Freedom Of Speech

2 Pages 460 Words

Freedom of Speech


Freedom of speech is the liberty to freely say what one pleases, as well as the related liberty to hear what others have stated. Recently, it has been commonly understood as encompassing all types of expression, including the freedom to create and distribute movies, pictures, songs, dances, and all other forms of expressive communication. Freedom of speech is often regarded as an integral concept in modern liberal democracies, where it is understood to outlaw government censorship. Free speech is nowadays also protected by international human rights law, notably under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, although implementation remains lacking in many countries.The right to freedom of expression is not considered unlimited.
Some Americans grossly overestimate the degree of censorship which occurs in other First World countries, and believe that completely free speech exists and only exists in the USA. This is not the case. The U.S. Government directly controls speech in a number of areas, most notably in the case of the Federal Communications Commission regulating broadcast radio and television. Much content which would be considered unexceptional in most other First World countries is directly censored by the FCC, since it falls foul of the "community standards" definition of obscenity or indecency. An increasing amount of video content is now sent over cable and satellite systems (thus escaping FCC review), and there has been some debate over whether the FCC should have jurisdiction over such communications systems.Similar censorship applies to items sent via the United States Postal Service. Certain state and local governments (it depends on the region) regularly exercise censorship power in their licensing of theatrical performances, movies and other entertainment or artistic works. However it is true that in terms of purely political or religious speech, and freedom of the (printed) press...