Freedom of Speech and Hate Speech: Finding a Middle Ground

FREEDOM 1
Freedom of Speech and Hate Speech.
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FREEDOM 2
Introduction.
Liberty and limitation are concepts often placed on opposite ends with a seemingly hard
to find middle ground. Liberty is always viewed as opposed to limitation and vice versa.
Freedom of speech and hate speech present a similar situation. While one seeks to protect an
individual’s right to express oneself, the other suppresses that right by providing laws to regulate
the content of speech. The key issue underlying regulations on both free speech and hate speech
is the ability of speech to cause harm (Strossen, 2018).
Direction of speech.
Free speech allows for expression of both people; in power and those being governed,
the rich and the poor, the young and elderly. In essence, free speech encourages equality in the
freedom of expression while hate speech is mainly from a point of superiority (Doyle, 2018).
With changing times, a position is sought to promote democracy as well as protect individual
rights. This results into the application of laws that govern both freedom of speech and hate
speech to achieve a balance between the two (Herz and Molnár, 2012).
Impact of speech on health.
Speech, in both its positive and negative forms is mainly viewed with regard to politics,
religion and other such aspects but its role in health is underestimated. Take for instance the
mental health of an individual who has to listen to degrading comments on his race, ethnicity,
social status or physical appearance. Body shaming as well as other forms of defamatory speech
have especially become rampant in the wake of cyber bulling that may arise out of unchecked
freedom of speech (Strossen, 2018).