| Abstrakt: |
‘Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of common people, …’ Adopted and proclaimed by the General Assembly resolution 217 (III) of 10 December, 1948. The above statement announces without equivocation the rights of humans to enjoy freedom of expression in the sharing messages. How this right is allowed to be exercised throughout the world varies widely. Beyond the concern of how countries allow for freedom of speech to occur, are attitudes towards freedom of speech similar or different across cultures? More specifically, do attitudes vary on this topic across collectivists cultures? Research on the topic of freedom of speech, in general, has been conducted largely in individualistic cultures such as the United States. Therefore, this study focuses specifically upon collectivists cultures and respondents' attitudes on a variety of topics (e. g., political, social) related to their exercise of free speech rights. A selected review of literature targets the topics of collectivist cultures and freedom of speech. Research hypotheses are offered to explore attitudes on free speech issues across the collectivist cultures of Argentina, China, Japan, Nigeria, Qatar, South Korea, and Turkey. A discussion of the analysis and related findings are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
