He’s an all American success story Cutting down the latter rungs below. A termite in understated glory Beneath that sunny Silicon glow. He sees you when you’re sleeping He knows when you’re awake But he couldn’t find a few bored Russians So censor yourself for goodness sake! The KGB charter […]
On the 15th of June in Runnymede, Magna Carta Libertatum (the great charter of the liberties) was agreed by King John, his opposition barons and the Archbishop of Canterbury as the legal document which would form the new basis of rights and privileges throughout England. This document from a feudal […]
While the de jure role of state sponsored propaganda is to convince a population to adopt a certain line of thinking on the issues of the day, the de fato function of state sponsored propaganda is rather different. In a society in which even a sizeable minority of the public […]
“I don’t want to start any blasphemous rumours but I think that God’s got a sick sense of humour and when I die I expect to find him laughing”. So goes the refrain to the Depeche Mode song Blasphemous Rumours, but such a statement could easily apply to anyone attempting […]
Although many leading US politicians and Silicon Valley oligarchs appear to wish otherwise, the United States Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees near absolute free speech to all Americans. In Europe, where free speech has always had a dubious relationship with the powers that be from the Catholic Inquisition to the fascist […]
The European Union parliament has just rubber-stamped new copyright legislation that will have a stifling effect on digital freedom of speech. Opposition to the proposals have seen big American tech companies including Google, online activists, world-wide-web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Paul McCartney and online star PewDiePie unite against the new […]
Not only to Filipinos enjoy free speech but they enjoy the entertainment that exists as a result of free speech laws. The music scene, comedy seen and acting scene throughout The Philippines is highly unique by global standards. The combination of unique and manifold indigenous cultures, historic interactions with other […]
The deeply controversial CEO of the Philippine website Rappler, Maria Ressa has just been issued with a warrant of arrest stemming from charges of cyber libel. This is of course not the first time that Ressa has been on the wrong side of the law, but it does give her […]
As of November 2018, multiple European nations have blasphemy laws that have remained on the books for centuries while modern blasphemy laws described as so-called “hate speech” legislation continue to become ever more stifling to pre-existing free speech laws that are largely left without genuine defenders. Furthermore, those who self-identify with liberal […]
The age of mass media which has its roots in the newspaper revolution of the 19th century helped to democratise access to information first in the industrialised urban world and later beyond these initial boundaries. As the spread of electricity continued throughout the early 20th century, film, radio and later […]