I'd like to start, if I may, with the story of the Paisley snail. On the evening of the 26th of August, 1928, May Donoghue took a train from Glasgow to the town of Paisley, seven miles east of the city, and there at the Wellmeadow Café, she had a Scots ice cream float, a mix of ice cream and ginger beer bought for her by a friend. The ginger beer came in a brown, opaque bottle labeled "D. Stevenson, Glen Lane, Paisley." She drank some of the ice cream float, but as the remaining ginger beer was poured into her tumbler, a decomposed snail floated to the surface of her glass. Three days later, she was admitted to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary and diagnosed with severe gastroenteritis and shock.
Počeo bih, ako mi dozvolite, pričom o pužu iz Pejzlija. U veče 26. avgusta 1928. godine, Mej Donahju je uhvatila voz iz Glazgova do grada Pejzlija, 11 kilometara istočno od grada, i tamo je u kafe Velmedou pila škotski koktel sa sladoledom, mešavinu sladoleda i piva od đumbira, koji joj je kupio prijatelj. Pivo od đumbira je bilo u smeđoj, neprovidnoj flaši sa nalepnicom na kojoj je pisalo: ,,D. Stivenson, Ulica Glen, Pejzli''. Popila je jedan deo ali kako je ostatak đumbirovog piva bio sipan u njenu čašu, puž u stanju raspadanja isplivao je na površinu iste. Tri dana kasnije, primljena je u bolnicu u Glazgovu gde su joj ustanovljeni težak slučaj upale probavnog trakta i šok. Slučaj Donahju protiv Stivensona, koji je usledio
The case of Donoghue vs. Stevenson that followed set a very important legal precedent: Stevenson, the manufacturer of the ginger beer, was held to have a clear duty of care towards May Donoghue, even though there was no contract between them, and, indeed, she hadn't even bought the drink. One of the judges, Lord Atkin, described it like this: You must take care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbor. Indeed, one wonders that without a duty of care, how many people would have had to suffer from gastroenteritis before Stevenson eventually went out of business.
postavio je važan pravni presedan: Za Stivensona, proizvođača đumbirovog piva, smatrano je da ima dužnu pažnju prema Mej Donahju, iako oni nisu imali nikakav ugovor, i iako ona nije čak ni kupila piće. Jedan od sudija, Lord Atkin, opisao je to ovako: Morate se pobrinuti da izbegnete dela ili propuste za koje možete da pretpostavite da je moguće da povrede vašeg suseda. Svakako, bez obaveze dužne pažnje, moramo se zapitati koliko bi ljudi moralo da dobije gastroenteritis pre nego što bi Stivensonova proizvodnja bila prekinuta.
Now please hang on to that Paisley snail story, because it's an important principle. Last year, the Hansard Society, a nonpartisan charity which seeks to strengthen parliamentary democracy and encourage greater public involvement in politics published, alongside their annual audit of political engagement, an additional section devoted entirely to politics and the media. Here are a couple of rather depressing observations from that survey. Tabloid newspapers do not appear to advance the political citizenship of their readers, relative even to those who read no newspapers whatsoever. Tabloid-only readers are twice as likely to agree with a negative view of politics than readers of no newspapers. They're not just less politically engaged. They are consuming media that reinforces their negative evaluation of politics, thereby contributing to a fatalistic and cynical attitude to democracy and their own role within it. Little wonder that the report concluded that in this respect, the press, particularly the tabloids, appear not to be living up to the importance of their role in our democracy.
Molim vas, zapamtite tu priču o pužu iz Pejzlija, zato što ona predstavlja bitan princip. Prošle godine, Udruženje Hansard, nevladina dobrotvorna organizacija koja se zalaže za očuvanje parlamentarne demokratije i ohrabrivanje većeg uključivanja javnosti u politiku, objavilo je, pored svog godišnjeg pregleda političkih aktivnosti, dodatni deo posvećen u potpunosti politici i medijima. Ovo su samo neki od prilično deprimirajućih zaključaka tog istraživanja. Tabloidi ni na koji način ne unapređuju političku svest svojih čitalaca, koja je slična onima koji uopšte ne čitaju novine. Verovatnoća da će se čitaoci isključivo tabloida složiti sa negativnim pogledom na politiku je dvaput veća nego kod ljudi koji ne čitaju novine. Oni ne samo da su manje politički aktivni. Oni prate medije koji ohrabruju njihovo negativno vrednovanje politike, doprinoseći fatalističkom i ciničnom stavu prema demokratiji i njihovoj ulozi unutar iste. Nije ni čudo što je zaključak izveštaja da u ovom slučaju, štampa, a posebno tabloidi, ne ispunjavaju i ne shvataju važnost svoje uloge u našoj demokratiji.
Now I doubt if anyone in this room would seriously challenge that view. But if Hansard are right, and they usually are, then we've got a very serious problem on our hands, and it's one that I'd like to spend the next 10 minutes focusing upon.
Sumnjam da bi iko od ovde prisutnih mogao ozbiljno da ospori takvo viđenje stvari. Ali, ako je Hansard u pravu, a obično to jesu, onda se suočavamo sa veoma ozbiljnim problemom, i ja bih želeo da se u narednih deset minuta fokusiram na njega.
Since the Paisley snail, and especially over the past decade or so, a great deal of thinking has been developed around the notion of a duty of care as it relates to a number of aspects of civil society. Generally a duty of care arises when one individual or a group of individuals undertakes an activity which has the potential to cause harm to another, either physically, mentally or economically. This is principally focused on obvious areas, such as our empathetic response to children and young people, to our service personnel, and to the elderly and infirm. It is seldom, if ever, extended to equally important arguments around the fragility of our present system of government, to the notion that honesty, accuracy and impartiality are fundamental to the process of building and embedding an informed, participatory democracy. And the more you think about it, the stranger that is.
Od slučaja sa pužem iz Pejzlija, a posebno tokom poslednje decenije, mnoga mišljenja su nastala o samoj definiciji dužne pažnje i njenoj povezanosti sa brojnim aspektima civilnog stanovništva. Uopšteno, dužna pažnja nastaje kada pojedinac ili grupa pojedinaca započne aktivnost za koju postoji mogućnost da može da naudi drugima, bilo fizički, mentalno ili ekonomski. Ovo se posebno odnosi na neke očigledne oblasti, poput našeg saosećanja za decu i mlade, za osoblje, i za stare i nemoćne. Retko se, ako i ikad, to prenosi na jednako važna pitanja o krhkosti sadašnjeg sistema vlade, do predstave o tome da su iskrenost, tačnost i neutralnost presudni za proces izgradnje i primene informisane, demokratije u kojoj svi učestvuju. I što više o tome razmišljate, čudnije izgleda.
A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of opening a brand new school in the northeast of England. It had been renamed by its pupils as Academy 360. As I walked through their impressive, glass-covered atrium, in front of me, emblazoned on the wall in letters of fire was Marcus Aurelius's famous injunction: If it's not true, don't say it; if it's not right, don't do it. The head teacher saw me staring at it, and he said, "Oh, that's our school motto." On the train back to London, I couldn't get it out of my mind. I kept thinking, can it really have taken us over 2,000 years to come to terms with that simple notion as being our minimum expectation of each other? Isn't it time that we develop this concept of a duty of care and extended it to include a care for our shared but increasingly endangered democratic values? After all, the absence of a duty of care within many professions can all too easily amount to accusations of negligence, and that being the case, can we be really comfortable with the thought that we're in effect being negligent in respect of the health of our own societies and the values that necessarily underpin them? Could anyone honestly suggest, on the evidence, that the same media which Hansard so roundly condemned have taken sufficient care to avoid behaving in ways which they could reasonably have foreseen would be likely to undermine or even damage our inherently fragile democratic settlement.
Pre par godina, imao sam zadovoljstvo da otvorim novu školu na severoistoku Engleske. Učenici su je nazvali Akademija 360. Dok sam hodao kroz impresivni, staklom prekriven atrijum, ispred sebe, ispisano na zidu slovima nalik na vatru ugledao sam poznatu naredbu Marka Aurelija: Ako nije istina, nemoj reći; ako nije ispravno, nemoj uraditi. Profesor me je video kako gledam u to i rekao je: ,,To je moto naše škole''. Dok sam išao vozom nazad za London, nisam mogao to da izbacim iz glave. Razmišljao o tome da li nam je zaista bilo potrebno preko 2000 godina da dođemo do toga da ta jednostavna rečenica predstavlja ono što najmanje očekujemo jedni od drugih. Zar nije vreme da razvijemo koncept dužne pažnje i proširimo ga da uključi brigu o zajedničkim, ali sve ugroženijim demokratskim vrednostima? Pored svega, odsustvo dužne pažnje u mnogim profesijama može prelako dovesti do optužbi za nehat, a kada je to slučaj, možemo li zaista živeti sa mišlju da smo nehajni prema zdravlju sopstvenog društva i vrednostima koje ga suštinski održavaju? Da li bi iko mogao da kaže, argumentovano, da su isti mediji koje je Hansard osudio preduzeli dovoljne mere da izbegnu ponašanje za koje su lako mogli da predvide da će urušiti ili oštetiti naše krhke demokratske vrednosti?
Now there will be those who will argue that this could all too easily drift into a form of censorship, albeit self-censorship, but I don't buy that argument. It has to be possible to balance freedom of expression with wider moral and social responsibilities.
Sigurno ima onih koji će tvrditi da bi se ovo lako moglo svesti pod cenzuru, iako autocenzuru, ali ne prihvatam taj argument. Sigurno je moguće izbalansirati slobodu govora sa širim moralnim i društvenim vrednostima.
Let me explain why by taking the example from my own career as a filmmaker. Throughout that career, I never accepted that a filmmaker should set about putting their own work outside or above what he or she believed to be a decent set of values for their own life, their own family, and the future of the society in which we all live. I'd go further. A responsible filmmaker should never devalue their work to a point at which it becomes less than true to the world they themselves wish to inhabit. As I see it, filmmakers, journalists, even bloggers are all required to face up to the social expectations that come with combining the intrinsic power of their medium with their well-honed professional skills. Obviously this is not a mandated duty, but for the gifted filmmaker and the responsible journalist or even blogger, it strikes me as being utterly inescapable.
Objasniću i zašto primerom uzetim iz karijere koju sam imao kao reditelj. Sve to vreme, nikada nisam prihvatio da reditelj treba da se upusti u stavljanje sopstvenog posla izvan ili iznad onoga za šta veruje da je dostojno vrednosti kojima se vodi u životu, sopstvene porodice, i budućnosti društva u kom svi mi živimo. Otići ću i dalje. Odgovoran reditelj nikada ne bi trebalo da obezvredi svoj rad do tačke u kojoj taj rad postaje išta manje od istine o svetu koji on sam želi da nastanjuje. Sa moje tačke gledišta, reditelji, novinari, pa čak i blogeri, moraju se suočiti sa društvenim očekivanjima koja dolaze sa kombinovanjem moći koju ima njihov medij i njihovim izoštrenim profesionalnim umećem. Očigledno, ovo nije obavezna dužnost, ali za talentovanog reditelja i odgovornog novinara, ili blogera, čini mi se da je neophodna.
We should always remember that our notion of individual freedom and its partner, creative freedom, is comparatively new in the history of Western ideas, and for that reason, it's often undervalued and can be very quickly undermined. It's a prize easily lost, and once lost, once surrendered, it can prove very, very hard to reclaim. And its first line of defense has to be our own standards, not those enforced on us by a censor or legislation, our own standards and our own integrity. Our integrity as we deal with those with whom we work and our own standards as we operate within society. And these standards of ours need to be all of a piece with a sustainable social agenda. They're part of a collective responsibility, the responsibility of the artist or the journalist to deal with the world as it really is, and this, in turn, must go hand in hand with the responsibility of those governing society to also face up to that world, and not to be tempted to misappropriate the causes of its ills. Yet, as has become strikingly clear over the last couple of years, such responsibility has to a very great extent been abrogated by large sections of the media. And as a consequence, across the Western world, the over-simplistic policies of the parties of protest and their appeal to a largely disillusioned, older demographic, along with the apathy and obsession with the trivial that typifies at least some of the young, taken together, these and other similarly contemporary aberrations are threatening to squeeze the life out of active, informed debate and engagement, and I stress active.
Moramo uvek imati na umu da je naša ideja o ličnoj slobodi i njenom pratiocu, umetničkoj slobodi, još uvek prilično nova u istoriji ideja zapadne kulture, i iz tog razloga je često potcenjena i brzo može biti narušena. To je privilegija koja se lako gubi, a jednom izgubljena, jednom predana, može se pokazati kao nešto što se jako teško dobije nazad. U prvoj liniji odbrane moraju biti naši sopstveni standardi, ne oni koji su nam propisani od strane cenzora ili zakonodavstva, već naši sopstveni standardi i integritet. Integritet sa kojim se suočavamo sa onima sa kojima radimo i standardi kojima funkcionišemo unutar društva. I ovi naši standardi treba da budu jedno sa održivim društvenim poretkom. Oni su deo kolektivne odgovornosti, odgovornosti umetnika i novinara da se nose sa svetom onakvim kakav on zaista jeste, a ovo, za uzvrat, mora ići zajedno sa odgovornošću onih koji vode društvo da se isto tako suoče sa tim svetom, ne padajući u iskušenje da se koriste razlozima njegove bolesti. Ipak, kao što je i postalo jasno u poslednjih par godina, takva odgovornost je u velikoj meri napuštena od strane ogromnog broja medija. Kao posledica toga, u čitavom Zapadnom svetu, previše pojednostavljena načela onih koji se bune i njihov apel uveliko razočaranoj starijoj populaciji uz ravnodušnost i bavljenje trivijalnostima koje generalizuju mlade, sve zajedno, ova i druga slična savremena odstupanja prete da iscede život iz aktivne, potkrepljene debate i učestvovanja, sa naglaskom na aktivnost.
The most ardent of libertarians might argue that Donoghue v. Stevenson should have been thrown out of court and that Stevenson would eventually have gone out of business if he'd continued to sell ginger beer with snails in it. But most of us, I think, accept some small role for the state to enforce a duty of care, and the key word here is reasonable. Judges must ask, did they take reasonable care and could they have reasonably foreseen the consequences of their actions? Far from signifying overbearing state power, it's that small common sense test of reasonableness that I'd like us to apply to those in the media who, after all, set the tone and the content for much of our democratic discourse.
Najvatreniji zastupnici ljudskih prava mogu tvrditi da je sud trebalo da odbaci slučaj Donahju protiv Stivensona i da bi Stivenson na kraju svakako morao da prekine proizvodnju ukoliko bi nastavio da prodaje pivo u kom ima puževa. Mislim ipak da većina nas prihvata da država propiše dužnu pažnju, ali ključna reč ovde je ,,razumno''. Sudije mogu postaviti pitanja poput, da li su preduzete razumne mere i da li su se mogle predvideti posledice nekih dela? Daleko od naglašavanja dominantne moći države, voleo da primenimo mali test zdravog razuma na one u medijima koji, nakon svega, postavljaju sadržaj i ton velikog dela našeg demokratskog diskursa. Demokratija, da bi funkcionisala, zahteva da
Democracy, in order to work, requires that reasonable men and women take the time to understand and debate difficult, sometimes complex issues, and they do so in an atmosphere which strives for the type of understanding that leads to, if not agreement, then at least a productive and workable compromise. Politics is about choices, and within those choices, politics is about priorities. It's about reconciling conflicting preferences wherever and whenever possibly based on fact. But if the facts themselves are distorted, the resolutions are likely only to create further conflict, with all the stresses and strains on society that inevitably follow. The media have to decide: Do they see their role as being to inflame or to inform? Because in the end, it comes down to a combination of trust and leadership.
razumni ljudi izdvoje vreme da razumeju i razgovaraju o teškim, ponekad jako kompleksnim stvarima, i da to čine u atmosferi koja teži razumevanju koje vodi makar do, ako ne dogovora, onda produktivnog kompromisa. Politika se svodi na izbore, a unutar tih izbora, svodi se na prioritete. Radi se o pomirenju suprotnih prioriteta kad god i gde god je to moguće zasnovano na činjenicama. Ukoliko su same činjenice iskrivljene, vrlo je verovatno da će rešenja samo dovesti do daljeg konflikta, sa svim problemima i ograničenjima u društvu koja će neizbežno uslediti. Mediji moraju da odluče: da li vide svoju ulogu kao senzacionalističku ili kao informativnu? Jer na kraju, sve se svodi na kombinaciju poverenja i vođstva. Pre pedeset godina, ove nedelje, predsednik Džon F. Kenedi
Fifty years ago this week, President John F. Kennedy made two epoch-making speeches, the first on disarmament and the second on civil rights. The first led almost immediately to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the second led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, both of which represented giant leaps forward. Democracy, well-led and well-informed, can achieve very great things, but there's a precondition. We have to trust that those making those decisions are acting in the best interest not of themselves but of the whole of the people. We need factually-based options, clearly laid out, not those of a few powerful and potentially manipulative corporations pursuing their own frequently narrow agendas, but accurate, unprejudiced information with which to make our own judgments. If we want to provide decent, fulfilling lives for our children and our children's children, we need to exercise to the very greatest degree possible that duty of care for a vibrant, and hopefully a lasting, democracy. Thank you very much for listening to me. (Applause)
održao je dva revolucionarna govora; prvi o razoružanju, i drugi o građanskim pravima. Prvi je gotovo odmah doveo do Sporazuma o zabrani nuklearnih proba, a drugi je doveo do Povelje o građanskim pravima 1964. godine, i oba predstavljaju ogromne skokove u napredak. Demokratija, sa dobrim vođstvom i dobrom informisanošću, može da postigne velike stvari, ali postoji jedan preduslov. Moramo da verujemo da oni koji donose odluke to rade ne u svom najboljem interesu, već u interesu celog naroda. Potrebne su nam opcije zasnovane na činjenicama, jasno predočenim, ali ne one opcije nekoliko moćnih i potencijalno manipulativnih korporacija koje jure svoje interese, već jasne, nepristrasne informacije pomoću kojih ćemo izvesti sopstvene zaključke. Ukoliko želimo da obezbedimo pristojan, ispunjen život za našu decu, i za decu naše dece, moramo do najviše moguće mere da usavršimo dužnu pažnju za živu, i nadajmo se trajnu, demokratiju. Hvala vam što ste me saslušali. (Aplauz)