1 Freedom of Speech in the USA Freedom of speech is the right to freely express (namely, communicate) ones opinion or ideas.

In the United States of America it is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Historically, freedom to share someones opinion was formed in regard of political ideas and convictions, such as functioning of parliament, and is largely connected to the democracy concept. Due to this fact, this freedom is classified in the international acts, such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as a political right. Nevertheless, freedom of speech as the right that should be protected (or should be limited) has long gone beyond domestic political sphere to the widest possible domains. Nowadays, we face embittered debates regarding the religious domain, namely regarding the religions of other people, arisen on the grounds of dismal consequences caused by the film ridiculing the Muslim prophet Mohammed. The death of innocent people, global unrests, attacks on the American embassies and people worldwide those are indeed the soled reasons to rethink the scope of freedom of expression in general and freedom of speech in particular. The aforementioned tragic situation has once again proved my personal opinion that freedom of speech should be limited. On the one hand, the First Amendment to the Constitution lists the limits to the right to freely express oneself, which are formed over time and in different contexts. Those exceptions are regarding incitement, false statements of fact, obscenity, child pornography, fighting words and offensive speech, threats, speech owned by others, commercial speech, etc. One may notice that the list is quite profound and it covers basic situations of persons indignity or threat to public order. Naturally, that this list could be

2 expanded in accordance with the particular circumstances or precedents. However, in this case we will face harsh opposition of our society, because Americans are very proud of their freedom of speech, and are intolerant towards any manifestations of totalitarianism. The debates between supporters and opponents of the exceptions expansion could be endless and would cause division of society. Instead, I am convinced that the freedom of expression should be limited, but not by the Federal Act or the Supreme Court Decision. This limitation should exist in the minds of American citizens. Many liberal thinkers, starting from Jean Jacques Rousseau, emphasized the importance of learning the culture of free speech. According to them, a discussion aiming to find out the truth should be led in tolerance with the alternative points of view, the progress and harmony in society. An ideal society for me is a community of free people, who respect each others opinions and interests, who are working together for the sake of their common good, and, what is more important are tolerant towards representatives of other societies and religions. In such society any limitation of freedom of expression would not be needed, because a person will think in advance before saying something abusive or intolerant, and in case it is happening, such person does everything to apologize and to restore an order and peace. Unfortunately, it is too early to expect such conditions for our American society; however, I am convinced that this will be the reality in a couple of decades. Before that time our task is not to expand the list of exceptions to the freedom of speech, but to think carefully how we execute our right and to raise public discussion regarding any manifestation of misapplications of the freedom of speech.

Sources "A war is raging against free speech - CNN.com." CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2012. "Journal Tribune: York County's Only Daily Newspaper > Archives > Columnist > Filmmaker abused right to free speech." Journal Tribune: York County's Only Daily Newspaper > Front. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2012.