Silence-d

'When George Orwell wrote 1984, he meant it as a warning, not as a guide book.' (Adam Smith-Connor)

In 1922, in his article, ‘Let the People Know the Truth’, Henry E. Jackson warned: ‘If you deny to anyone the right to say what you think is wrong, it will not be long before you will lose the right to say what you think is right. Defence of the freedom of others is self-defence. To quote Voltaire: ‘I wholly disagree with what you say – and I will contend to the death for your right to say it.’’

I struggle to remember a period in my own lifetime when freedom of expression has felt so under threat. It’s not just the ever-shrinking legal space and room for manoeuvre in the public domain, although that alone should be sufficient cause for alarm in any democratic society. It’s the gradual, subtle erosion of what is deemed acceptable or permissible to think, say or do.

Those players who favour the suppression of expression are helped greatly in their cause by gross misuses of freedom, whether by an ex-President who calls lies truth and truth lies, or by those who promote violence and hate from the safety of a dark room, lit only by the dim glare of a computer screen. The extremes provide a pretext to justify a policy of broader censorship.

I understand a safeguarding impulse to protect vulnerable people from harm. I’m with Martin Luther King on his view that legal provisions are needed to defend human rights: ‘It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.’ But the insidious silencing of authentic critique, the pressure to conform with a prevailing norm, is a step too far.

What do you think? Do you find yourself self-editing before you speak? Be careful how you respond.

(See also: Free Speech and Why it Matters; The Free Speech Union)