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**Cgnebksb** · 08-02-2012, 02:37 AM

And before DM jumps in to say I'm being overly literal, your earlier post reinforces my concern:

That comment was deliberately flippant, I wasn't taking the discussion seriously, so it's a little out of context now.

While America goes too far in granting liberal economic freedom for the rich, in terms recognizing individual rights to free speech it's far ahead of Britain. English libel law is another area where Britain has a great deal of catching up to do, as we saw with the Simon Singh saga.

Here is where the debate can get interesting. In Britain, your right to free speech is protected in common law, and indeed the onus is always on the prosecution to prove that any expression of speech actually caused harm. This is harder to do that you might think, and actually happens rarely in practice. However, you cannot hide behind 'free speech' as a means of causing undue suffering, or for the purpose of causing commercial or reputational damage to an individual.

Britons are also protected by various Human Rights treaties, which Americans are not, as well as the European Convention, which means if a UK citizen is dissatisfied with the way their rights are upheld in the UK, they can turn to Europe. In terms of free speech specifically, I can't cite any cases, but in the US there is no 'higher authority' you can turn to, if you don't agree with your country's laws.

I do agree with you on libel, and it's being addressed to an extent as there is a full review of current libel laws ongoing, actually started by the prior government.

Finally, artistic expression in the UK, at least on television and radio, is a lot more lenient than in the US. Oddly, this doesn't apply to video games where it's the other way around (UK games have age restrictions), and quite frankly I think censorship is a bigger problem in both countries than the principle of allowing harmful speech or not.

08-02-2012, 02:37 AM	#76
Cgnebksb Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 357 Senior Member	And before DM jumps in to say I'm being overly literal, your earlier post reinforces my concern: That comment was deliberately flippant, I wasn't taking the discussion seriously, so it's a little out of context now. While America goes too far in granting liberal economic freedom for the rich, in terms recognizing individual rights to free speech it's far ahead of Britain. English libel law is another area where Britain has a great deal of catching up to do, as we saw with the Simon Singh saga. Here is where the debate can get interesting. In Britain, your right to free speech is protected in common law, and indeed the onus is always on the prosecution to prove that any expression of speech actually caused harm. This is harder to do that you might think, and actually happens rarely in practice. However, you cannot hide behind 'free speech' as a means of causing undue suffering, or for the purpose of causing commercial or reputational damage to an individual. Britons are also protected by various Human Rights treaties, which Americans are not, as well as the European Convention, which means if a UK citizen is dissatisfied with the way their rights are upheld in the UK, they can turn to Europe. In terms of free speech specifically, I can't cite any cases, but in the US there is no 'higher authority' you can turn to, if you don't agree with your country's laws. I do agree with you on libel, and it's being addressed to an extent as there is a full review of current libel laws ongoing, actually started by the prior government. Finally, artistic expression in the UK, at least on television and radio, is a lot more lenient than in the US. Oddly, this doesn't apply to video games where it's the other way around (UK games have age restrictions), and quite frankly I think censorship is a bigger problem in both countries than the principle of allowing harmful speech or not.
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