There are fundamental questions that society has to ask of itself, its civilisation and the tolerance of its culture as a result of the opportunities which the Internet affords to extremist groups. As libraries install more and more Internet connectivity, extremist groups are beginning to exploit the Internet to promulgate their message. This study, the EMAIN (extremism and the Internet) project seeks to address and bring a greater degree of understanding to this syndrome.
The starting point for most of us involved in the library and information profession is a fundamental opposition to censorship, and a parallel belief in freedom of expression. In the USA, where so much of the debate on how to handle extremist and pornographic content has taken place, the first amendment to the American Constitution endorses this position at the highest level. Even in the USA, however, dilemmas remain. For example, how is judgement to be exercised over content that advocates extremism, violence or pornography, and how should libraries respond to such circumstances? The report surveys the legal position and summarises the technical alternatives, including filtering and labelling. It also examines parallels with the mass media, but concludes that the global reach and interactive nature of the Internet makes such comparisons substantially irrelevant.
Even in the USA there remain dilemmas, particularly in circumstances where the courts have ruled that the general constitutional right can be overridden by particular circumstances. The position is even less clear‐cut in the rest of the world, including the UK, where a dilemma of “freedom of expression” is not available and that professional librarians must exercise care that their responsibilities under the law are addressed. Brophy′s team concludes that the fundamental questions are not technical in nature. Rather they come down to a question of judgement. Who makes the judgement on the substance of these Internet sites? They conclude with an expression of concern that those who judge are in a substantial American majority. Is there a danger that some form of cultural and social imperialism will infiltrate the untrammelled freedom, even anarchy, of the Internet. George Bernard Shaw observed that: “Common sense is a very uncommon thing”, a view that few shared, although of course Shaw was one of the few. It is surely better for the sustenance and well‐being of that fragile flower called democracy, if the extremists are allowed to pedal their wares ‐‐ no matter how reprehensible ‐‐ so that the rest of society, and its accountable custodians, know who they are, where they are, and what opinions they hold.
Robert Kennedy declared, in the darkness of apartheid in the South Africa of 1968: “The most precious and the most fragile of human gifts is the gift of reason”. This report does the library and information profession a great service. For it reminds us just how important the calling of librarianship is, in a civilised society.
Post Script:
I drafted this review while travelling back from London to Cumbria. When I arrived home I learned that there had been a nail bomb blast earlier that evening in Soho, only a few hours after I sat in Soho Square gardens enjoying the sunshine. Such incidents severely test the principles of liberal democrats.
