6th October 2025
A phrase much used at the moment is ‘freedom of speech’. But what does it mean? And does it guarantee that what we here is the truth?
“Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognised as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and international human rights law.…” However this is not an absolute right and a clause includes that these rights carries “”special duties and responsibilities” and may “therefore be subject to certain restrictions” when necessary “[f]or respect of the rights or reputation of others” or “[f]or the protection of national security or public order or of public health or morals“….Common limitations or boundaries to freedom of speech relate to libel, slander, obscenity, pornography, sedition, incitement, fighting words, hate speech, classified information, copyright violation, trade secrets, food labeling, …” (1)
Freedom of speech certainly,y ensures we do hear what other people are thinking and what they believe to be true. However of itself, freedom of speech doesn’t guarantee that what is said is truthful (even if it is a genuinely held belief). I don’t think you can have truth without freedom of speech, but truth requires more – researching the facts and in particular researching the facts you don’t know. And that itself will depend upon knowing which questions to ask. It could be that listening to a variety of views will help clarify what questions should be asked – and hearing that diversity of views does bring us back to freedom of speech.
The Green Tau 