2021年7月27日

Brian Wong EJ Insight

Free speech and its limits

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The argument that speech must be free, must be unfettered, and must be protected at all costs – is by no means innovative. Yet at times when free speech is experiencing an active decline – under a combination of excessively stringent implicit expectations and norms governing speech, and chilling effects induced by a blend of official and unofficial sources of power, it is imperative that we recognise free speech for what it is: an important, prudential good that ought to be upheld, in theory. The virtues of free speech are aplenty – from invigorating critical and instrumentally productive debates, to ensuring that individuals feel at ease and comfortable with their self-expression, to offering agents a pressure valve through which they can voice their angst and critiques of those in positions of power. A less discussed facet of the question, however, constitutes this: to what extent should free speech be limited? When, if ever, is it appropriate for us to impose limitations upon individuals' capacities to make and produce speech – especially in the public sphere and arena? Must we take free speech as a normative given, or are there prior conditions that must be satisfied in order to enable its genuine promulgation? Is free speech overrated – and could un-free speech be of greater value than free speech? These are questions that merit serious answers, as opposed to flippant and ideologically dogged responses reminiscent of the bickering of a desperate kangaroo court. ...

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