Meaning of freedom of speech | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The right of citizens to speak, or otherwise communicate, without fear of harm or prosecution.
   uncountable
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see freedom, speech.
   uncountable

Examples

“S. Iohn the Baptiste, who died for the lyke liberty and fredome of speache, as S. Quillian, and S. Lamberte did.”

“That the Freedome of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parlyament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parlyament.”

“All Miniſters, therefore, who were Oppreſſors, or intended to be Oppreſſors, have been loud in their Complaints againſt Freedom of Speech, and the Licence of the Preſs; and always reſtrained, or endeavored to reſtrain both, in conſequence of this, they have browbeaten Writers, and puniſhed them violently, and againſt Law, and burnt their Works; by all which, they ſhewed how much Truth alarmed them, and how much they were at Enmity with Truth.”

“The freedom of speech and of the press which are secured by the First Amendment against abridgment by the United States are among the fundamental personal rights and liberties which are secured to all persons by the Fourteenth Amendment against abridgment by a state. The safeguarding of these rights to the ends that men may speak as they think on matters vital to them and that falsehoods may be exposed through the processes of education and discussion is essential to free government. Those who won our independence had confidence in the power of free and fearless reasoning and communication of ideas to discover and spread political and economic truth. […] Abridgment of freedom of speech and of the press, however, impairs those opportunities for public education that are essential to effective exercise of the power of correcting error through the processes of popular government.”

“First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

“Cyberspace may give freedom of speech more muscle than the First Amendment does. It may already have become literally impossible for a government to shut people up.”

“One question that remains is at what point an individual Net poster has the right to assume prerogatives that have traditionally been only the province of journalists and news-gathering organizations. When the Pentagon Papers landed on the doorstep of The New York Times, the newspaper was able to publish under the First Amendment's guarantees of freedom of speech, and to make a strong argument in court that publication was in the public interest. […] [T]he amplification inherent in the combination of the Net's high-speed communications and the size of the available population has greatly changed the balance of power.”

“The term free speech, which appears in this book's subtitle as well as in its text, is used more or less interchangeably with freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression to refer to all of the expressive rights guaranteed by the forty-five words of the First Amendment, as interpreted by the U.S. courts.”

““Of course, I know there might be limits to freedom of speech, but overall I don’t think being absorbed by China would be that bad,” said Mr. Hsieh, a poet who works at a cafe in New Taipei City.”

“[…] For to him that opens himſelf, Men will hardly ſhew themselves averſe, but will (fair) let him go on, and turn their freedom of ſpeech to freedom of thought. And therefore it is a good ſhrewd Proverb of the Spaniard, Tell a lye, and find a Troth; as if there were no way of diſcovery, but by Simulation.”

CEFR level