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The Compass: The Future of Free Speech: Courts and the right to free speech

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US Supreme Court in Washington DC

18/03/2020 GMT

Courts and the right to free speech

The Future of Free Speech

BBC World Service - The Compass, The Future of Free Speech, Courts and the right to free speech

Robin Lustig explores the threats to and opportunities for the right to free speech

Robin Lustig explores the threats to and opportunities for the right to free speech through the legal process and courts.

Robin Lustig begins his journey in Washington DC where the first amendment is housed in the National Archive and serves as an almost sacred document. In this programme he asks how Courts around the world make decisions on Free speech. Can they find a line in the sand that shouldn’t be crossed? How do they decide what is, in the modern parlance, ‘hate speech’ and what is merely strongly expressed personal opinion? And can they ever be more than extensions of the political environment they inhabit?

(Photo: The US Supreme Court, 5 February, 2009, Washington, DC. Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The Compass: The Future of Free Speech

Robin Lustig maps the shifting frontlines in the global battle over free speech.

Is the right to speak freely protected in the world today? And is it right that it should be protected? Those were questions raised when the United States of America’s Constitution received its famous first amendment in 1789. The Amendment stated that Congress should make no law that controlled freedom of speech or of the press. Robin Lustig travels the globe today to explore those same questions.  In each episode he considers one of the gatekeepers of Free speech - The Courts, Journalism, Religion, Universities and the Tech companies.

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