Everyones Voice Matters-Free Speech
NB: This post was motivated by @theycallmedan's initiative concerning free speech.
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
― George Orwell
Image by Nashrulloh Huda from Pixabay
As funny as it may sound, it is imperatively true. George Orwells definition of free speech is a classic example of how people should be allowed to express even the most ignorant thoughts of theirs without undue repercussion. This is not to say individuals are to be allowed to slander and falsely accuse and create mayhem in the society. That will lead to an extremely out of order society.
The term freedom of expression is synonymously used in place of free speech but it encompasses the ability to express oneself in different media not limited to speech without undue repercussion.Though freedom of expression is to be sought after, different school of thoughts alienates this right by objecting speech that leads to invoke violence or harm to people should be unwelcomed.
For quite a while now, we have all realised how easy it is for the central government to mislead the people by propagating media and information in a certain pattern. Recently the increase in censorship on almost all social media is the call for this article. I have personally not suffered from this but i beg not to suffer it before i learn to do the needful. The hostile take over of steemit made me to question whether there can actually be a free speech world as money talks more than words. Taking a look at previous post that were censored, one will argue such a power to allow one to express himself or not shouldnt be left in the hands of any single individual.
Recently, zerohedge got censored on twitter for providing news on the Covid 19 outbreak. For a second i was following the story and i realized there could be a bit of truth in the information that lead to their censorship. I thought for a while that if i had discovered such a finding which needed appraisal but rather censored, i would have been very much discouraged to continue in research of such regard. The whole framework of journalism and media becomes pointless if the power to be heard lies in the hand of just a few group of people. This is the reason why free speech should be and must be protected at all cost.
With free speech also comes a responsibility to not abuse anyone else with your words. I believe in facts and if the facts say so, then it should be made known. But then some facts can be misleading and in the bid to state the fact, one should be very much clear with intent. Freedom of speech was one of the reasons why 800,000 people died in Rwanda during the Hutu and Tutsis tribal conflicts. A journalist made a comment about the assassination of a Hutu president which instigated violence and led to so much blood shed. In as much as we are giving the will to speak, lets speak with caution and good intent.
References:Hutu and Tutsis War
Thank you for reading. Please join the #FreeSpeech initiative and share why free speech is important to you.
➡️ Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/tuah.acheampong
➡️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/tj4real_
➡️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tj4_real/