"Freedom to Express vs Right to Retaliate": Part 1

Inconvenient Questions, Singapore

Excerpts from the inaugural debateIQ on "Freedom to Express vs Right to Retaliate". Should there be limits to the freedom to express and offend? Or should such freedoms be absolute? Watch the full video of this debate in Singapore, featuring panellists Minister for Law and Foreign Affairs K Shanmugam; Associate Professor Kwok Kian Woon (Sociology Division, NTU); Dr Nazry Bahrawi (Lecture/Cultural Critic, SUTD and Middle East Institute, NUS), moderated by IQ founder, Viswa Sadasivan. This debate was recorded "as live" on 16 January 2015. In Part I: The Charlie Hebdo killings. The Sydney hostage crisis. The Peshawar school massacre. As leaders in the West march in solidarity for freedom of speech, are there no exceptions to this absolute freedom? Who will be accountable when there is retaliatory action where life is lost? Are we witnessing a new age of instability driven by ideologies that offer no middle ground? What's Singapore’s position on the matter? In Part II, we look closer at what these global developments mean for Singapore. How are Singaporeans responding to what's been happening? Is there a need to rethink our "tried-and-tested" approach to maintaining racial and religious harmony? Or should there be a review of our laws here, e.g., Sedition Act, Religious Harmony Act and the Penal Code.