Public calls for strict punishment for celebrities who engage in rash speech

You may know that many influential celebrities have recently made unreasonable statements causing anger among the public. Meanwhile, the punishments currently applied to the misbehaviors are not heavy enough to deter violators. Do you have any suggestions to stop the phenomenon and force the artists to respect the laws? 

Nguyen Dinh Thanh: We have to say that everyone has the right to speak. But when you speak, you have to anticipate the impact of your sayings on listeners. In the digital era, a statement can quickly spread to hundreds or thousands, or even millions of people. Celebrities’ deviant behaviors and statements clearly have a negative impact on the society. They may cause the public to think wrongly or do wrong things, and prompt people to imitate them and think ‘nothing’s the matter’.

In psychology, there is the so called broken window theory. If someone does something wrong and he is not criticized, this wrong behavior will continue and may be considered natural. In this case, negative impact on society will arise. To prevent this, there must be the cooperation of various involved parties.

What do you think agencies need to do to solve the problem and bring desired effects?

You may see that in developed countries, many celebrities are also rash in their speech and make unreasonable statements, but the statements won’t have a big impact on society. This is because listeners are fully aware of their rights – the right to ignore the speech and boycott the celebrities. This is very important. Once celebrities are blacklisted, no one will listen to them and no one will use their artistic works and services.

So, the ultimate right is the right of the audiences. Audiences should use this right, and media agencies should also use the right to boycott celebrities with misbehaviors and deviant speeches, so that celebrities can be aware of the serious consequences caused by their deviant statements.

The problem also can be settled with the support of mass media. It is necessary to improve communications and education, so that involved individuals can realize the problem.

And if communications and education are not strong enough to solve the problem, stronger sanctions will be needed. There must be legal regulations that impose sanctions on violators, and the sanctions need to be heavy enough to deter violators. The punishments must be designed in a way to strongly deter the public from such actions and force violators to think carefully before taking an action that may have adverse effect on the community. If celebrities break the laws, they must be criminally handled. 

In China, artists involved in scandals or evading tax will be prohibited from appearing on broadcasting. The sanction is effective as artists need audiences, and if their products cannot reach audiences, they will disappear from showbiz. There should be a solution which allows control at source to block misbehaviors.

Do you mean that mass media should also apply sanctions on artists with deviant speech and behaviors by prohibiting them from appearing on mass media? 

Let’s try this: don’t mention scandalous artists and don’t describe their speech and behaviors in detail in articles. If so, artists won’t have motivation to violate regulations. This is a good idea to deal with celebrities with misbehaviors.

I think that media units should agree not to provide news about violating artists. We should campaign to set up this a regulation, considering this a harm to the society. In short, press agencies must not give opportunities to scandalous celebrities to appear in mass media.

There has been a suggestion on locking celebrities’ social network accounts if they repeatedly commit violations. What do you think about this? 

This is an extreme solution, but it could be a choice to minimize negative impact on society. Many newspapers and news sites are suspended for providing wrong information, and individuals also must be treated the same way. 

I know that some filmmakers and music show organizers have tacitly consented to not inviting scandalous artists on their art performance programs. But in some cases, impresarios still use the artists in order to attract audiences through the scandals. Do you think it is necessary to have a legal regulation on prohibiting artists from joining show business?

Artists are also citizens and they must respect the laws. Laws must not favor or discriminate against anyone.

My Anh