"The fundamental basis of free speech is the flame." -dpp

[qatar]

Insulting email, SMS can land you in prisonWeb posted at: 1/31/2010 6:53:32

Comments

This certainly doesn't seem consistent with

[anonymous]

how QF is perceived by all the American unis here, does it? It makes me wonder if Academic Freedom is even possible in a society that is so concerned about people being insulted.

As I have stated before, I feel as if I am in Oz and have seen the man behind the curtain.

Salaam,
Lisa

Re: This certainly doesn't seem consistent with

[anonymous]

Academic freedom is not affected by the Qatari speech laws to the extent that the subject in question is not related to those laws. So if you're researching Spanish or Industrial Technology, for example, you're in the clear.

The problems only arise when you get to locally relevant issues, such as "what is science" or "how should religion impact domestic policy" or "does the exit visa make workers' lives worse".

In short, as long as you research stuff Qataris don't care about, they don't care what you say. But this was obvious anyway.

-dpp

Re: This certainly doesn't seem consistent with

[qatar]

Well that depends, right? In the US a faculty member could stand in front of a classroom and say "Antonin Scalia is a doodoohead" and be assured that they wouldn't lose their job, let alone their immigration standing. Apparently here that's not true. So that doesn't just affect what we research, it affects our ability to voice opinions in the classroom.

Re: This certainly doesn't seem consistent with

[anonymous]

How does that have to do with the classroom at all? That's just a general observation about speech not being free. You could do the same thing at the shopping mall if you wanted. -dpp