Unrestricted Freedom of Expression - Essay Example

Introduction Human rights are principles that describe certain standards of human behavior and are protected by local laws and international laws as legal rights. A person is entitled to these rights simply because you are a human being and they are inherent in all humans irrespective of one’s color, country, language, and gender. Freedom of expression is one aspect of human rights. Freedom of expression is a right to express ones opinions and ideas without fear of being victimized by anybody. It is a fundamental right because without it, it is hard to acquired and defend other rights. This aspect of human right is established in article 19 of both Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Across the globe, the struggle to freedom of expression has been going on for a long period of time, certain aspects of it have been achieved in many countries and achievement in some countries is still a problem. It is an important element of individual defense against a regime in power. Human rights activist rely mostly on this element to challenge government on matters of poor governance or violation of other human rights. Unrestricted freedom of expression may lead to infringement of other rights; this has led to the restriction of this right. It is hedged by several limitations and restrictions and it is one of the elements of human right that is extensively limited as compared to others. Aspects of freedom of speech Freedom of expression is broad and it has 6 aspects which is ‘everyone shall have the right’, ‘to seek, receive and impart’, ‘information and ideas of any kind’,’ regardless of frontiers’, ‘through any media’, and ‘to respect and ensure’. Everybody has a right to express his views and no distinctions are allowed on the basis of one’s level of education, language, religion, race, sex, or political inclination. In the right to impart information, everybody is entitled to tell other people what he/she thinks or know both in private and through print media. It also makes it possible for any person to access wide range of information and views as many as possible. These include getting information from reading newspapers, listening to debates, surfing internet, and watching television. On aspect of information and ideas of any kind, this freedom applies to any fact or opinion that can be expressed in any form. The expressions include controversial, false, or shocking information. A small fact that the many people does not like the idea or perceived to be incorrect does not warrant its censorship. Regardless of frontiers aspect means that the right to expression is not limited by international boundaries. National and states governments must allow their people to look for, receive, and impart information to other states or countries. The second last aspect is ‘through the media’, this explains that a person has a right to express his views or opinions through any media either modern or old, for example newspapers, radios, and may other forms of media available. The last aspect is to respect and ensure. Governments must respect freedom of expression and they should not interfere with it in any form. Governments should also remove obstacles that prevent free expression; this can be done through ensuring that the minority groups are heard and stopping monopolization of media. Standards International laws on human rights recognize many forms of expression starting from those expressions that can be protected to expression that needs to be punished. Article nineteen of UDHR states that ‘every person has a right to express his opinion; in regard to this every person has a right to hold opinions with no interference from any party and to look or receive information through any form of media irrespective of any frontiers’. Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW) set out freedom of expression and opinion. UNCRC article states that governments should ensure that a child who is cable of coming up with his or her own ideas should be allowed to express them freely and they should be taken into account depending on the age and maturity of the child. This kind of a right is complex because it involves right to seek, receive and impart information of any type through any available media. This makes its exercise to carry special duties and responsibilities as stipulated in article 19 of ICCPR. This means that some restrictions on freedom of expression are allowed under human rights laws. Article twenty of ICCPR calls for governments to forbid the advocacy of racial and religious hatred from any group that can constitute incitement, violence, and hostility. CERD calls for governments who are parties’ to the agreement to forbid certain hostile expressions. Article nineteen of ICCPR explain that the limitations or restriction should be exercised in a manner that is provided by the law and seen as necessary in protection of rights and reputation of others; protection of country security or public order. Other conventions have come in to add on these limitations, for example article 13 of ACHR states that limitations should be enforced for moral protection of children. Article 10 of ECHR calls for the prevention of disclosure of information that is received in confidence and maintaining impartially in the judiciary system, furthermore this article give the governments broad discretion in licensing media houses. In Australia the constitution does not expressly protect right to expression. In a high court case of 1992, the matter of freedom of expression was largely dealt with. In the case between Australian Capital Television Pty Ltd v Commonwealth (ACTV) the court was to determine whether there is freedom of expression in Australia in regards to government and political affairs. The majority judges in the court ruled that there is indeed freedom of expression in political communication; they based their decision on the nature of democracy. Based on the decision, the ability of the commonwealth countries to put in place laws that limit freedom of expression became limited. In United States, Organization of American States (OAS) adopted a resolution in 2006 that urged states promote freedom of expression. In Africa, declaration of principles on freedom of speech was adopted by African countries in the year 2002. The principles stress that freedom of speech should be treated as individual right because it is a cornerstone to democracy. Relationship to other rights Freedom of expression is closely related to other human rights elements and it has little limitations in conflict with other human rights elements. Right to expression is related to right to fair trial in a court trial that is limiting access to search for information. This principle does not limit right to privacy and reputation of other people. Big latitude is provided when criticism of public figure is involved. The element is very important to the media fraternity because it plays a special role as bearer of right to expression for all. Supervision Many local and international limitations and restriction on this law reduces it. Furthermore, freedom of speech international accepted standard sometimes is distorted by ruling regimes through propaganda and controlling the media houses and other means geared towards restricting the press, for example denying them licenses and restricting access to information. Human rights committee is one of the bodies that supervise the right to expression. The committee has dealt with several cases on freedom of expression. For example, arresting and jailing a trade leader for supporting a strike or condemning the state for planning to send the troops to war violates his freedom of speech (Sohn v. Republic of Korea). In a different case involving J.R.T. and the W.G. Party v. Canada, the committee found that the complaint case was not admissible. The complainant alleged violations of right to expression where spreading of anti-Semitic messages through telephone was not allowed. The complaint was not admissible because hate speech was not compatible with the rights protected by the covenant. According to the committee commercial expression like outdoor advertising is protected by this law, this was explained by the charges in the case of Ballantyne et al. v. Canada. In Australia, a journalist was judge in a domestic court and was found guilty of defamation. The court believe that politicians can be subjected to stronger criticism that private citizens, in the case of Lingens and Oberschlick v. Austria. In a case beating Nikula v. Finland, the court ruled that convicting defense council of defamation because of criticizing the prosecutor’s decision was against his freedom of expression. In United States, freedom of expression are normally dealt by Inter-American court, the cases that are brought before the court include treats to journalist, harassment, and intimidation. In the case between Olmedo Bustos et al. v. Chile, the court dealt with preventive censorship, in the case the exhibition of blasphemous film was prohibited by the government. The court ruled that though prior censorship is permitted, censorship on blasphemy grounds are outside the permitted category of moral protection of young people in the country. The judges found that there was a violation to freedom of expression. In Africa, the right to freedom of expression is supervised by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). In Gambia the commission found that detention of opposition leaders and their supporters and leaders and members of trade unions using the law that outlaw any form of political opposition during the time of state of emergency as a preach of freedom of expression. The commission further found that failure by the government to stop and investigate attacks directed towards journalist violates the right to express and disseminate information and it further violates the right to receive information. The commission claims that the government harassment with intention of disrupting legitimate activities of a body that is trying to educate people on their rights is a violation of freedom of expression. In Nigeria, there were incidents in which organization leaders were imprisoned and some executed because of a rally. The commission explained that there is a close relationship between freedom of speech and freedom of association. Due to this relationship, the commission found that the punishment of organization leaders because of holding rallies is against freedom of expression. The commission stressed that right to expression is significant in individual development and his political consciousness. Because of the importance of freedom of expression, international organizations addressed the supervision of this right for example by appointing experts on the matter. Human rights commission in 1993 appointed a Special Rapporteur to deal with matters on promotion and protection of right to freedom of expression. The appointed rapporteur explains that exercise of freedom of expression shows the level in which all other human rights in the society are protected and respected. It also touches on the matters such as the way in which freedom of expression assist in promoting and strengthening democratic systems of leadership and its benefits in other areas like in campaign education on how to prevent HIV/AIDS. Limitations to freedom of expression Laws recognize limitations and restrictions on freedom of expression, in particular when the right to expression is in conflict with other rights and values. The restriction follows the harm principle such as hate speech. Limitations are carried out through legal sanctions or social disapprobation. John Stuart Mill argued that the liberty of expression is needed to push discussions to the logical limits rather than limits of social embarrassment. He went further and introduced what is called harm principle; he explained that freedom of expression should have limitations because the only way in which power can be exercised in the right way over any member of a civilized society against his wishes is by preventing harm to others. An example is when a Danish Cartoonist called Westergaard created controversy by drawing Prophet Mohammed wearing a bomb. Though he was expressing his opinion he met violent reactions from those practicing Islam, he received death threats and murder attempts. Though he used the right to freedom he ends up being harassed by those who does not accept criticism. Different leadership interprets what an offensive speech is differently. Some governments like Russian government use offense principle to justify restriction on freedom of expression. Conclusion Freedom of expression is a fundamental right because it assists in protecting other rights. It is about expressing ones opinions and ideas without fear of being victimized by anybody, without it, it is hard to acquire and defend other rights. It is established in article 19 of both Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Across the globe, the struggle to freedom of expression has been going on for a long period of time, certain aspects of it have been achieved in many countries and achievement in some countries is still a problem. It is normally used by human rights activist to challenge government on matters of poor governance or violation of other human rights. Freedom of expression has six aspects, that is ‘everyone shall have the right’, ‘to seek, receive and impart’, ‘information and ideas of any kind’,’ regardless of frontiers’, ‘through any media’, and ‘to respect and ensure’. The standard of right to expression is contained in Article 13 of the UNCRC CMW; it is also contained in article 19 of ICCPR. This human rights aspect is related to other form of human rights elements such as freedom to association. For the standards to be maintained it need supervision, the bodies that supervises include Human Rights committee and African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). If this right is not restricted with certain limitations it will conflict with other rights and values. Some expression might cause violence or injure other people and these needs to be restricted. Read More