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Gareth Cliff: I regret speaking my mind on Penny Sparrow

Gareth Cliff in 2012 was arrested for Speeding - Pic : Orgellaonline.com
Gareth Cliff in 2012 was arrested for Speeding - Pic : Orgellaonline.com

Gareth Cliff regrets weighing in on the Penny Sparrow debate.

Early last year‚ Sparrow‚ an estate agent from the KwaZulu-Natal south coast‚ posted racist remarks on Facebook‚ which prompted a mass reaction on social networking sites. Sparrow referred to black beachgoers as “monkeys“.

She has since been fined R150 000 by the Umzinto Equality Court which she was ordered to pay to the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation

Former Idols judge Cliff found himself in hot water after he aired his opinion on the uproar. Twitter users lashed out‚ labelling him a racist and calling for Idols SA to remove him as a judge.

He said speaking his mind cost him several deals.

“I had a tiny baby of a business that was a year old and we had pitifully commercial clients such as your big banks and big corporates who cancelled their advertising deals with us because they didn’t want to associate themselves with anyone who was controversial‚” said Cliff.

“I’m a capitalist and I believe in freedom of expression and I will stand up for it wherever I can‚ but in that particular case‚ if I could wind back the clock‚ I would have avoided the whole thing [because] it wasn’t my fight. I was drawn in and because I was a bigger fish than Penny Sparrow‚ a lot of the heat came my way‚” said Cliff.

He was speaking at a presentation on internet access and free speech at the Free Market Foundation in Bryanston on Wednesday evening.

Cliff said the internet had allowed more people to express themselves than ever before‚ and to ever-greater audiences.

“Free thought‚ and the free expression of that thought lead to the best ideas being cultivated and strengthened and the worst ideas being challenged and replaced.

“In an environment of censorship and authoritarianism‚ good ideas aren’t encouraged to come out and bad ideas sometimes receive unwarranted protection‚” Cliff said.

He told the audience to never be afraid to say what they think and of what other people might say.

 

 

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