Wise men hammer out truth on the anvil of discussion, dissent and debate. But when mind is full of predigested rubbish or when people look at the facts with the jaundiced eye irrationality dominates causing animosity or pandemonium. 
 

Wise men hammer out truth on the anvil of discussion, dissent and debate. But when mind is full of predigested rubbish or when people look at the facts with the jaundiced eye irrationality dominates causing animosity or pandemonium. 

Propaganda is not merely dissemination of ideas and information for the purpose of inducing or intensifying specific attitudes and actions. It is an art lying which consists in nearly deceiving your own people as well as your enemies. Because propaganda is frequently accompanied by distortions of fact and by appeals to passion and prejudice, it is often thought to be invariably false or misleading. Although some propagandists may intentionally distort fact, others may present it as faithfully as objective observers. 

As we have seen in case of invasion of Iraq war propaganda of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq based on lies and distortion lead to fear and fear lead to approval of invasion by a slim majority. 

Defamation
Every man has a right to express what he thinks truth but speaking or publishing words for defamation, inciting for illegal action or involving obscenity are not be allowed, especially those that vilify or ridicule religious beliefs or Holy Scriptures are regarded generally criminal acts of blasphemy.  Nobody has a right to make defamatory or slanderous statements about people. But it is difficult to prove it in court of law as the willful act of damaging the reputation of another by means of false and calumnious communications. In common law, defamation in writing is classified as libel, and oral defamation as slander.

If defamation is proved, usually damages are granted by the courts for monetary losses—such as loss of business or of a job—as well as for other types of losses, including harm to the victim's reputation or emotional distress and the person or body accused of defamation is required to pay that. . In some cases punishment is given to the libeler rather than to compensate the victim. 

It generally accepted that the right to free speech could be curtailed on grounds of national security.  Contempt of court is another area where one cannot say the things that insult the judge or ridicule his judgment. 

Free Media
Journalism is still regarded as a more immediate short- term weapon to change the public opinion. Few journalists conform to the modern journalist’s code of Olympian objectivity and total purity of motive. Here is a confession from a senior journalist.
“If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people — including me — would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.”_
Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939), U.S. journalist. 

In developing countries ridiculing or defaming the rulers may sometimes lead to jail sentence on real or fabricated charges depending upon the laws regulating press and publications.  In India we see ideal freedom of media, but the journalists and papers favoring independent struggle of Kashmir are harassed and punished on fabricated charges. President Musharraf has allowed freedom to media to great extent.However, religious extremists both in India and Pakistan do not tolerate blasphemy or criticism of their religious rites. Hindu extremists in India tore down centuries historical Babri Mosque merely on the rumor that Mogul Emperor had built the mosque by destroying their temple. There is no archaeological evidence available to support that. 

International organizations take cognizance of attacks on freedom of expression for the journalists.  Generally the journalists are required to follow a code ethics under which the media is supposed to honor the right of the public to know the facts but refrain from presenting a false picture and aiding and abetting a prosecutorial agent of the state in the commission of a felony. The freedom that the media in the West enjoys is unthinkable in many third world countries.

Here is a confession from a senior journalist.
“If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people — including me — would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.”_
Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939), U.S. journalist.

In many countries uttering words against kings or religious deity was considered as a sin punishable usually by death.  Although in Quran great emphasis is laid on kindness, forgiveness, mercy etc. orthodox Muslims take blasphemy very seriously and in some sects Sharia laws prescribe death penalty whereas during his lifetime Holy Prophet Mohammed discouraged such cruelties and forgave even those who had molested him and made him migrate from Mecca. 

The anger of Muslims over the cartoons published by some European papers ridiculing Prophet Muhammad caused worldwide protests recently. Some Muslim religious leaders say that the agents of the enemies of Islam planted their agents in peaceful demonstrations to ignite violence with the object of demonizing Islam. And some moderate scholars say that we should look for enemies within us as the worst blasphemy is violating the commandments about justice, honesty, brotherhood, kindness and altruism.

Nudity and Erotic Literature
In countries like Afghanistan extremists and despots object to all kinds of female modeling for publicity. Adult Magazines showing pictures of bikini clad girls or topless pin ups are banned. 

However in moderate Islamic State like Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia etc. the laws and values for lies, distortion, exaggeration, slander, inciting to illegal action, spreading hatred etc. are not much different than the universally accepted norms. But nudity and obscenity are not dealt with as leniently as in the West. 

It is not right to believe that  the good Samaritans all over the Western world support MTV culture; gay rights and events like beauty pageants. Definition of obscenity varies in different cultures and nudity is not prohibited in most countries to the same extent as it is in Islamic world. Any Publisher of erotic literature or nude or pornographic pictures would land up in jail in most Islamic states and in countries like Afghanistan the porn film actors (if any caught) would be sentenced to death. The values in the West are quite liberal as depicted by the following quotes: 

“Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed.” William Blake (1757–1827), English poet, painter,

“In the NUDE, all that is not beautiful is obscene.”_ Robert Bresson (b. 1907), French film director. 

“Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display. … The nude is condemned to never being naked. Nudity is a form of dress” _John Berger (b. 1926), British critic.

Pornography
The attitude of most people in the West towards it is truthfully shown by Tony Hancock (1924–68), British comedian: “It’s red hot, mate. I hate to think of this sort of book getting in the wrong hands. As soon as I’ve finished this, I shall recommend they ban it.”

Pornography is generally classified into two categories: soft-core, in which erotic content is more titillating than explicit. And hard-core, in which erotic content is explicitly and graphically depicted with full intensity. Most objections to pornography have been based on religious grounds. And pornographic sites on Internet are a great source of concern to most parents and attempts are made to block such sites. Most people regard pornography as degrading and socially harmful. 

Proponents of pornography argue that it is essentially a harmless diversion and may serve to relieve sexual tensions. Much controversy over pornography centers on whether or not pornography should be considered a form of obscenity, and whether it should be subject to some form of censorship.

Bertrand Russell wrote:” Nine-tenths of the appeal of pornography is due to the indecent feelings concerning sex which moralists inculcate in the young; the other tenth is physiological, and will occur in one way or another whatever the state of the law may be.” 

Definition of pornographic literature has often posed problem, which prompted W. H. Auden (1907–73), Anglo-American poet to suggest, ”There’s only one good test of pornography. Get twelve normal men to read the book, and then ask them, “Did you get an erection? If the answer is “Yes” from a majority of the twelve, then the book is pornographic.” But laws in many countries are more lenient.

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