I've received friendly feedback from readers who are interested in attending the conference at University of King's College about the media's "right to offend". It's open to the public, so if you're in Halifax on Nov. 1, please come by -- details are here. It's free to attend, and they actually serve a free lunch, too. You can't beat that! I've also been inv...

The notion that we have free speech in Western democracies is fast becoming a fallacy. Free speech is something that our politicians love to tout and showpiece, yet when you really get down to it, when free speech suddenly jumps out of the box and takes on new dimensions, the first thing our leaders do

...Or just proof the rules are different for the High Priests of the Media. The Mail supports restrictions on free speech when it comes to you-know-what, but issues pious proclamations about the vital importance of the press being free to slime a dead guy.

IT HAS taken a long time, but a free legal advice service is coming to Scotland at last. Early in 2011, LawWorks Scotland will be up and running, giving lawyers a formal oppor

As bitterly opposed as I am to her party's politics, if something is in the public domain, we all have the right to free speech and comment. It is bad enough that her party in Government is introducing curbs on free speech, without the crop of Millionaires and their attendant lawyers joining in. By taking out gagging orders, the converse is true it highlights the issue, not hides it.

The Libel Reform Campaign today has welcomed Nick Clegg’s outline of the government’s draft bill on defamation. In a speech at the Institute of Government in London, the Deputy Prime Minister revealed that the government will address all the issues raised by the Libel Reform Campaign in its report, Free Speech Is Not For Sale. English libel laws

Free speech is  messy.  If it weren't messy, free speech would not require legal protection. In fact, free speech only really matters when it offends.  Speech that doesn't offend doesn't require legal protection, and is only speech. Standing on a flag is legally protected political expression in America. This is true whether the flag is the American flag, or the ...

As bitterly opposed as I am to her party's politics, if something is in the public domain, we all have the right to free speech and comment. It is bad enough that her party in Government is introducing curbs on free speech, without the crop of Millionaires and their attendant lawyers joining in. By taking out gagging orders, the converse is true it highlights the issue, not hides it.

No, really, censorship of the internet really isn’t a free speech issue. The Culture Secretary says so. “There is content that should just not be available to be viewed. That is my view. Absolutely categorical. This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there

Writers and freedom of speech campaigners today expressed relief that the Government has finally relented, and agreed to abolish the offences of seditious libel and criminal defamation. The Ministry of Justice’s move comes after a long campaign by free speech organisations, their advocates, and opposition politicians. The laws, which date from the time of the Star