Essay Sample on Protecting Free Speech: A Necessary Human Right

Introduction

Freedom of speech is a principle that establishes the freedom of a person or society to sound out their ideas and opinions without worry or fear of revenge, censoring, or even legal penalization. Freedom of expression includes criticizing the government, and the promotion of the views that others might find it disputable. Freedom of expression is, therefore, a significant human right that ought to be respected. Protecting free speech is essential for a healthy democracy.

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Freedom of speech needs to be protected since it fortifies all other human rights hence allowing the community to develop and prosper. The ability to speak freely is vital to realize a positive change in society. Free speech has always been used to fight for change. For instance, in the past, women were subjected to the awful working ambiance in the mines, and they were also not allowed to vote. Through the freedom of speech, it helped bring a change, and all these grievances were addressed and acted upon.

Free speech also involves listening to what other people have to say rather than just one's ability to speak. Some human rights activists believe that challenging people who have different opinions is the best approach to make a step ahead hence bringing about a change. Bad ideas are usually suppressed by good ideas when supported by reasoning and ethics instead of bans and censoring.

However, at some point, there are limits to the protection of freedom of expression. These limitations occur, especially when the freedom of speech contravenes other human rights and freedoms. For instance, one cannot falsely shout "fire" in a theater with a magnitude of people because that speech does not result in the range of opinions discussed in the society, yet the risk of someone getting hurt is high. Additionally, lying on many occasions, is not protected speech. It is a criminal offense.

The justification of free speech takes an individual and a socialistic form. The individual reason for free expression is that the human individual has an unforteitable right to articulate their feelings and opinions, even if others object. The free improvement of the human personality would be unreasonably discouraged if the others could order one what to think and what to say. Deontology arguments in favor of freedom of speech, and intellectual freedom in as a whole, are based on claims that individuals are titled to speak out their opinions freely and take in expressions made by others, quite severally whether the result of that speech is desirable or not (Alexander & Horton, 1983).

Utilitarianism claims that action can only be morally analyzed relative to its outcome. It leads to two main aspects of the utilitarian principle, which are consequentialism and happiness. Utilitarianism prioritizes the usage of utility in human action. That is, no steps are wrong or right by themselves rather only in terms of the degree to which they bring utility as proposed by Mill. The limitations of utilitarianism is that, when practiced, it cannot answer all ethical questions since it can theoretically, just do that which reduces suffering and maximizes happiness (Haworth, 2012).

References

Alexander, L., & Horton, P. (1983). The impossibility of a free speech principle. Nw. UL Rev., 78, 1319. Retrieved from https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/illlr78&section=51

Haworth, A. (2012). Free speech. Routledge. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=OE4qBgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Utilitarianism+and+free+speech