A Voice For Change

What is freedom of speech? Do we really have the right to freedom of expression? The Bhutanese Civil Service Rules (BCSR) seem to rule out freedom of expression. We are not as free as we think. We are pressed into a silent, dark world of tight rein. Controlled freedom is no freedom at all. A society devoid of freedom of expression is a society of camouflage, confidentiality, corruption, and hatred. If we do not have the freedom to speak rightly against wrongdoers, where is development? Where is the space for growth? What is there to fight for your rights? Why does bigotry persist in our closed society?

We do not have absolute freedom, and it is not necessary for any country to provide it. However, I have some excerpts from the BCSR 2012:

3.2.7 A civil servant shall maintain the confidentiality of official information and decisions.

3.2.7.1 A civil servant SHALL:
i. Uphold the duty of confidentiality at all times.
ii. Be as open as required with immediate official colleagues about decisions and actions.
iii. Restrict certain information to protect wider interests.
iv. Maintain confidentiality of information discovered in the course of duty, both while in service and after separation.

3.2.7.2 A civil servant SHALL NOT:
i. Disclose information to an inappropriate person or system.
ii. Share information with anyone, including family, until it has been made public by the concerned authority or an authorized person.
iii. Use information for personal gain.

3.2.8

3.2.18.2 A civil servant SHALL NOT:
i. Criticize or undermine the policies, programmes, and actions of the Royal Government in public or in the media.

I personally feel that if we maintain confidentiality regarding wrongs committed by some officials or people, we are living in a camouflaged and masked society. What could be the consequence of living in such a disguised society? For example, if a person is bullied in various ways by a head of an office, and if that mistreatment goes unreported, and if the victim is then blamed for doing the right thing, where is the fairness? Criticism and feedback are sources of rectification and development, yet there is no provision for them in these rules. I also believe that to permit the continued building of our politics and culture, and to ensure self-fulfillment for each individual, people must be guaranteed the right to express any thought, free from government censorship. Therefore, I feel there is a need to change and amend certain policies of the BCSR to create a better working environment and to encourage quality input. These policies offer no scope for progress. We are reined in. If something is good for the people, society, and country, we must learn to accept it constructively.

Let me refer to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Freedom of speech has always remained controversial. The freedom of information is also explicitly protected. We know this. There are clauses that allow governments to impose reasonable time, place, or manner restrictions on speech for general protections—such as against child pornography, speech that incites violence, the use of untruths to harm others or slander, religious offence, racial offence, sedition, hatred, and the regulation of commercial speech like advertising. Other limitations, such as rights for authors and inventors over their works and discoveries (copyrights and patents), may also be restricted.

Freedom of information is an extension of freedom of speech, where the medium of expression is the internet. It may also refer to the right to privacy in the context of the internet and information technology. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and blogs are platforms of expression, and they are accessible without censorship or restriction of web content.

As a human being, as a thinking person, as a lawful and rightful individual, one must understand that freedom of speech does not in any way include the right to incite actions that would harm others, to speak obscene words, or to bring a threat to one's own society. We must be mindful of what we do and say.