Feel
Free To Say It: Threats to freedom
of speech in Britain today, by
Philip
Johnston
More
people are being jailed or arrested in Britain today for what they think,
believe and say than at any time since the eighteenth century. Most have fallen
foul of Section 5 of the Public Order Act or the laws against 'hate speech' or
the somewhat cavalier use of communications legislation ill-suited to the
digital age. Here Daily Telegraph journalist Philip Johnston puts the current
debate into its historical context to show that free speech is not an optional
extra for a free society: it is and always has been the defining condition of a
free person.
Feel
Free To Say It: Threats to freedom
of speech in Britain today, by
Philip Johnston
More
people are being jailed or arrested in Britain today for what they think,
believe and say than at any time since the eighteenth century. Most have fallen
foul of Section 5 of the Public Order Act or the laws against 'hate speech' or
the somewhat cavalier use of communications legislation ill-suited to the
digital age. Here Daily Telegraph journalist Philip Johnston puts the current
debate into its historical context to show that free speech is not an optional
extra for a free society: it is and always has been the defining condition of a
free person.
