No free speech in a free land!
The chilling reality of the phrase 'No free speech in a free land!' was brought into sharp focus when Australian politician John Anderson was asked by podcaster and political commentator Konstantin Kisin about six months ago:
How many people, do you think, were arrested in Britain for things they said on social media last year?
We'll explore the answers to this question later, but first, let's examine the context that “led” to it.
A Brief History of Free Speech
People have been talking about the right to say what they think for a really long time. The ancient Greeks were into it, but laws to protect this right only started to appear much later.
Around the year 1215, a famous document called the Magna Carta1 (Great Charter of Freedoms) was signed. It started to limit the power of kings, but it wasn't until a few hundred years later that people like John Locke and Voltaire really started to talk about freedom of speech as a very important right.
The United States was one of the first countries to put strong protections for free speech into its laws2. This happened in 1791, and other countries followed their lead.
Even though there are still lots of arguments about what exactly free speech means, it's still seen as a really important part of how democratic countries work.
Rowan Atkinson and the Fight for Free Speech
A few years ago, a group of people, including a famous comedian Rowan Atkinson, didn't like a British law that made it a crime to say things that could be considered insulting. They thought this law was too broad and could be used to stop people from saying what they really thought.
Atkinson gave a big speech about why this law was bad and how it could hurt free speech. Lots of people watched and shared the speech online.
You can still watch Atkinson's speech online if you want to learn more:
Sir Rowan Atkinson’s speech contributed to the reform of Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986. The law was amended in 2013, removing the word "insulting," ensuring that mere insults could no longer lead to prosecution. This change was part of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 and marked a victory for free speech advocates.
Now let’s get back to the Konstantin Kisin’s question
How is it possible that, despite centuries of struggle for free speech, recent developments such as arrests for social media posts in Britain have become commonplace?
Douglas Murray thinks Europe is changing too fast and not for the better. He says people are scared to speak their minds because they're worried about being criticised or called names. This has made it hard to talk openly about big issues like immigration.
Douglas Murray also believes this problem is happening in other Western countries. He says people can’t say what they really think, and this is a big threat to our way of life. He worries that we're forgetting our history and traditions, and letting others change our culture:
Western countries are not only tolerating but endorsing an effort to denigrate, destroy and replace their own history.
We are living through an era of historical revisionism and cultural self-abasement unprecedented in Western history.
These quotes from “The War on the West” reflect his concern that political correctness and cancel culture are leading to a dangerous erosion of free speech and a rewriting of Western history.
We find ourselves in a peculiar era where the principles once fiercely defended are now being quietly surrendered, with the silent approval of those who should be their staunchest protectors.
Bibliography
Murray, D. (2017). The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam. London: Bloomsbury Continuum.
Murray, D. (2022). The War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason. New York: HarperCollins.
King John was under pressure from rebellious barons, and the Magna Carta was an attempt to make peace by limiting the powers of the monarchy and establishing certain legal rights for the barons and, by extension, other English subjects.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects several fundamental freedoms: it guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the right to peaceably assemble, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Essentially, it prevents the government from restricting these core democratic rights, allowing individuals to express themselves, gather, and practice their beliefs freely.