I'll defend to the death your right to say it

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "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." The news has been full of stories that relate to freedom of speech and the Free Press over the last months. Some of the stories including the arrest of many people for comments made online, the release of ‘Innocence of Muslims’ and the Wikileaks scandal provoke the question; what is freedom of speech and freedom of information, and to what extent should they be protected?

It can be argued that freedom of speech and expression within Britain is currently at risk of being compromised: daily reports of arrests based upon offensive Twitter comments or comments at protests only serve to encourage this view. There is clearly a risk when defending the rights of one person of impacting on the rights of another. Examples of this are rife, for example the case of the 17 year old arrested for posting malicious comments onto diver Tom Daley’s Twitter account. Clearly, the remarks concerning Daley’s dad who died of cancer last year, were offensive. Clearly they would have been upsetting to Daley and shocking to members of the public. But what isn’t clear is at what moment the comments crossed the line between rudeness and criminality.

The protection of the rights of those affected by comments deemed to be offensive can be maintained alongside freedom of speech. Freedom of speech and opinion works both ways: if we embrace our freedom of speech we also embrace criticisms of our opinions. A strong belief that I hold, is that I would prefer to know, understand and be able to debate opinions which are in conflict with my own than to remain ignorant of the issues.

“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it” is something my mother has always taught me to remember. There are often situations in which comments and opinions may become insulting or offensive to certain groups of people (grouped by gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, etc) or individuals. However it is unbelievably important to remember that everyone should be free to voice their opinion; all opinions remain relevant be they seen as positive, or negative. Those holding views others may find offensive are no less entitled to their views than someone with seemingly more acceptable ideas. We need to become comfortable with giving a voice to those we disagree with, for fear of forgetting the meaning of the word democracy, and losing the freedom of speech which many of us still take for granted.