OPINION: Free speech versus fair play

“There is a fine line between censorship and good taste and moral responsibility.” Stephen Spielberg

Working in the media in Rochdale can be a very trying affair. There is a fine balance to be maintained between presenting the facts to the public, offering occasional opinion and encouraging debate and dialogue via the comments section on our news pages and on our Facebook page.

Take the recent and continuing furore over the controversial planning decision arrived at by the council in respect of the application to the Mustafa Islamic Centre on Fishwick Street. In the wake of the BBC programme in which Council Tax-payers got a rare glimpse into how our council works and how decisions are arrived at, there has understandably been a great deal of interest shown in a process that was shown to be both ineptly handled and shambolic in execution. There has also been much speculation about the motivation of those members of the Planning Committee who nodded this through in defiance of both professional advice from Planning Officers and plain old-fashioned commonsense.

Many commentators seemed to feel that the way in which some people voted had more to do with pressures being applied; either overtly or covertly by those who felt that it was in their interest to see the application succeed. As to be expected, many of those making comments felt that these pressures were due, at least in part, to specific cultural and ethnic concerns. Perhaps they were? Those who know certainly aren’t telling.

As a responsible media organisation, Rochdale Online has to steer a fine line between encouraging and promoting full and open debate whilst ensuring that we do not provide a platform for outright racism.

We were therefore surprised recently when Greg Couzens, the Deputy Chariman of Rochdale High Street Foundation, former Lib Dem councillor and leader of the failed Independent Alliance, added a ‘like’ to a post criticising us for removing a racist comment on our Facebook page.

Greg really should know better. Hopefully he will throw his stones with more care and in the right direction in the future.

This issue was not about Muslims as some sort of homogenous entity, hell bent on doing the rest of us down. It was about a decision made by members of a key council sub-committee which appears to most of us to lack rationale.

To try to steer the debate, whether intentionally or otherwise into some sort of racist tirade is as inaccurate as it is unhelpful as evidenced by Muslim posters who also felt that the decision to allow the application to go ahead.

Rochdale Online reports legitimate areas of concern to all Rochdalians as accurately and objectively as we can. We welcome dialogue and interaction with our subscribers to our news-pages and social networking accounts.

What we will not and never do is to provide a medium for racists, their fellow-travellers and their sympathisers to pump out their poison or make negative, sweeping and inaccurate comments about large sections of our various communities. The law is quite specific about actions that promote racism or racial-hatred. More importantly to us, our sense of decency and fair play will always determine the position we take when confronted with those who would seek to cause deliberate hurt or disharmony. If this means that upon occasion, we have to edit or remove inflammatory posts, so be it.