Free Speech is not Free anymore

Free speech is a very contested topic these days. Whether we can speak our mind or not, varies from place to place and topic to topic.if the question is about whether we have the rights to speak as we please, yes, we can, in most places, not all. Leaders of the free world such as the USA and other developed countries preserve this right as much as they can. Citizens of these countries are allowed to practice their faiths and beliefs. But as soon as you shift your sights towards the other countries, the situation changes drastically. Countries where there is a one party rule, or dictatorships, or countries where theocracies and monarchies, this ‘right to free speech’ changes. Media, internet access in the countries, law enforcement, all are strictly controlled by the administration. On the one hand where you can see news media outlets in the western world can publish whatever they please, or can portray the real story without being compelled to tamper with the specifics, on the other hand you will see countries where the government controls what news can be posted, how much of the news can be posted, and what news will be available to the outside world.

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If you look online you will see countries spying on their people, other country’s people, officials from other countries. This is done by almost every country. Also, in many countries, people are not allowed to demonstrate their ideas if it is against the government’s ideas. They are simply silenced by law enforcement. We have seen assassinations of journalists and leading opposition parties in various states due to disagreement with the ruling government. And when you talk about whether a common civilian can talk about something he wishes, some countries make their life hard as well. People of North Korea are afraid of talking against the country even after fleeing the state. Countries quash movements of different groups of people who do not follow the governments’ way of thinking. These I believe do count as the infringement of rights to free speech.

The examples I put up are not the stories of only a few countries. If we look closely, an overwhelming majority of the world goes through this. Free speech, as normal as it sounds, is just as rare. What we speak and what we do, can be very much controlled and manipulated in these parts of the world, which is directly against free speech.

But if we look politically, free speech is a big threat to many governments worldwide. Because nobody is a saint. So as much as we want free speech to be preserved, it is very hard to implement. And there will always be people who will try to impose their opinions in a free speech world without worrying about how it affects others, or how much realistically will it benefit everyone. Free speech is a double edged sword.