The terrible events in France last week resulted in a rallying around the banner of free speech. Western leaders united in Paris around the principle of freedom of expression.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the right for freedom of expression which is expressed to be ‘the key to the development of dignity and fulfilment of every person’. Freedom of speech is embodied in the first amendment to the American constitution where it means ‘that government has no part in interfering with free expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter or its content’.

The fact is, however, that speech is unfree in all sorts of ways. All societies recognise limits on their freedom of speech particularly when freedom of speech conflicts with other values or rights.

There is, of course, the much-quoted prohibition on shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre. This maxim is much relied on to prohibit speeches or actions made for the principal purposes of creating unnecessary panic.

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This phrase, in fact, came in an opinion from a famous judge called Oliver Wendell Holmes in a case called Schenck v United States in 1919, which held that the defendant’s speech in opposition to the draft during the First World War was not protected as free speech under the American constitution. In fact the original wording in the opinion was that someone should be prohibited from ‘falsely shouting fire in a crowded theatre’. What was being prohibited was something that was dangerous and false as opposed to speech which was truthful but also dangerous.

This country has prohibitions on free speech. There are laws against libel, false advertising and protection against copyrights. We have extensive laws against incitements to violence and laws against hate speech.

You can be sent to jail in France and Austria and a number of other European countries for denying the historical meaning of the holocaust. Historian David Irving was jailed for questioning the number of people who perished during the holocaust.

London is the centre of the world’s libel legislation. It attracts claimants from all around the world. There are laws against causing distress or intimidation by language, and against protesting or holding a rally in private property.

The development of the Internet pushed freedom of speech into the information age. What comes with that is the right to privacy.

It was as a result of this debate that the Levison Inquiry was set up last year. The public quite rightly were outraged at the treatment meted out to the McCann family which at the time were justified under the banner of free speech Freedom of expression is not an absolute. Limitations are the exception, however, and may be justified to protect the rights or reputations of others, national security, public order, public health and perhaps public morals. As Voltaire the French philosopher put it: “I may disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”


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