Free speech

The right of free speech is essentially that to say or write, publish and distribute anything one wishes. This was originally intended to allow one to express ones beliefs. But in time it became a competition to find out what the limits of what would be permitted were; this had some legitimacy in terms of the original intention as there were (and still are) political restrictions on what could be broadcast through the media that existed at that time.

Views differ on the importance of the consequences of this competition. Some consider it an effort to trivialise the importance of the right, or to give weight to calls to curtail it. Certainly, though, it did not follow the original intention, rather it became more a search for the most obscene and horrific material permissable than a search for expression of alternative political ideologies.

ToDo:

Stern.

Video nasties.

Alternative political publishing.