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Freedom of speech is the best thing that has ever happened to anyone, though they may not know it,
if we didn't have it we might as well just volunteer for prison, if you catch my drift |
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Freedom of speech should be absolute, with the sole exceptions of national security-related
information, and restrictions on freedom of speech which some people may have voluntarily entered
into, for example by signing corporate confidentiality agreements.
I find laws which restrict freedom of speech creepy and disturbing. In many countries in continental
Europe there are laws banning the raising of doubts about the Holocaust. A politician was convicted
under these laws in France only last week. I don't know much about him or his background but I read
his remarks that were quoted in the newspaper and, unless my French is worse than I thought, he
hardly said anything at all. It was something along the lines of "As for the camps, well I'm not a
historian, I'll leave the experts to discuss that one." And while accepting the reality of the
extermination camps, he insisted that historians have the freedom to discuss the numbers involved.
For that he got three months' probation.
Britain was one of the few counties that blocked holocaust denial laws from being applied at the EU
level, but even in Britain there are laws against inciting racial hatred. In America, freedom of
speech is on a stronger footing because it has constitutional protection, but even there the idea of
"hate speech" has gained some traction. |
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02 Mar 2008 19:39
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