“Why is Freedom of speech an Important Right? When, if ever, can it be limited?

Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as an individual wants without

hindrance or restraint. It has a lot of types, but I will focus more on freedom of speech. We are

allowed to express our thoughts and opinions again without any restraints from our surrounding

and the society. In the article that I chose which is entitled “Why is Freedom of speech an Important

Right? When, if ever, can it be limited?” it discusses the issues they are facing when it comes to

expressing their opinions but with limitations because they are limited by the rules of the

government to somehow filter their words for the society needs to hear only the good things. It is

also mentioned in the article that the freedom of speech grants all Americans the liberty to criticize

the government and speak their minds without fear of being censored and persecuted, but again

their government has a contradicting ideas because the supreme court declared that the individuals

are not entitled to speech that presents a “clear and present danger” to society. But what if the

message you’re trying to convey are the truth, but the society is too blind and to deaf to hear all

these things, would the individual be punished for telling the truth that can threatened the

government or the society? Are we not entitled to tell the truth? The truth is, words are not as

dangerous as the person, who is trying to limit the freedom of everyone to talk without having the

fear of getting hurt.

It is also mentioned in the article that the supreme court has the control over what type of

speech are considered as “low” and “high” first amendment value. I don’t think that there are
distinctions whether a certain word should be protected, because there a lot of variety of words

that can be used as an alternative to some offensive, violative, and misleading words.

I think that when the government and lawmakers try to balance the strong speech to have

a peaceful society, how would they make sure that it will never be use against them. Given the

examples in the articles, it shows that the government cannot manipulate the freedom of speech of

anyone because it is something that every human must have in this world. They cannot shut the

mouth of every individual when trying to cover up on the things they’ve done only for their own

benefit. The limit that we have over the freedom of speech is because words can be used in negative

ways, for example using it for the purpose of hatred and to incite violence. We are trying to create

a world wherein words will be used to promote peace and understanding.

We are always confined to just say the things that is acceptable to the society and it became

a stigma that when you can express yourself through words and when you learn how to fight back

then you’re threat to your country and to everyone surrounding you. In this world, we should be

open for criticisms because it can create a better version of our self and our society. But in reality,

we will all be left with one question, should there be some limits on what we are free to say?
“Why is Freedom of speech an

Important Right? When, if

ever, can it be limited?”

Fabillaran, Joeselinne R.
4EPH