Freedom of Speech
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Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship or limitation. Also called freedom of expression, it refers not only verbal speech but any act of communicating information or ideas, including publications, broadcasting, art, advertising, film, and the internet. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are closely related to the concepts of freedom of thought and conscience.
The right to freedom of speech is not absolute and is commonly subject to limitations, such as on false advertising, "hate speech," obscenity, incitement to riot, revealing state secrets, and slander. Many countries also place limitations of certain types of political speech, ranging from banning the expression of ideas considered dangerous to limiting the amount of funds political candidates can spend on advertising their campaigns. Religious speech likewise faces limitations, ranging from outlawing proselytizing to banning prayer in public schools.
The right to freedom of speech was first constitutionally protected by the revolutionary French and American governments of the late eighteenth century and is recognized toady as a fundamental human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is also enshrined in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and various European, inter-American, Asian, and African regional human rights documents, often subject to disclaimers relating the need to balance such right with the need to maintain "public order."
History
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the right to freedom of speech is a relatively recent one, although the affirmation of one's faith in the face of persecution has a very long and famous history. Famous ancient cases include the persecution of Israelite prophets like Jeremiah and Hosea, the crucifixion of Jesus, and the martyrdom of numerous Christian saints for refusing to recant their faith. However, when ancient Jewish or Christian governments held power in the ancient world, they rarely afforded freedom of speech to those who disagreed with them. In the Christian Roman Empire, "heretics" were often persecuted to expressing ideas deemed to be unorthodox.
In Islamic tradition, religious tolerance for Jews and Christians has always been officially policy, but the right to preach other faiths to Muslims was generally banned. However, freedom of speech as a general principle was occasionally supported. It was first declared in theory in the Rashidun period by the Caliph Umar in the seventh century CE. In the Abbasid Caliphate period, freedom of speech was also declared by al-Hashimi (a cousin of Caliph al-Ma'mun) in a letter to one of the religious opponents he was attempting to convert through reason. A certain amount of academic freedom in Islamic universities also predated the evolution of this principle in Christian Europe. However, criticizing Islam and its prophet remained strictly banned, and religious art was strictly limited, in accordance with the Islamic ban on religious images.
In the West, expressing one's ideas openly often a risky proposition and the Catholic Church retained the position of official arbiter of truth, not only on matters of faith but of "natural philosophy" as well. The Protestant Reformation ended the Church's monopoly as the final arbiter of truth, affirming the right of individual Christians to interpret scripture freely. On the foundation of the speculation of natural scientists like Galileo, who had been silenced by the Inquisition for endorsing the Copernican view of the universe, philosophers such as Francis Bacon further developed the idea that individuals had the right to express their own conclusions about the world based on empirical observation.
In "Areopagitica" (1644), the English poet and political writer John Milton wrote in reaction to an attempt by the Protestant English republican parliament to prevent "seditious, unreliable, unreasonable, and unlicensed pamphlets." He advanced a number of arguments in defense of freedom of speech which anticipated the view which later came to be held almost universally. Milton argued that a nation's unity is created through blending individual differences rather than imposing homogeneity from above and that the ability to explore the fullest range of ideas on a given issue is essential to any learning process. Censorship in political and religious speech is therefore a detriment to material progress and the health of the nation. Milton also argued that if the facts are laid bare, truth will defeat falsehood in open competition. It is up to each individual to uncover his own truth, and no one is wise enough to act as a censor for all individuals.
John Locke argued in his Two Treatises of Government that the proper function of government is to ensure the rights of its people, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in England was inspired largely by Lockian ideals, including the principle of religious tolerance. In 1776, the US Declaration of Independence was the first official document to affirm that the function of government is to protect human rights such as "liberty," which are given not by the state, but by God.
The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen passed on August 26, 1789 declared: "No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law."
The United States Bill of Rights, introduced by James Madison in 1789 as a series of constitutional amendments, came into effect on December 15, 1791. Its First Amendment placed few restrictions on the freedom of speech than that of the French Declaration: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
In the succeeding century, numerous governments adopted constitutions or legislative acts guaranteeing the right of freedom of speech to their citizens. AfterWWII, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, guaranteeing the right of freedom of speech and of conscience to all people. Its Article 19 reads: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Like the French Declaration, the UN set is guarantee of freedom of speech in the context of certain limitations: "In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society." On the foundation of Universal Declaration, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, created in 1966 and implemented on March 23, 1976, guarantees: "the right to hold opinions without interference. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression."
Similar provisions guaranteeing freedom of speech have been adopted by regional conventions throughout the world. The principle of freedom of speech is thus universally recognized today, although its interpretation and application as a matter of law varies widely.
Restrictions on free speech
Ever since the first formal consideration of the idea of freedom of speech it has been argued that the right to free speech is subject to restrictions and exceptions. Shortly after the first constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech were enacted in France and the US, limitations on this liberty were quickly imposed. In France, those who spoke out against the Revolution were subject to intimidation, arrest, and even execution, while in the US, the Sedition Act of 1798 made it a crime to publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or its officials.
No nation grants absolute freedom of speech to its citizens, for to do so would leave citizens unprotected from slander and the nation incapable of protecting vital secrets. Restrictions on speech are thus sometimes clearly necessary, while other times, appeals to public order, national security, and other values are used to justify repression of speech that goes beyond established international norms. Examples of both types include:
- Defamation (slander and libel
- Uttering threats against persons
- Lying in court (perjury) and contempt of court
- Speaking publicly in certain places without a permit
- Hate speech based on race, religion, or sexual preference
- Noise pollution
- Copyright infringement, trademark violation, and publicizing trade secrets
- Revealing official secrets or classified information
- Lying that causes a crowd to panic
- Fighting words that by "their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace"
- Sedition, treason, and "encouragement of terrorism"
- Blasphemy, heresy, and attempts to convert a person from certain state religions
- Wearing religious clothing or visibly praying in certain public schools
- Distributing religious tracts where this is not permitted
- Obscenity, profanity, and pornography
- Publishing information on the internet critical of one's nation
- Racist statements, Holocaust denial, and criticism of homosexuality
Restrictions against obscenity and slander, though debated in terms of their definition, have virtually always remained in force as limitation on absolute freedom of speech. Another well known example of the need to restrict free speech is that of falsely "shouting fire in a crowded theatre"—cited in Schenck v. United States, a case relating to the distribution of anti-draft fliers during the World War I. Standards of freedom of political speech have liberalized considerably in most democratic nations since WWII, although calling for the violent overthrow of one's government can still constitute a crime.
On the other hand, some countries that guarantee freedom of speech constitutionally still severely limit political, religious, or other speech in practice. Such double standards were particularly evident in the Communist regimes of the Cold War, and were recently in evidence during the 20008 Olympic Games in China, where the government went to great lengths to suppress public protests of its human rights policies.
Freedom of religious speech is often restricted in Muslim countries where criticism of Islam is illegal under blasphemy laws and attempts to convert Muslims to another faith is also a criminal act. Even in Western nations, new religious movements often face limitations on proselytizing and are sometimes accused of the crime of "mental coercion" in attempting to win new converts.
The Internet and freedom of speech
The development of the Internet opened new possibilities for achieving a more universal freedom of speech. Web sites which fall afoul of government censors in one country are often re-hosted on a server in a country with no such restrictions. Given that the United States has in many respects the least restrictive governmental policies in the world on freedom of speech, many of these websites re-host their content on an American server and thus escape censorship while remaining available to their target audience. However, many countries utilize filtering software sold by US companies.
The Chinese government has developed some of the most sophisticated forms of internet censorship in order to control or eliminate access to information on sensitive topics such as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Falun Gong, Tibet, Taiwan, pornography, and democracy. It have also enlisted the help of some American companies like Microsoft and Google who have subsequently been criticized by proponents of freedom of speech for cooperating with this restrictive measures.
See also
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Engdahl, Sylvia. Free Speech. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. ISBN 9780737727913
- Elst, Michiel. Copyright, Freedom of Speech, and Cultural Policy in the Russian Federation. Law in Eastern Europe, no. 53. Leiden: M. Nijhoff, 2005. ISBN 9789004140875
- Lewis, Anthony. Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment. Basic ideas. New York: Basic Books, 2007. ISBN 9780465039173
- Nsouli, Mona A., and Lokman I. Meho. Censorship in the Arab World: An Annotated Bibliography. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2006. ISBN 9780810858695
- Smolla, Rodney A. Free Speech in an Open Society. New York: Knopf, 1992. ISBN 9780679407270
- Zeno-Zencovich, Vincenzo. Freedom of Expression: A Critical and Comparative Analysis. University of Texas at Austin studies in foreign and transnational law. Abingdon, Oxon [England]: Routledge-Cavendish, 2008. ISBN 9780203893081
External links
- Timeline: a history of free speech
- UN-Resolution 217 A III - (Meinungsfreiheit.org)
- ARTICLE 19, Global Campaign for Free Expression
- The journalist fired for calling Bush a coward after 9/11
- Banned Magazine, the journal of censorship and secrecy.
- International Freedom of Expression Exchange
- irrepressible.info - Amnesty International's campaign against internet repression
- Organization of American States - Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression
- Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe - Representative on Freedom of the Media
- African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights - Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression in Africa
- UNESCO - Programme on Freedom of Expression
- FREEMUSE - Freedom of Musical Expression
- Ringmar, Erik. A Blogger's Manifesto: Free Speech and Censorship in the Age of the Internet (London: Anthem Press, 2007).
- The BOBs - weblog award promoting freedom of speech
- UN undermines freedom of expression, rapporteur to nail anti-Islamic speech
- The Expressionist: India's track record
- Worldwide Governance Indicators Worldwide ratings of country performances on Voice and Accountability and other governance dimensions from 1996 to present.
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