by Sarah Frankton

Created on: July 07, 2009   Last Updated: July 09, 2009

Freedom of speech is often taken for granted in the UK, where people can and often do voice their opinions on an infinite number of topics. We should feel very lucky and privileged that we have this freedom, for many countries in the world do not. Women in particular should feel grateful for this, for in many countries, especially in the Islamic world, women have absolutely no freedoms. However, with such freedom comes abuse and there will always be people who use their right to free speech to upset and incite tension in others. Unfortunately you cannot have one without the other. If you give people this freedom and right, then you have to expect not to like some of what you hear. Of course, if you disagree with something you have the right to say so. The key point is tolerance. Society must learn to have tolerance to the views expressed by others, provided that these views do not manifest themselves into violent or physical abuse. Everyone is entitled to an opinion on everything and so long as these views do not harm you in any way, and here I mean physical, then there is nothing wrong with them.

There has been a lot of talk recently in the press and news about anti-terror laws and this in some respect infringes on the right to free speech. Incitement to racial, religious or other hatred towards others is obviously an unsavoury element to free speech and needs to be monitored. Having those opinions is one thing but to publicly call others to arms is quite another and should be dealt with accordingly. The minute aggressive rhetoric aimed at a particular section of society is broadcast it creates tension, which in turn can lead to violence. This goes beyond the freedom of speech mantra and becomes a war-cry. However it is the people who actually take up the arms and react to the rhetoric that are breaking the law.

The political correctness culture in Britain today is threatening our right to free speech. Slowly more and more words, phrases and even objects are becoming 'un-PC'. Many are to do with race or sexuality. Our desire in Britain to make everyone equal, with the same opportunites has created a ruling body that has banned certain words from schools, ordered councils to remove the words 'black' from black board, ordered that the word 'person' replace 'man' or 'woman' in job adverts. Slowly our vocabulary is being trimmed of all words that others may find offensive. This just goes completely against the very essence of free speech and is totally and utterly pointless. If anyone has ever been offended by the word 'black' in black board I would like to meet them and pronounce them criminally insane. The Big Brother shenanigans of two years ago, brought home the stupidity of the PC world in which we now live in and which is threatening the very fabric of our 'free' society. A couple of arguments on a reality TV show became a media fuelled PC nightmare, which resulted in our Prime Minister having to apologise to the Indian Prime Minister. If our society wants reality TV then we have to accept the reality of the content and not be offended by it. I accept that there are racist and sexist people in the world who have and will continue to degrade and taunt others, but for the vast majority of people this is not the case and criminalising certain words and phrases just serves to endanger our right to free speech. Acceptance and tolerance of others and their opinions, and how they express them is the fundamental outcome needed if free speech is to truly remain free.

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