Free as in speech

Free as in speech

Posted Aug 9, 2006 23:11 UTC (Wed) by sanjoy (subscriber, #5026)
In reply to: Free Intel i965 graphics drivers released by allesfresser
Parent article: Free Intel i965 graphics drivers released

The sign incident at Heathrow seems to have set the cat among the pigeons, so here's the full story for those interested. The Special Branch officer did bring up the issue of the US Constitution and claimed that there's no right of free speech in the UK, unlike in the US. That's partly true. There's no constitutional guarantee in the UK, except sort of via the European Convention on Human Rights, which includes the right to free speech. But that's incorporated into UK law only via an act of Parliament, and can be undone in the same way. Plus the right can be restricted for a ton of reasons (see the long list in article 10(2) of the ECHR).

About the right to free speech not guaranteeing freedom from adverse consequences, that's true. But if the consequences become too severe, the right turns into a fiction. For example, if it means you lose your job (as during the McCarthy era), it's not much of a right.

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