History Of Freedom Of Speech

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1 THE BIRTH OF FREE SPEECH

The practice of freedom of speech has been there for long and it is difficult to pinpoint the exact time or year in which the concept of free speech emerged. The freedom of speech was traced during the Ancient Greeks and thus has been argued over and debated that freedom of speech has always been an indispensable principle of what it means to be a free person. The principle of freedom of speech was firstly celebrated as a result of Socrates martyr. In the 399 BC, Socrates was on a trial before the jury in the City State of Athens, on a corruption charges. The corruption charge was a disgraced to the morality of Greek and he said publicly that he would rather be convicted than to suffer restrictions on his free …show more content…

If the liberty of expression is not valued, then, it is simply curtailed in favor of other competing values. The freedom of expression is a key aspect of individual freedom and it is important to scientific understanding. The Declaration of the Rights of Man during the French Revolution in the 1789 provided freedom of speech, and allowed liberty’s to speak, write and print, though these rights do comes with responsibilities to safeguard against abuse. In addition, in the 1791, the first Amendment of the U S Bill of Rights guaranteed freedoms of religion, speech, the press and the right to …show more content…

The first formal request for freedom of speech was in a recorded history made by Sir Thomas More in front of the English Parliament. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 provides in Article 19 that everyone has the right to opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Freedom of speech is granted unambiguous protection in international law by a number of the United Nations treaties. Such as International covenant in Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Convention on the Rights of the child and International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant workers and members of their