Freedom of Speech

There are traditionally two types of freedom: negative and positive.

  • Negative freedom is the absence of prevention.
  • Positive freedom is the active ability to do something.

Negative Freedom of Speech

In practice, freedom of speech for the majority of the population is a negative freedom — in most western industrialised states, you don’t get locked up just for saying something. Well, actually you do sometimes get locked up just for saying something, but the range of things you’re allowed to say without getting locked up is fairly broad.

Most nation states impose some constraints on freedom of speech apart from the obvious “you must not shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre” type of constraint. In Germany, it is against the law to deny the reality of the holocaust. In Britain in the 1980s, broadcasting orgranisations were forbidden to broadcast Irish nationalist ideas. At the time of writing, the USA is the only nation state that has not explicitly given itself the power to define truth and to punish those who contradict such official truths.

Other institutions, set up by the state, are much more restrictive. Commercial organisations that are not democratically controlled commonly prohibit speech that they consider to be contrary to the interests of their owners.

Positive Freedom of Speech

Positive freedom of speech does exist, but in quantities that depend on the strength of the medium in question. Positive freedom of speech exists in measurable quantities for only a small part of the population, namely those individuals and institutions that own newspapers, television stations, and so on.

Are You in Favour of Freedom of Speech?

For most people, their answer would probably be, ‘it depends’. Most people are in favour of allowing the expression of ideas they approve of, and perhaps the expression of ideas they mildly disapprove of, but not of ideas they very much disapprove of.

What they are in favour of is particular ideas and the ability to express those particular ideas. They are in favour of certain types of speech, but not of freedom of speech.

The test is whether you are in favour of people expressing ideas you strongly disapprove of. In theory, a perfectly democratic institution would permit freedom of speech, but in practice, few individuals and almost no institutions are really in favour of it.