"Without free speech no search for truth is possible... no discovery of truth is useful... Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race." — Charles Bradlaugh
Back in 1877, Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant published The Fruits of Philosophy, one of the first works advocating birth control. Living in London during those cramped, smoggy, and heavily industrial times can do that to a person.
It wasn’t uncommon for even the poorest families to have 10 children, and for all of them to be either begging on the streets or working in dangerous factories. Yet the church of the day was staunchly against birth control of any kind.
Naturally, they hauled Bradlaugh and Besant to court, where they argued that "we think it more moral to prevent conception of children than, after they are born, to murder them by want of food air and clothing." They were found guilty of obscene libel, and sentenced to six months in prison, but the sentence was overturned on appeal.
In 1880, Bradlaugh was elected to represent Northampton in Parliament, but as he was not a Christian he asked for permission to affirm rather than take the conventional oath of office. The Speaker of the House Refused, and Bradlaugh was expelled from Parliament.
At the time Bradlaugh and associates published a weekly paper called The Freethinker that questioned everything from government to organized religion. In 1882, the government attempted to try the entire staff of the journal for blasphemy, and succeeded in getting two of the contributors thrown into prison.
By the time he died in 1891, Bradlaugh had championed free speech for most of his life. His unwillingness to bend or compromise this principle made him one of the most talked about figures of his day.
Today he is credited by numerous free speech organizations as a trailblazer in the field, and he is often quoted as the battle against censorship and banning books continues.
Schools are banning the original version of Little Red Riding Hood because her basket contained a bottle of wine. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn is condemned as racist because it uses the language of the day, while at the same time it remains one of the strongest condemnations against racism ever published.
Any liberal librarian could list a hundred titles that have been banned or otherwise censored from public libraries because they offended a powerful lobby on religious or moral grounds.
Yet the real battle for free speech is not taking place in the media or the libraries – the Internet, the greatest information sharing tool ever conceived, is increasingly coming under fire by a number of institutions.
As Web sites defend their content and debate freedom of speech issues, the name "Bradlaugh" is coming up a lot.
Legal battles are currently underway in North America that could shrink the online universe substantially. Access to everything, such as online music, movies, and written materials is in jeopardy. So is your ability to express your opinions freely in online forums, and possibly your right to remain anonymous.
In China, the Shanghai police recently shut down nearly 200 Internet cafés for failing to censor subversive or pornographic sites. That’s on top of the nearly 17,000 Internet bars that were shut down last year.
There are literally hundreds of examples, big and small, of censorship verses free speech on the Web.
While the Internet has grown and flourished by its own devices almost since the beginning, governments are now beginning to assert their control over content and capability within their own territories. Because the Internet doesn’t recognize borders, governments will soon begin to work together.
It’s only a matter of time before the Internet will come under the control of an international agency and bureaucracy, run by people that are subject to their own beliefs and the influence of the more powerful member nations and lobby groups.
All things considered, with the war on terrorism in full swing and the resurgence of right wing ideals in the western world, the campaign for Internet free speech is really just getting started.
www.eef.org /br/
On a lot of the edgier sites on the Web, you’ll find a blue ribbon, the symbol of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s ‘Free Speech Online’ campaign. This organization is in the front line of the ongoing battle for free speech, monitoring the situation in the media and actively supporting free speech campaigns.
There are currently regional campaigns in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, China, Portugal, the U.K., the U.S., and Korea.
"Based in San Francisco, EEF is a donor-supported membership organization working to protect our fundamental rights regardless of technology; to educate the press, policymakers and the general public about civil liberties issues related to technology; and to act as a defender of those liberties. Among our various activities, EEF opposes misguided legislation, initiates and defends court cases preserving individuals’ rights, launches global public campaigns, introduces leading edge proposals and papers, hosts frequent educational events, engages the press regularly, and publishes a comprehensive archive of digital civil liberties information at one of the most linked-to websites in the world: www.eff.org. "
If you value freedom to download music, read the news you want to read, and express yourself freely in chat rooms and other forums, then you might want to bookmark this site.
