What does freedom of speech mean?

Definitions for freedom of speech
free·dom of speech

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word freedom of speech.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. freedom of speechnoun

    a civil right guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution

Wiktionary

  1. freedom of speechnoun

    The right of citizens to speak, or otherwise communicate, without fear of harm or prosecution.

Wikipedia

  1. Freedom of speech

    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 in 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 of public order (order public), or of public health or morals".Freedom of speech and expression, therefore, may not be recognized as being absolute, and common limitations or boundaries to freedom of speech relate to libel, slander, obscenity, pornography, sedition, incitement, fighting words, hate speech, classified information, copyright violation, trade secrets, food labeling, non-disclosure agreements, the right to privacy, dignity, the right to be forgotten, public security, and perjury. Justifications for such include the harm principle, proposed by John Stuart Mill in On Liberty, which suggests that "the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others".The idea of the "offense principle" is also used to justify speech limitations, describing the restriction on forms of expression deemed offensive to society, considering factors such as extent, duration, motives of the speaker, and ease with which it could be avoided. With the evolution of the digital age, application of freedom of speech becomes more controversial as new means of communication and restrictions arise, for example, the Golden Shield Project, an initiative by Chinese government's Ministry of Public Security that filters potentially unfavourable data from foreign countries. The Human Rights Measurement Initiative measures the right to opinion and expression for countries around the world, using a survey of in-country human rights experts.

ChatGPT

  1. freedom of speech

    Freedom of speech is a fundamental right protected by many constitutions and human rights laws. It refers to the entitlement of an individual or a community to express their opinions, ideas, and information freely, without censorship, restriction, or legal penalties, as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others. This involves various forms of communication, including speech, writing, art, music, or any other medium of expression. However, it also carries responsibilities and may be subjected to certain limitations such as defamation, hate speech, or national security considerations.

Wikidata

  1. Freedom of speech

    Freedom of speech is the political right to communicate one's opinions and ideas using one's body and property to anyone who is willing to receive them. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country and the right is commonly subject to limitations, as with libel, slander, obscenity, sedition, copyright violation, revelation of information that is classified or otherwise. The right to freedom of expression is recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 19 of the ICCPR states that "[e]veryone 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 in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice". Article 19 goes on to say 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 of public order, or of public health or morals".

Editors Contribution

  1. freedom of speech

    The right to publicly communicate our feelings, opinions and ideas respectfully and responsibly in line with just, fair and ethical human rights legislation and the universal declaration of human rights.

    Freedom of speech is valued and respected by all members of humanity.


    Submitted by MaryC on January 19, 2015  

Suggested Resources

  1. freedom of speech

    Read the full text of the Freedom Of Speech poem by Trim on the Poetry.com website.

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How to pronounce freedom of speech?

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of freedom of speech in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of freedom of speech in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of freedom of speech in a Sentence

  1. Sonia Cisse:

    It is a strong signal in terms of regulation, hate speech is no longer considered part of freedom of speech, it's now on the same level as terrorism.

  2. Congressman John Lewis of Georgia:

    I believe - Itruly believe - the time to begin impeachment proceedings against this president has come, todelay or to do otherwise will betray the foundation of our democracy. CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER Are you confused yet ? If so, we dont blame you. If you left town for the week, you may be wondering what the hell is going on exactly. Impeachment ? For years, they told you that Donald Trump was going to be impeached for colluding with Russia, spying for Putin. Then it turned out Donald Trump didnt do that. The story evaporated into dust and seemed to blow away. Then just a few days ago, they were grumbling about impeachment again, and they dragged in Corey Lewandowski. Remember Corey Lewandowski ? They brought Corey Lewandowski to Capitol Hill to make their case. That didnt go well at all. Rep. Nadler You, D-N.Y., House Judiciary Committee chairman : And so we ask you, is it correct that as reported in the Mueller report on June 19th, 2017, you met alone in the Oval Office with the president ? Corey Lewandowski, former Donald Trump campaign manager : Did you read the exact language of the report ? I dont have it available to me. Nadler You : I dont think I need to do that. I have limited time. Did you meet alone with the President on that date ? Lewandowski : Congressman, Id like you to refresh my memory by providing a copy of the report so I can follow along. Nadler You : You dont have a copy with you ? Lewandowski I dont have a copy of the report, congressman. Nadler You dont have any independent recollection of whether you met with the President on that date. Lewandowski : Congressman, Im just trying to find in the Mueller report where it states that. Nadler You : Well, you have it in front of you. I gave you the page number. Corey Lewandowski : We are on Page 90, is it, sir ? Unidentified male : Mr. Chairman, youve got to the clock. Nadler You : No, I dont have to start the clock. Nadler You is filibustering. It didnt take much for Chairman Nadler to collapse live on C - SPAN -- pretty embarrassing. Youd think at some point, Democrats might just decide to run a real presidential campaign in 2020 and beat Donald Trump that way, just like in a democracy. It would have to be more effective than what theyre doing now, and the numbers show it. As of this morning, Donald Trump Trumps approval rating was the highest it has been since the inauguration. But no, Democrat dont want to wait until the next election. They dont want to wait until November. Politics takes too long, and it leaves too much to chance. The risk of democracy is voters might not agree with you. Hillary Clinton learned that the hard way in 2016. And the one thing Democrats dont want to do is to repeat that. Better to remove your opponents by force, if you can. Which brings us to the latest question of impeachment : What exactly is this about ? Sorry to laugh in the middle of this -- weve spent all day trying to figure out what is the impeachment story. Its about Ukraine. Its less than a week old. And so you might be forgiven for not understanding why would the president be impeached for a story that the Democrats literally cant explain ? What did the president do wrong ? Were going to do our best to tell you the case that theyre making. And honestly, as we said, its confusing and not all that interesting. Within a sentence, here is what theyre saying. Theyre saying that in a phone call with the president of Ukraine, Donald Trump threatened to delay a $ 400 million military aid package to Ukraine, unless the Ukrainian government agreed to investigate possible criminal activity involving Joe Bidens son. Why Joe Bidens son ? Well for five years, Joe Bidens son, Joe Bidens, it turns out, was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to serve on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. Why would Joe Bidens son be on the board of a Ukrainian gas company ? Joe Bidens had no experience in the energy business. Joe Bidens didnt speak the relevant language. Joe Bidens apparently had no experience whatsoever in the region. It turns out at that very moment, Joe Biden was President Obamas point man for Ukraine. Oh. So at a certain point during this saga, the gas company in question was investigated. And then in 2016, the Ukrainian prosecutor overseeing that investigation was fired. Apparently, he was fired under pressure from Joe Biden. Now to the layman, that looks a lot like corruption. What does it have to do with the president being impeached ? Well, the accusation is that Donald Trump suggested that that squelched investigation deserved a second look. And Democrats say that suggestion was an impeachable offense. Are you following this ? Of course, there are plenty of other reasons that the U.S. might not want to send $ 400 million to Ukraine. Its a notoriously corrupt country, for one thing. What do we get out of it, is another. And by the way, sending military aid to Ukraine may please the neocons in CNN -- Bill Kristol was strongly for it -- but it also greatly increases the chances of conflict with Russia. And of course, that would mean nuclear conflict potentially. Whats the point of that, exactly ? Nobody has bothered to explain why sending $ 400 million in military aid to Ukraine is in the interest of the United States. They havent even thought to explain that. Theyre too busy yelling about impeachment. And theyre doing it with all the hysterical intensity that has become the hallmark of the modern left. They have a lot of energy. Too bad, none of it is focused on the countrys real problems, and there are a lot of them. We dont want to go through the same litany again, but we will hit on just a couple because theyre worth mentioning. Our national debt is exploding. And that includes credit card debt, by the way. Personal debt at Donald Trumps approval rating ever measured. We have a war in Afghanistan that we cant seem to win or end. Our towns outside the big cities are being decimated and desiccated by opioids and suicide. If you havent been there, drive through and take a look for yourself. We have basically an open border with Mexico. Tech companies trying to control our freedom of speech. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In many ways, our country is on the wrong track, and people know it. Everybody knows it, Democrats and Republicans. But instead of trying to fix any of that, Democrats want to spend the next year explaining -- and they plan to -- why it was perfectly fair for Joe Bidens neer-do-well sonto get 600 grand a year from Ukrainian oligarchs. Thats totally fine. But its somehow criminal for Donald Trump to ask about that. Thats the message. Good luck with that. Hard to imagine many voters will be impressed by it. Adapted from Tucker Carlsons monologue from.

  3. Qu Biao:

    Pu Zhiqiang is not a criminal. He will be judged by history, the Chinese constitution protects freedom of speech, so putting him on trial is unjust and shameless. If Pu Zhiqiang is guilty, then we are all guilty.

  4. Samantha Grant:

    The media was getting out of hand, maybe that’s how the royals do business. And I guess as a family, we will experience that. But as a family, we’ve always been free-thinking Americans culturally raised in freedom of speech… We have our own lives and interesting stories to share.

  5. William J. H. Boetcker:

    Freedom of press and freedom of speech: What a blessing for a country while in the hands of honest, patriotic men; what a curse if in the hands of designing demagogues.


Translations for freedom of speech

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"freedom of speech." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Nov. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/freedom+of+speech>.

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