FREE SPEECH

In the developed world the right of free speech should be imperative, however, it is a myth. The Macquarie dictionary defines free speech as follows ‘the right to voice one's opinions in public‘. Also, worldwide organisations like the United Nations in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article, 19), acknowledged, 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. (Newman 11: 1997) In support to this, I will examine the extent to which the developed countries - through political devices - are restricting the notion of free speech. The circumstances under which free speech is restricted in the developed countries, will also be examined. The objective of this essay is to examine the recent problem that the world is facing - terrorism and its war - and the restriction of the free flow of informatio...