Should Europe introduce a ‘right to blaspheme’?
French academic Alain Bouldoires describes how he found in his research on fifteen European countries that Ireland is among the strictest when it comes to blasphemy laws (1:13 min). there is a group of...
View ArticleFreedom to offend?
In response to the Jesus and Mo T-shirt incident at LSE, in which members of the London School of Economics Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Student Society were ordered to cover-up their Jesus and Mo...
View ArticleSalman Rushdie: free speech, 25 years on
25 years after the fatwa and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Salman Rushdie discusses with Timothy Garton Ash whether there is now more or less freedom of expression in Europe, worrying developments in...
View ArticleRight speech
Leslie Green argues that Buddhist ideas about avoiding divisive, abusive and false speech can help us live together well in free societies
View Article‘To fight through cartoons’
Zulkiflee Anwar Haque, better known as Zunar, is a satirical political cartoonist from Malaysia. He became well-known through his involvement in the Reformasi movement in the late 1990s which led to...
View ArticleHas Demotix democratised journalism?
Turi Munthe speaks to Timothy Garton Ash about why he launched Demotix and the role of citizen journalists in today’s transformed media landscape.
View ArticleWhat is the internet?
Journalist and author John Naughton describes what the internet is, and what role private corporations play in shaping it. He characterises these private superpowers of the net as private spaces with...
View ArticleGiles Fraser on free speech and religion
Is free speech a Christian value? Does the Church of England censor its clergy? And how have the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris changed our conception of free speech? Giles Fraser gives Free Speech...
View ArticleRae Langton on philosophy, free speech and pornography
What is the contribution philosophy can make to our understanding of free speech? How does pornography contribute to the silencing of women? What are the future challenges for free speech? Professor of...
View ArticleKen Macdonald on free speech in British universities and Rhodes Must Fall
Since the mid-2000s, it’s been said that counter-terrorism measures have restricted free speech, especially in universities. The debate came to a head in 2015, with the creation of “prevent” duties...
View ArticleLuciano Floridi on free speech, the internet and the philosophy of information
Professor Luciano Floridi, talks to Free Speech Debate about his work on the philosophy and ethics of information and his views on the internet and privacy, speaking as a member of both the advisory...
View ArticleTo speak or not to speak: should universities practice “no-platforming”?
Does no-platforming constitute an attack on free speech? How can we best address the subjective and objective harms caused by free expression? To what extent can targeted censorship be used as a...
View Article‘Until We Are Free’: Shirin Ebadi on the fight for free speech and human...
Shirin Ebadi was the first Muslim woman and Iranian to win the Nobel Peace Prize. It was awarded to her in 2003 “for her efforts for democracy and human rights” in Iran and her “struggle for the rights...
View ArticleInterview: Svetlana Alexievich
Svetlana Alexievich talks to Free Speech Debate. Image credit: Elke Wetzig. No changes made. Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
View ArticleFree speech in Putin’s Russia: views from the inside
Changes in Russia’s media landscape during the presidency of Vladimir Putin have been the focus of attention worldwide. Most of the coverage has been critical of increasing free speech restrictions and...
View Article“What next for Rhodes Must Fall?” discussion
The issue of the presence of a statue of Cecil Rhodes overlooking a main street in Oxford lit up debate at the university from 2015, led by the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. Inspired by a similar movement...
View Article“What next for Rhodes Must Fall?” discussion
The issue of the presence of a statue of Cecil Rhodes overlooking a main street in Oxford lit up debate at the university from 2015, led by the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. Inspired by a similar movement...
View ArticleFree Speech Debate: introductory video
Timothy Garton Ash is Director of the Dahrendorf Programme for the Study of Freedom and leads the Free Speech Debate project. Watch him introduce the project here. To find out more about Free Speech...
View ArticleNoam Chomsky on Snowden, no-platforming and the American media
Watch our interview with Noam Chomsky, the American political activist, historian and social critic. Chomsky speaks about Edward Snowden, laws regulating historical memory, no-platforming, internet...
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