Quote: "Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction."
Understanding the legal and ethical considerations of government regulation and censorship of media and journalism.
First Amendment: The First Amendment of the US Constitution protects the rights of freedom of speech, press, and religion.
Prior Restraints: When the government or other authority attempts to stop information from being published or broadcasted, it is known as prior restraint.
Obscenity and Indecency: There are specific laws that regulate explicit or sexually-oriented language, images, and behavior in the media.
Defamation: When a person's reputation is harmed by false statements or actions made by another party, it is considered defamation.
Privacy: The media is required to respect the privacy rights of individuals, such as celebrities, politicians, and other public figures.
Intellectual Property: Laws govern the use of someone else's creative work or intellectual property, such as music, artwork, or film.
Access to Public Information: Government agencies must provide access to public records and information under certain circumstances.
Advertising and Marketing: There are regulations in place that prevent companies from making false or misleading claims in their advertising and marketing campaigns.
Bias and Objectivity: Media organizations must strive to present unbiased and objective news coverage and avoid promoting a specific agenda or viewpoint.
Free Speech and Hate Speech: There is a fine line between free speech and hate speech, and laws may be enacted to prevent individuals from inciting violence or discrimination.
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): The FOIA provides guidelines for accessing government records and information.
Net Neutrality: Net neutrality laws ensure that all internet users have equal access to information and prevent internet service providers from favoring certain websites or services.
Protection of Sources: Journalists may have legal protections for keeping sources confidential or anonymous.
Online Privacy: Laws protect individuals' online privacy rights and the collection and use of personal data by tech companies and websites.
Social Media: Laws and regulations govern the use of social media by individuals, companies, and government agencies.
Government Regulation: This type of regulation is the most common and comes in the form of laws or policies which are instituted by government bodies, usually with the aim of controlling the behavior of media entities or protecting public interests.
Self-Regulation: In the absence of government regulations, media professionals can develop their own professional ethical and moral codes and standards to promote professional conduct.
Content Regulation: This regulation involves the control of the type of media which can be aired, written, or published. It includes restrictions on explicit content, hate speech or defamatory content.
Licensing: Licensing is a type of regulation that requires media outlets to have specific licenses, permits or certification to operate. Media entities must meet a set of predefined conditions to obtain such licenses.
Corporate Governance: This regulation seeks to ensure that media companies operate in a responsible way and that their decision making processes are transparent and accountable.
Advertising Regulation: This type of regulation seeks to control deceptive, contentious or misleading advertisement messages that are disseminated through media channels.
Intellectual Property Law: This regulation deals with the protection of the media owner's intellectual property rights from unauthorized use, duplication, or distribution.
Media Ownership Regulations: Governments often regulate who can own media outlets to avoid monopolies and ensure diversity in media ownership.
Internet Regulation: This involves the control of internet content, access and use.
Censorship: This form of regulation is intended to restrict the freedom of expression or the dissemination of certain types of content deemed inappropriate or harmful to society.
Quote: "The right to freedom of expression has been recognized as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law by the United Nations."
Quote: "Terms like free speech, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression are used interchangeably in political discourse."
Quote: "However, in a legal sense, the freedom of expression includes any activity of seeking, receiving, and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used."
Quote: "Article 19 of the UDHR states that 'everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference' and 'everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds."
Quote: "Therefore, may not be recognized as being absolute, and common limitations or boundaries to freedom of speech relate to libel, slander, obscenity, pornography, sedition, incitement, fighting words, hate speech, classified information, copyright violation, trade secrets, food labeling, non-disclosure agreements, the right to privacy, dignity, the right to be forgotten, public security, and perjury."
Quote: "Justifications for such include the harm principle, proposed by John Stuart Mill in On Liberty."
Quote: "The idea of the 'offense principle' is also used to justify speech limitations, describing the restriction on forms of expression deemed offensive to society."
Quote: "With the evolution of the digital age, application of freedom of speech becomes more controversial as new means of communication and restrictions arise, for example, the Golden Shield Project, an initiative by Chinese government's Ministry of Public Security that filters potentially unfavorable data from foreign countries."
Quote: "The Human Rights Measurement Initiative measures the right to opinion and expression for countries around the world, using a survey of in-country human rights experts."