Communication and Human Rights

Author(s): Aliaa Dakroury

Edition: 1

Copyright: 2009

Pages: 220

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$41.91

ISBN 9781465214966

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Communication and Human Rights offers a conceptual scheme for understanding the dynamic interrelationship between communication and human rights. Claims that communication is a basic right, available-for-all, and taken-for-granted by all human beings, as stated in various declarations, incites heated debates and controversies in practice, including hate speech, propaganda, and even claims for publishing criminal diaries and pornography.

This book examines the nature and context of these divisive declarations and provides a provisional conceptualization of the concept "right". To unpack these debates, this novel book delves into the position of various thinkers, scholars and intellectuals: from Milton, Locke, and Voltaire to Dewey, Habermas, and Schiller; concluding that a possible Right to Communicate would build on a notion of Habermasian validity, where this right is related to a specific type of communication-right-based communication-that is characterized by pureness, truth, and sincerity as well as the existence of a relative relationship between a claim of a right to send and the responsibility toward receivers.

Aliaa Dakroury, Ph.D., is a Lecturer at the Departments of Communication, Sociology, and Law at Carleton University, Canada. She is the winner of the 2005 Van Horne Award from the Canadian Communication Association. She is the editor of the Fall 2008 issue on the "Right to Communicate" in the Global Media Journal -- American Edition, co-editor of The Right to Communicate: Historical Hopes, Global Debates, and Future Premises (2009) and Introduction to Communication and Media Studies (2008).

"In this meticulously researched and readable book, Communication and Human Rights, Aliaa Dakroury makes a significant contribution to one of the most important, and often underestimated, issues of our time: Freedom of expression. Dakroury aims to inform, provoke thought, and foster understanding by diligently tracing the historical and intellectual origins of communication within the context of global human rights. As a concerned communication scholar and an emerging champion of human rights, she masterfully takes readers through a rewarding journey that should result in further debate, research, and ultimately, greater appreciation for the Right to Communicate."
- Yahya R. Kamalipour, Professor and Head Department of Communication and Creative Arts Director of Center for Global Studies Purdue University Calumet

"Aliaa Dakroury's Communication and Human Rights represents a monumental next step for the Right to Communicate. Her strong dedication to this basic human right builds on the past, captures the present, and incorporates many visions of the future of the Right to Communicate from many perspectives. L. S. Harms (1929-2004) would be proud of her dedication to this cause. From the time he met Aliaa, he knew that she understood the importance of advancing the principle."
- Dan J. Wedemeyer Professor and Chair School of Communications, University of Hawaii Chair of the Right to Communicate Group

"The Right to Communicate as a basic human right has not made much headway since its emergence in the late sixties. Aliaa Dakroury's Communication and Human Rights is a must-read for everybody who is looking for a way out of the current stalemate the debate on information rights, censorship, journalism ethics, the digital divide and so on has arrived at."
- Jan Servaes Professor and Director Center of Communication for Sustainable Social Change University of Massachusetts

 Foreword by Cees J. Hamelink

CHAPTER 1: Introduction: Is Communication a Basic Human Right?

CHAPTER 2: Early Context of the Right to Communicate
American Bill of Rights
The French Revolution and La Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen
Languaging the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article (19)
Beyond the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
UNESCO Media Declaration
The Flow of Information Debate
The MacBride Commission

CHAPTER 3: A Debate on What is a Right to Communicate
Totalitarianism and Propaganda
Hate Speech versus Free Speech 00
The Internet, Pornography, and Offensive Signs
Invasion of Privacy and the Right "Not" to Communicate
Media Ownership and Control
A Provisional Conceptualization of What is a "Right"

CHAPTER 4: Philosophical Foundation of Communication as a "Human Right"
John Milton (1608-1674): Early Uni-Dimensional Right
John Locke (1632-1704): Absolute Individual Freedom
Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755): Legal Realization of Liberties
Voltaire (1694-1778): Absolute Freedom of Speech
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832): Public Opinion and Freedom of Expression
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873): Absolute Right Relative to Greatest Happiness

CHAPTER 5: Toward a Theorization of Communication as a "Human Right"
John Dewey: Communication as a Social Dialogue
Jürgen Habermas: Undistorted Communication
Herbert Schiller: A Right to Communicate Cultures

CHAPTER 6: The Question of the Right to Communicate
The Language Answer
The Realization Phase
The Practice Debate
Perspectives on the Right to Communicate
Is Communication a Basic Human Right?

References
Author
Index
Subject Index

Aliaa Dakroury

Communication and Human Rights offers a conceptual scheme for understanding the dynamic interrelationship between communication and human rights. Claims that communication is a basic right, available-for-all, and taken-for-granted by all human beings, as stated in various declarations, incites heated debates and controversies in practice, including hate speech, propaganda, and even claims for publishing criminal diaries and pornography.

This book examines the nature and context of these divisive declarations and provides a provisional conceptualization of the concept "right". To unpack these debates, this novel book delves into the position of various thinkers, scholars and intellectuals: from Milton, Locke, and Voltaire to Dewey, Habermas, and Schiller; concluding that a possible Right to Communicate would build on a notion of Habermasian validity, where this right is related to a specific type of communication-right-based communication-that is characterized by pureness, truth, and sincerity as well as the existence of a relative relationship between a claim of a right to send and the responsibility toward receivers.

Aliaa Dakroury, Ph.D., is a Lecturer at the Departments of Communication, Sociology, and Law at Carleton University, Canada. She is the winner of the 2005 Van Horne Award from the Canadian Communication Association. She is the editor of the Fall 2008 issue on the "Right to Communicate" in the Global Media Journal -- American Edition, co-editor of The Right to Communicate: Historical Hopes, Global Debates, and Future Premises (2009) and Introduction to Communication and Media Studies (2008).

"In this meticulously researched and readable book, Communication and Human Rights, Aliaa Dakroury makes a significant contribution to one of the most important, and often underestimated, issues of our time: Freedom of expression. Dakroury aims to inform, provoke thought, and foster understanding by diligently tracing the historical and intellectual origins of communication within the context of global human rights. As a concerned communication scholar and an emerging champion of human rights, she masterfully takes readers through a rewarding journey that should result in further debate, research, and ultimately, greater appreciation for the Right to Communicate."
- Yahya R. Kamalipour, Professor and Head Department of Communication and Creative Arts Director of Center for Global Studies Purdue University Calumet

"Aliaa Dakroury's Communication and Human Rights represents a monumental next step for the Right to Communicate. Her strong dedication to this basic human right builds on the past, captures the present, and incorporates many visions of the future of the Right to Communicate from many perspectives. L. S. Harms (1929-2004) would be proud of her dedication to this cause. From the time he met Aliaa, he knew that she understood the importance of advancing the principle."
- Dan J. Wedemeyer Professor and Chair School of Communications, University of Hawaii Chair of the Right to Communicate Group

"The Right to Communicate as a basic human right has not made much headway since its emergence in the late sixties. Aliaa Dakroury's Communication and Human Rights is a must-read for everybody who is looking for a way out of the current stalemate the debate on information rights, censorship, journalism ethics, the digital divide and so on has arrived at."
- Jan Servaes Professor and Director Center of Communication for Sustainable Social Change University of Massachusetts

 Foreword by Cees J. Hamelink

CHAPTER 1: Introduction: Is Communication a Basic Human Right?

CHAPTER 2: Early Context of the Right to Communicate
American Bill of Rights
The French Revolution and La Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen
Languaging the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article (19)
Beyond the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
UNESCO Media Declaration
The Flow of Information Debate
The MacBride Commission

CHAPTER 3: A Debate on What is a Right to Communicate
Totalitarianism and Propaganda
Hate Speech versus Free Speech 00
The Internet, Pornography, and Offensive Signs
Invasion of Privacy and the Right "Not" to Communicate
Media Ownership and Control
A Provisional Conceptualization of What is a "Right"

CHAPTER 4: Philosophical Foundation of Communication as a "Human Right"
John Milton (1608-1674): Early Uni-Dimensional Right
John Locke (1632-1704): Absolute Individual Freedom
Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755): Legal Realization of Liberties
Voltaire (1694-1778): Absolute Freedom of Speech
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832): Public Opinion and Freedom of Expression
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873): Absolute Right Relative to Greatest Happiness

CHAPTER 5: Toward a Theorization of Communication as a "Human Right"
John Dewey: Communication as a Social Dialogue
Jürgen Habermas: Undistorted Communication
Herbert Schiller: A Right to Communicate Cultures

CHAPTER 6: The Question of the Right to Communicate
The Language Answer
The Realization Phase
The Practice Debate
Perspectives on the Right to Communicate
Is Communication a Basic Human Right?

References
Author
Index
Subject Index

Aliaa Dakroury