Human rights commissioner stands up for gay play

Freedom of expression, and of art in general, cannot be subjected to censorship, ombudswoman and human rights commissioner Maria Stylianou-Lottides said on Friday, adding that personal views, while respected, cannot impose censorship as a general rule.
In a statement relating to the decision by the municipal council of Sotira, Famagusta, to cancel a production of Mike Bartlett’s ‘Cock’ by the Cyprus Theatre Organisation (Thoc) for fear of reaction by the local community, Lottides said democracy is inexorably linked with freedom of expression.
“The noise that came from Sotira to every rational person has created questions but also brought to the fore social dimensions touching on the balance between boundaries and rights,” she said.
The play navigates a man’s quest to discover his true sexuality, torn between his boyfriend and a female one-time lover.
With regard to the play’s content, Lottides noted that it revolves around human relationships, particularly sexual ones between people of the same sex.
“The civil partnership agreement for people of the same sex was voted into law recently,” she said.
“The Cypriot society’s social morality has accepted it.”
According to Lottides, the decision to cancel the production was taken by a body not entrusted with this responsibility by the law, without resorting to a court, without citing any violation of the law, and without the intervention being a necessary one.
“Democracy is inexorably linked with freedom of expression and dictatorship with censorship,” she said.
“The choice of what system of governance we want to fight for is ours, as is the decision to watch, or not watch, a play as a form of art and expression.”
Beyond the individual right of creative expression to artists, freedom of art also encompasses a passive dimension, she added, which comprises the right of the recipient – meaning the public – to enjoy without hindrance a work of art.