Are Limits on Freedom of Speech Ever Justified

Are Limits on Freedom of Speech Ever Justified

Introduction

Freedom of speech is always a controversial matter and there is no scale to define the limits to this freedom. It is generally considered as the major concern that, what are the limits and whether, there should be limits to it or not. Once, it was a time when there was no concept of freedom of speech, people were not allowed to express their thoughts. With the right of freedom of speech it resulted as a problem for different other people. This created a problem in realizing that, up to what extent should there be a freedom to speech. It is also an important matter to understand that there are always arguments in favor of freedom, and against the freedom of speech. People with the liberal thoughts consider that it is right of every citizen to have freedom of speech.

Today, it is one of the rights of people to speak freely and to express their thoughts in whichever way they want. This created moral and ethical issues for most of the people. This created a problem that what are the limits to the freedom of speech and what should be allowed to the people in the name of expression of their thoughts. Limitations to the freedom of speech depend on the social and moral norms. This creates problem in societies to set the criteria to judge its limitations because in a society every person has its own thought. Freedom of speech affects different communities, minorities and authorities. This requires limit to the freedom of speech. One general rule for setting the criteria for freedom of speech is that it must not violate the rights of other people and it must be within boundaries. Again it is a problem to understand the boundaries for the speech.

Discussion

Fish (1994) argues that there is no concept of freedom in speech; it is not something top allows independence, but it results in political controversy. It is not only a problem for the rights of other people, but it creates problem for the stability of society. This is the reason that freedom of speech created a problem for most of the authorities to understand this concept. This is the reason that problem is not with the freedom of speech, but to understand the limitations of the speech. To resolve this issue all the societies have different criteria and limitations to the speech. This is resulted as a problem that most of the people creates problem in accepting these limitations and consider this against their rights. This creates the problem that whether there will be any justification to the freedom of speech. There are various efforts made for the justification of freedom of speech, but the social, ethical , moral and political factors creates a problem for its justification.

Magerian Theory and Freedom of Speech

Magarian (2010) discussed the concept of freedom of speech and the problems associated with ...