Free speech? What about the NDA?
Submitted by kratib on Sun, 2008-06-01 21:17.
It just hit me that all the countries that congratulate themselves on upholding freedom of speech and even try to shove it down other people's throats have a blatant breach of that principle right under their very eyes: the secrecy practices of corporations. When an employee is hired or fired, he signs a non-disclosure agreement concerning the activities of the company he joined. If he breaks that agreement, he is liable to legal pursuit, from the same legal system which holds freedom of speech as a sacred principle. Of course, it is understood that free speech should have exceptions. But the NDA is an institutionalized and universally agreed-upon device. Can corporations really be above the constitution? I smell a paradox here.
It's a choice
Signing an NDA is a choice, Kareem. At least legally it is, regardless of what you and I believe is ethical.
Laws do regulate freedom of expression in other situations as well; for example the relation of the medical doctor and lawyer with their clients. There's also the soldier.
At least an employee is choosing to give up his right in freedom of expression in return for an immediate benefit, which puts him in the place to blame.
For me freedom of expression is sacred when it touches areas which the individual has no hand in deciding; specially when they are the result of the all-powerful state and officials who are in control of much more resources than what they own. Of course large, omnipotent corporations may fit this category, but again there's nothing on a journalist or an activist who uncovers secrets protected by NDAs as long as it was not him who signed the NDA ;)
Are you intentionally leaving out the ability of un-logged-in commentors to sign their name, or is it just that you never cared to change Drupal's default :)
Ahmad Gharbeia
Thanks for your comment
Thanks for your comment Ahmad. I had forgotten the element of choice. Of course, we could get into the argument of whether it is practically a choice since between the employee and the corporation, there's hardly an equitable balance of power. أكل العيش مر as the popular and fatalist Egyptian saying goes. Same for the choices between the citizen and the state, the pious and the temple, the soldier and the army, etc. We quickly run out of choices unless we're free agents :-)
You mention journalists, and in fact what prompted this blog entry was a film I recently saw about a chemist who battles his NDA to expose the harms done by cigarette makers, with the help of a journalist. It's called The Insider with Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. It's a true story in which the journalist is prevented from publishing his findings due to corporate pressure.
Concerning the Drupal comment issue, thanks for pointing it out. I wasn't even aware of it.