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Portal:Freedom of speech

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The Freedom of speech portal

Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)—Article 19 states 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."

Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognised as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law by the United Nations. Many countries have constitutional law that protects free speech. Terms like free speech, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression are used interchangeably in political discourse. However, in a legal sense, the freedom of expression includes any activity of seeking, receiving, and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used.

Article 19 of the UDHR states that "everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference" and "everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice". The version of Article 19 in the ICCPR later amends this by stating that the exercise of these rights carries "special duties and responsibilities" and may "therefore be subject to certain restrictions" when necessary "[f]or respect of the rights or reputation of others" or "[f]or the protection of national security or public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals". (Full article...)

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Marjorie Heins
Not in Front of the Children: "Indecency," Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth is a non-fiction book by lawyer and civil libertarian Marjorie Heins (pictured) about freedom of speech and the relation of censorship to the oft-cited argument "think of the children". Ordered chronologically, the book gives a history of censorship from time periods including Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, the Meese Report, up to the present day. Heins explores whether or not children and adolescent youth are negatively impacted by exposure to media deemed inappropriate by adults, including violence and pornography. The author argues throughout the book that youths are not in danger due to sexually explicit material. Heins asserts that there is no simple tactic by which the government could censor material from children without violating the rights guaranteed to adults by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Not in Front of the Children concludes that censorship performed under the auspices of looking out for the believed negative impact on youths, actually harms these individuals through the censorship itself. Not in Front of the Children received the Eli M. Oboler Award in 2002 from the American Library Association as recognition for "Best Published Work on Intellectual Freedom".

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Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches. She was lionized as a free-thinking "rebel woman" by admirers, and derided as an advocate of politically-motivated murder and violent revolution by her critics. Born in the province of Kaunas, Lithuania she moved with her sister Helena to Rochester, New York in the United States at the age of sixteen. Attracted to anarchism after the Haymarket Riot, Goldman was trained by Johann Most in public speaking and became a renowned lecturer, attracting crowds of thousands. The writer and anarchist Alexander Berkman became her lover, lifelong intimate friend and comrade. Together they planned to assassinate Henry Clay Frick as an act of propaganda of the deed. Though Frick survived, Berkman was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison. In 1917 Goldman and Berkman were sentenced to two years in jail for conspiring to "induce persons not to register" for the newly instated draft. After their release from prison, they were arrested – with hundreds of others – and deported to Russia. Initially supportive of that country's Bolshevik revolution, Goldman quickly voiced her opposition to the Soviet use of violence and the repression of independent voices. Eventually she traveled to Spain to participate in that nation's civil war. She died in Toronto on 14 May 1940.

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Richard Henry Lee
Richard Henry Lee, (The Federal Farmer, 4th letter, October 15, 1787)


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