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 (UDHR) and international human rights law. Many countries have constitutional laws that protect freedom of speech. Terms such as free speech, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression are often used interchangeably in political discourse. However, in legal contexts, freedom of expression more broadly encompasses the right to seek, receive, and impart 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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The Accurate News and Information Act was a statute passed by the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada, in 1937, at the instigation of William Aberhart's Social Credit government. Aberhart and the Social Credit League had been in a stormy relationship with the press since before the 1935 election, in which they were elected to government. Virtually all of Alberta's newspapers—especially the Calgary Herald—were critical of Social Credit, as were a number of publications from elsewhere in Canada. Even the American media had greeted Aberhart's election with derision. The act would have required newspapers to print "clarifications" of stories that a committee of Social Credit legislators deemed inaccurate. It would also have required them to reveal their sources on demand. Though the act won easy passage through the Social Credit-dominated legislature, Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta John C. Bowen reserved royal assent until the Supreme Court of Canada evaluated the act's legality. In 1938's Reference re Alberta Statutes, the court found that it was unconstitutional, and it was never signed into law.
The following are images from various freedom of speech-related articles on Wikipedia.
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Image 1This 1688 edition of Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend (1260) was censored according to the Index Librorum Expurgatorum of 1707, which listed the specific passages of books already in circulation that required censorship. (from Freedom of speech)
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Image 2Local issues are often the subject of free speech. (from Freedom of speech by country)
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Image 3A protest outside the Saudi Arabian Embassy in London against detention of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, 2017 (from Freedom of speech by country)
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Image 4Orthodox priest Libor Halík with a group of followers. Halík has been chanting daily for over five years against abortion via megaphone in front of a maternity hospital in Brno, Moravia. (from Freedom of speech by country)
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Image 6De Schreeuw (The Scream) is a memorial commemorating Theo van Gogh and a symbol of the freedom of speech. (from Freedom of speech by country)
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Image 7In Panegyricae orationes septem (1596), Henric van Cuyck, a Dutch Bishop, defended the need for censorship and argued that Johannes Gutenberg's printing press had resulted in a world infected by "pernicious lies"—so van Cuyck singled out the Talmud and the Qur'an, and the writings of Martin Luther, Jean Calvin and Erasmus of Rotterdam. (from Freedom of speech)
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Image 8George Orwell statue at the headquarters of the BBC. A defence of free speech in an open society, the wall behind the statue is inscribed with the words "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear", words from George Orwell's proposed preface to Animal Farm (1945). (from Freedom of speech)
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Image 9An "unexpurgated" edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover (1959) (from Freedom of speech)
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Image 11Article 299's prosecution have surged during Erdogan's presidency. (from Freedom of speech by country)
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Image 12The Bill of Rights 1689 grants the parliamentary privilege for freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament and is still in effect. (from Freedom of speech by country)
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Image 13Restriction of apostasy by country (2020) (from Freedom of speech)
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Image 14World map highlighting countries with legislation criminalising Holocaust denial as of 2025 Countries where Holocaust denial is illegal Countries where Holocaust denial is illegal when threatening or inciting hatred, discrimination, or violence, or where legality is ambiguous (from Freedom of speech)
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Image 16First page of John Milton's 1644 edition of Areopagitica, in which he argued forcefully against the Licensing Order of 1643 (from Freedom of speech)
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Image 17Moscow municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov was sentenced to 7 years in prison under Russia's war censorship laws for his anti-war statements in 2022. (from Freedom of speech by country)
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Image 18Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison for discussing the Bucha massacre in Ukraine on a YouTube stream. (from Freedom of speech by country)
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Image 19Map showing U.S. states where anti-BDS legislation has passed, is pending, or has failed as of November 2023 (from Freedom of speech by country)
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Image 20A map of nations which have Lèse-majesté laws as of January 2023 (from Freedom of speech by country)
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Image 21Title page of Index Librorum Prohibitorum, or List of Prohibited Books (Venice, 1564) (from Freedom of speech)
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Image 22The Free Speech Flag was created during the AACS encryption key controversy as "a symbol to show support for personal freedoms". (from Freedom of speech)
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Image 23Punk band Visací zámek which composed a popular song " The President Is a Faggot" about Václav Klaus, 2003–2013 Czech President (from Freedom of speech by country)
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Image 24A map of countries which have lèse-majesté laws as of January 2023 (from Freedom of speech)
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Image 25Permanent Free Speech Wall in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. (from Freedom of speech)
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Image 26In Brazil, freedom of assembly and expression are Constitutional rights. (from Freedom of speech by country)
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Image 27Protesters exercise freedom of speech to hold a vigil in front of the Zimbabwean Embassy in London, 2005. (from Freedom of speech by country)
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Image 29Orator at London's Speakers' Corner, 1974 (from Freedom of speech)
John Locke FRS (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704), widely known as the Father of Classical Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence. Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Hume, Rousseau and Kant. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He postulated that the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa. Contrary to pre-existing Cartesian philosophy, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception.
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