable by referring to similar tendencies in the “majority” culture in the recallable past, and mobilises public opinion , irrespective of race or background, against it.
The most effective shield against collective slander is to question the very concept of collectivity when it is false. An ethnic minority, or a number of ethnic minorities called immigrants, is everything but a homogeneous entity. The Swedish mass media (as opposed to its British or American counterpart in this one respect) contributes to segregation by cosulting immigrants solely on immigrant issues, as if they were incapable as citizens to form any opinions on matters of general social interest. The other danger of ethnicity-dominated repertage is the bloc treatment of a minority as a unified whole, ignoring important tensions and differences of class, sec, cultural counter currents, and individual systems of value and conviction. To the extent that attention is drawn to progressive voices of dissent against negative cultural traits, i.e. to the extent that a minority is shown not to be a minority. Is collective slander rendered meaningless.
