Freedom of speech is both a right and responsibility

Freedom of speech allow people to express information, ideas, and opinions free of government restrictions as stated in the 1st and 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. I consider this to be crucial and so does most countries as it is recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Why do I bring up this issue? Because of things we meet in the society every day. People have opinions and ideas that they have the right to express as mentioned earlier even if it sometimes is on the line to be for instance racism. If it passes the line we can address the issue with the means of laws but that can be difficult. Let me give you an example:

A man of European origin is playing golf in Thailand and gets annoyed by the mosquitoes. Since the management of the golf course cannot do anything about mosquitoes he make the remark –“People are so stupid here”.

If the statement would have been –“Thais are stupid” it would definitely be racist and it can be addressed. In this case is that probably the message but it could also have been that “management on this golf course are stupid”. So in this case we understand “Thais are stupid” and in the eyes of the law it is still OK.

In this case we can also ask what is gained on this comment – Did the mosquitoes disappear (corrigere)? For sure no. Did he get the green fee back or a pack of new balls (ex gratia)? Most probably not. Did he change the way to manage the golf course in a longer perspective (sustieno)? Most probably not. In total this comment is not fruitful and can be compared to how children communicate before they turn teenager and get a more developed language.

Read his blog postings (link at side), it is good from a social behaviour study. He really is a miserable person and actually replied to my comment by stating he is the king.

Anyway, the blog mentioned below is the main reason I started my blog. We must reply to people like that. Freedom of speech is a right but also a responsibility.