Freedom Of Speech In Your Country

[mongers]

No more war?  What an asshole.  The kind of crypto-rightist who thinks it's fine and dandy that the PRC disappears people and that the DPRK exists.  Utter cunts.

My country gives me the freedom to call British people I don't know and will never meet "cunts."  It's pretty great.

That's not really freedom of speech is it ?

[Habbaku]

Yeah, actually it is.  Cunt.

[mongers]

Yeah, actually it is.  Cunt.

Do try growing up, I wasn't supporting what the guy did, but using it as a good example of where freedom of speech conflicts with social norms, but don't let that stop you with your infantile insults.

[Habbaku]

Do try growing up and realizing when a joke is being made.  Cunt.

[mongers]

Do try growing up and realizing when a joke is being made.  Cunt.

Well you're the most piss poor joker I've encountered.

[Ideologue]

Cuntastic!

It really is a form of  freedom of expression, M.

P.S. your buddy probably isn't really an asshole or a cunt.  He's probably a perfectly nice guy who simply hasn't thought things through and thus has embraced a simplistic slogan that in practice would permit the most heinous of crimes.

[Habbaku]

Do try growing up and realizing when a joke is being made.  Cunt.

Well you're the most piss poor joker I've encountered.

The butt of the joke rarely enjoys the joke. 

[dps]

Yeah, actually it is.  Cunt.

Do try growing up, I wasn't supporting what the guy did, but using it as a good example of where freedom of speech conflicts with social norms, but don't let that stop you with your infantile insults.

Freedom of speech that only protects things that don't conflict with social norms doesn't deserve to be called freedom of speech.

[viper37]

What is the legal extent of freedom of speech in your country and how does it differ in its practice ?

What do you regard as acceptable and unacceptable in terms of free speech, and to what extent do you exercise the right in you own life and how tolerant are you of others engaging in freedom of expression ?


An example from the UK, an acquaintance of mine shouted out "no more war" at a remembrance ceremony and has subsequently charge with "  'use of threatening, abusive or insulting words/disorderly within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby CONTRARY TO SECTION 5 (1) AND (6) OF THE PUBLIC ORDER ACT 1986." 

I wouldn't have done this myself, but how would his act have been reacted to in your country ?

Criminal law: death threats & hate speech (including negation of the Holocaust).
Common/Civil law: Just about anything you say can be construed as libel, even if it's true.  The person suing has to prove there were emotional and/or financial damages, and it can't be public knowledge beforehand.  Media amplicafication (lots of medias spin the story everyday, repeating the damaging words) can be attenuating circumstances and reduce the damages.  Provocation can also do that.

[The Brain]

Freedom of speech in Sweden is fairly limited.

[Razgovory]

Yeah, actually it is.  Cunt.

[Martinus]

Poland is a pretty fucked up country when it comes to freedom of speech. This comes from the fact that a number of restrictions from the communist era stayed on the books and each subsequent ruling elite (whether catholic fundamentalists or liberal left) just added to the list of things you cannot say instead of removing from it (even now, the progressive leftist party I voted for is more interested in criminalizing hate speech against gays than to remove some of the stuff described below).

So we, at least on paper, criminalize hate speech (based on gender, religion, race, ethnicity and "other characteristics"), blasphemy ("offending religious feelings" of people), lese majeste ("insulting a head of state"), certain forms of libel, flag burning (and other forms of "disrespecting" it), threats, "showing pornography to people who might not want to see it", certain speech based on content (advocating/supporting nazism, communism and fascism, a NAMBLA-style advocating of sex with minors) etc. In practice, most of these are not persecuted but this makes an individual decision to prosecute arbitrary and political, which I guess is worse - not to mention, Poland has a weird institution of a "private prosecution" which allows e.g. a Catholic offended by a musician tearing up the Bible on stage to bring a criminal case if a prosecutor refuses to do so - so you constantly read about these cases even if they are almost always dismissed.

Obviously, we also have civil lawsuits for libel and here the situation is similar to the UK - i.e. truth is not a sufficient defense but you also must show a "public interest" in publishing some information (information about private life of people does not meet this criterion frequently).

[Martinus]

Freedom of speech in Sweden is fairly limited.

Does "fair" mean "quite" or "appropriate" here?

[The Brain]

Freedom of speech in Sweden is fairly limited.

Does "fair" mean "quite" or "appropriate" here?

You want to get me jailed?

[Zanza]

The official speech at a remembrance ceremony here will be "no more war", so shouting that is fine. However, if you express that you are pro war, you might get into trouble.