The perils of regulating free speech

The Federal government has withdrawn its misinformation bill, not least because regulating speech in a democracy will always be an ethical minefield

Speak free or die

Free speech is not merely about the right to speak; it is about the right to think. It is about the fundamental human dignity that comes from being treated as a rational agent capable of processing information and forming one’s own conclusions. To deny this right is to deny our very humanity.

Combating fake news, or silencing expression?

Is the Federal Government’s bill to combat online misinformation really an affront to free speech and, therefore, to democracy itself? And if so, how might it be revised to protect, rather than circumscribe, online expression?

Arvanitakis on American politics: The debates on free speech

Freedom of speech is a foundation of modern democracy, but arguments over its boundaries and effects continue to rage, not least in the United States where concerns over Donald Trump’s false claims of electoral fraud and the influence of social media platforms continue to reverberate.

Academia must allow open debate on contentious issues

Political correctness tends to trump reality in modern universities, but if difficult issues can’t be discussed there, what’s the point of such institutions?

Arvanitakis on American politics: Correction v cancel culture

Like the #metoomovement before it, the death of George Floyd has unleashed a much broader wave of social change, but some fear that freedom of thought and speech are being swept away alongside relics of the past.

Is cancel culture stifling open debate?

150 high-profile authors, commentators and scholars have signed an open letter in Harper’s magazine claiming that “open debate and toleration of differences” are under attack.by a new ‘cancel culture’ dominated by dogma, coercion and ideological conformity.

The challenge of free speech

Universities should be bastions of free speech and open inquiry, but intolerance of “politically incorrect” opinions and party political meddling is threatening to close down rational debate on a range of hot-button social and scientific issues.