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Speakers’ Corner Trust is a registered charity, established in 2007, which seeks to provide a stimulus to civil society both in the UK and in emerging democracies overseas by creating new opportunities for citizens to exchange ideas and opinions in open, face-to-face debate. SCT’s founding patron is Václav Havel , the playwright, human rights campaigner and former political prisoner who became the first President of Czechoslovakia, and subsequently of the Czech Republic, following the collapse of communism in 1989. SCT’s all-party Advisory Council , which includes representatives from the universites, the law, the media, business and the voluntary sector, is chaired by Jack Straw , Secretary of State for Justice and former Home and Foreign Secretary. The Speakers’ Corner initiative is the outcome of a year-long consultation with a wide range of think tanks, government departments and NGOs. Our first UK pilot was launched in Nottingham in February 2008 following the development of a prototype in Prague in 2004. |
News
- June 2009 - Lichfield Plans Ahead
Lichfield’s Speakers’ Corner was only launched in May but the local Committee has already held one event - the screening of the Age of Stupid followed by a debate on climate change - and is now planning four more. On Saturday 11 July, the Lichfield Festival, in association with Speakers’ Corner, is hosting a debate led by Countdown’s Susie Dent who asks Has the Golden Age of English passed? while on the following day. as part of its Fuse Festival, Lichfield Arts is organising Sound Off, a Speakers’ Corner panel discussion on Arts & Community.
Two more events follow after the holiday season. On 19 September Speakers’ Corner joins in the celebration of Samuel Johnson’s tercentenary with events at the Speakers’ Corner and on 26 September the North Lichfield Initiative is organising Drumming Up Fairtrade, a series of events promoting fair trade and social justice and involving young people, some of which will take place at the Speakers’ Corner.
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June 2009 - Bexhill’s Debate on Speakers’ Corner Heritage
The De La Warr Pavilion, the contemporary arts gallery in Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex, is organising a special event at which Martin Goldsmith will lead a discussion on the nature and essence of the original Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park, with photographic documentation spanning the last 20 years. The event takes place at 3.30 pm on Saturday 4 July on the opening day of the gallery’s major Beuys Is Here exhibition of work by the influential German artist Joseph Beuys (1921 - 86) who was a founder member of the German Green Party. The exhibition will explore Beuys’s ideas on economics, politics, the environment, society, teaching, learning and philosophy and raise questions as to how these ideas continue to inform new thinking today.
At the same time each Saturday throughout July, the exhibition will provide a platform for a practitioner from the arts, education, politics and the environment who will speak for 15 minutes about their subject and then invite discussion from the floor. This event is free, open to everyone and will be held at different locations throughout the iconic modernist Grade 1 listed building on Bexhill’s seafront.
For further information about the gallery and the Beuys Is Here exhibition and programme, please click here.
- June 2009 - Speakers’ Corner Provides Centre Stage for Oslo’s Marketplace of Ideas
SCT provided a temporary Speakers’ Corner, created by Central St Martins College and sponsored by the British Council, as the centrepiece of the Marketplace of Ideas which concluded the week long Global Forum for Freedom of Expression which took place in the Norwegian capital Oslo from 2 to 6 June.
The initiative was a great success with speakers from around the world taking to the platform to argue for civil liberties and human rights and campaign for freedom in their own countries. Click here for an illustrated report of the day.
- June 2009 - Nottingham’s Refugee Week Debate
Nottingham Speakers’ Corner is to host a debate to mark Refugee Week. The event will take place at the Speakers’ Corner at 10.30 am on Saturday 13th June.
A panel of speakers representing refugees and organisations campaigning on their behalf will talk about their experiences and the importance of upholding the right of refuge which has enshrined in international law for the past 50 years.
- May 2009 - SCT’s New Newsletter
SCT has just issued its latest e-newsletter which you can read or print off from here.
- May 2009 - Speakers’ Corner Prototype Set for Oslo Summit
The prototype Speakers’ Corner designed by Central St Martins College of Art & Design, is to be trialled at the Global Forum on Freedom of Expression in Oslo in June. The Speakers’ Corner, sponsored by the British Council in Norway, is to take centre stage in the Marketplace of Ideas which is being created in University Square to mark the end of the week-long international conference.
- May 2009 - A Speakers’ Corner for Bristol…
With the backing of the City Council, SCT is about to launch a major consultation on the prospects for a Speakers’ Corner project in Bristol. The early indications are that there is enthusiastic support for the initiative and it is hoped that a local Speakers’ Corner Committee will take shape over the summer months.
- …and Waltham Forest
Meanwhile, SCT is working with schools, local amenity groups and residents to develop a neighbourhood Speakers’ Corner in Stoneydown Park in the London Borugh of Waltham Forest. Consultation is under way and Central St Martins College is also drawing up a programme of collaboration with local people to prepare designs for a Speakers’ Corner for the park.
- May 2009 - The Lichfield Launch
The launch of Lichfield’s Speakers’ Corner on 2 May exceeded all expectations. As the sun shone down, a day of celebration, described by one enthusiastic participant as “the most fabulous, fantastic, inspiring, wonderful, life-affirming stuff”, took place at the site. By late afternoon, almost fifty people, many of them young, had spoken or performed in front of hundreds of local people who had come to be part of the event. And one of the day’s unexpected highlights saw the launch of a local campaign at what a special guest hailed as “a new platform for the common man and woman”. For a fuller report of the day, please click here.
- April 2009 - Lichfield Launches
The launch of Lichfield’s Speakers’ Corner takes place at the chosen site on Dam Street on Saturday 2 May. Activities get under way at 10.30 am with a debate on climate change followed by five hours of events, including speeches by local people who have undergone the Garrick Theatre’s public speaking course, presentations by the Youth Forum and students from three of the city’s secondary schools and performances by local circus skills group Fusezirque! The opening itself takes place at 12.30pm.
- March 2009 - Lichfield’s Garrick Workshop Seeks Budding Orators!
As Lichfield prepares for the launch of its Speakers’ Corner on 2 May, the Garrick Theatre is organising a series of workshops designed to coach members of the public in the techniques of speaking in public. The Garrick’s initiative builds on the success of an initiative in September 2008 which brought together students from the Friary School, members of the University of the Third Age and members of the public who responded to an invitation in the local press. The Garrick’s new programme will be free of charge but participants will be asked in return for their training to be among the very first to speak on a subject of their choice from the city’s new Speakers’ Corner on launch day. Places on the course of three workshops, which will take place on the afternoons of 5, 19 and 26 April, are limited so anyone in the Lichfield area who would like to take part should contact the Garrick Box Office on 01543 412121 as soon as possible.
- February 2009 - Justice Secretary Inaugurates Nottingham’s New Speakers’ Corner
Jack Straw met students from Fairham School as he inaugurated Nottingham’s new Speakers’ Corner, the first offical Speakers’ Corner to be established in the UK since the original in Hyde Park almost 150 years ago. Visiting Nottingham on 26 February, just three weeks after heavy snow led to the abandonment of the original ceremony, Mr Straw unveiled a special paving stone inscribed with a quote from the great Nottinghamshire writer DH Lawrence: “Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot”. A film of Jack Straw’s speech and pictures of the event are on the Nottingham page.
- January 2009 - Nottingham Hosts Freedom of Expression Event
The Human Rights Law Centre at Nottingham University organisied a celebration of the right to Freedom of Expression at the site of Nottingham’s new Speakers’ Corner on Saturday 31 January. The well-attended event featured a range of guest speakers including Nottingham South MP Alan Simpson, editor of Ceasefire magazine Hicham Yezza, Richard Hawthorne, secretary of the Nottingham Interfaith Council, and Nottingham Speakers’ Corner Committee member, Louise Third.
The debate was organised by Jamie Turner as part of the build-up to a major conference on Freedom of Expression and its Contemporary Challenges which the Law Centre is holding on 14 March. Photographs and a short film of the event are featured on our Nottingham page.
- December 2008 - SCT and Southbank Centre to Produce ‘Public Speaking’ Film
Based on the premis that everyone has opinions - often strong ones - and everyone has ideas - often good ones - but few have the confidence, skill or experience to express them as effectively as they’d like, SCT is to work with the Southbank Centre and film maker Sam Lawlor to produce short film designed to introduce the basic techniques required for speaking in public. Under the working title Speaking Out, the ‘masterclass’ will focus on ordering ideas and finding a voice, building confidence and physical presence, speaking effectively with vocal flexibility, listening and questioning and engaging and interacting with an audience. It’s hoped that work will be completed in the first half of 2009 for download from both organisations’ websites.
- October 2008 - Lichfield Project Announced
Following the success of its pilot in a major industrial city, SCT has been keen to test its model in a smaller town with a rural hinterland. In July, on the advice of the National Association of Local Councils and with the support of Lichfield City Council, SCT launched a major consultation in the historic cathedral city of Lichfield - home of, among many other notables, Samuel Johnson, Erasmus Darwin and David Garrick. The response to SCT’s consultation with civic and community leaders has been universally positive and a Lichfield Speakers’ Corner Committee is to be set up later this month to plan the project’s development.
- October 2008 - Film of the Launch of the Nottingham Pilot
A short film shot at the launch of Nottingham’s Speakers’ Corner is now available on the Interactive page of this website.
- October 2008 - Nottingham Speakers’ Corner’s First Major Debate
Nottingham Speakers’ Corner Committee has brought together an impressive range of experts, including a Home Office Minister, the Deputy Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire, a judge and young people from around the city, to lead a high profile public debate on crime. The event, How is Nottingham Tackling its Crime Problem?, took place on 29 September at a packed Galleries of Justice in the city centre. For further details of a highly constructive two-hour debate and a link to the BBC’s recording of proceedings, please visit our Nottingham page.
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September 2008 - A Speakers’ Corner for Nigeria?
SCT is now preparing for what could become the first project in its international programme. Following discussions with the Nigerian High Commissioner in London and the British High Commission in Abuja, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office has agreed to fund a scoping exercise which will feature consultation both in the UK and with potential partners and supporters in Nigeria. If all goes well, FCO funding will be sought to enable SCT to undertake the substantive project next year.
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August 2008 - SCT’s Partnership with Central St Martins College
SCT has formed a new partnership with Central St Martins College of Art & Design, part of the University of the Arts in London. Post graduate students will, over a ten week period starting in October, research and write papers, including a guidance note, on issues to be considered in designing successful public spaces and, in particular, Speakers’ Corners. The material will be available to SCT for use on its website and through other media.
Between January and April/May, post graduate students will work on designs, first on a series of ‘generic’ Speakers’ Corners and then on location-specific designs (which will focus on neighbourhoods in which SCT is promoting projects) and designs for a mobile Speakers’ Corner which can be taken out to, for example, housing estates or places of work.
The project, which will involve work with school students, is being funded from the University of the Arts’ Widening Participation programme which aims to increase the proportion of young people from low income backgrounds entering arts higher education and the creative and cultural industries.
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April 2008 - SCT’s National Launch
Following the successful launch of Speakers’ Corner Trust’s pilot project in Nottingham in February, SCT was itself launched as a national charity on 22 April at a reception generously hosted by Clifford Chance at its headquarters offices in Canary Wharf.
Guest of honour Jack Straw, Secretary of State for Justice and chair of SCT’s Advisory Council, told 100 guests from the public, private and voluntary sectors:
“A hundred and fifty years ago, open air 
meetings in towns and cities were at the heart of the hurly-burly of political life on everything from corn prices to electoral reform. At a time when politicians and institutions are seen as remote and out of touch, the Speakers’ Corner initiative is an important attempt to revitalise this tradition and encourage local communities to take part in political debate and have their say.
“In the UK we sometimes forget how lucky we are to have free speech and what an important part it plays in our modern day life. The Speakers’ Corner project is a celebration of that freedom and a vital tool in the drive to combat political disengagement at home and abroad.”
For news of SCT’s Nottingham pilot project, please click here.
And to see Eddie Izzard’s message to Nottingham or his interview with Jon Sopel on BBC1’s Politics Show (Sunday 17 February) in which he speaks of his support for the Speakers’ Corner initiative, please click here.
Our Aims
Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park was sanctioned by Parliament in 1872 but grew out of the campaign for civil liberties and the widening of the franchise.
The Speakers’ Corner project aims to promote freedom of speech, public debate and active citizenship as a means of revitalising civil society in the UK and supporting its development in emerging democracies.
It will do so by forming local partnerships to develop initiatives which could include the designation of public spaces in town and city centres as new Speakers’ Corners, and in all circumstances will feature organised schedules of public events supported by educational programmes in schools, colleges and the community.
The project is being developed by Speakers’ Corner Trust (SCT), a charity established in 2007 by Peter Bradley, the former MP for The Wrekin, and Euan Edworthy, whose work led to the inauguration in Prague in 2004 of the first Speakers’ Corner on mainland Europe.
A Brief History of London’s Speakers’ Corner
Nearly 3,000 years ago, Homer wrote in The Iliad that “to speak his thoughts is every freeman’s right.” But it is only in recent times that that right has been articulated in the declarations and conventions of the United Nations and European Union and in the statutes of modern states.
While Britain’s constitution remains famously unwritten (and it was only in 1998 that Parliament formally adopted its own Human Rights Act), this country has had a tradition of respect for freedom of speech and the right of assembly which has not only shaped its own democracy but has also inspired and continues to influence the development of others.
One of the most powerful symbols of that tradition is to be found on a parcel of land which lies roughly between the site of the old Tyburn gallows and the Reform Tree in London’s Hyde Park. There for over a century men and women, some famous (including Karl Marx, William Morris, Vladimir Lenin, George Orwell, Marcus Garvey and Lord Soper) but most not, have dissented and denounced, canvassed and converted, preached and proselytised, and in so doing given expression to the fundamental rights of citizens to gather together to hear and be heard.
Speakers’ Corner was itself born out the struggle for civil liberties in Victorian Britain and its establishment was a significant milestone in the development of our democratic institutions.
It occupies a parcel of land where, in the mid-nineteenth century, the Chartists held mass protests against the suppression of the rights of working people, including the right of assembly, and the Reform League organised huge rallies to demand the widening of the franchise.
The Times, reflecting the unease of the establishment of the day, declared after one such demonstration that “it is against all reason and all justice that motley crowds from all parts of the metropolis should take possession of Hyde Park, and interfere with the enjoyments of those to whom the Park more particularly belongs”.
But, reporting on the same event, the radical Reynolds’ Newspaper of 29 July 1866 declared exultantly that despite the attempts of the police and troops to prevent them, “the people have triumphed, in so far as they have vindicated their right to meet, speak, resolve, and exhort in Hyde Park.”
In the end the Government had to bow to popular pressure. In 1872 Parliament granted the Park Authorities the right to permit public meetings and Speakers’ Corner, already heavy with history, was born. For over a century it has been a focus for protest and debate and the symbol of a free society and a mature democracy.
Other Speakers’ Corners in the UK
We know from our work there that Nottingham had an informal Speakers’ Corner in its main Market Square at least until the early 1970s.
Liverpool also had its own Speakers’ Corner on the Pier Head. It 
was commissioned by the Transport & General Workers Union and designed in 1973 by the architect Jim Hunter and the sculptor Arthur Dooley. It won a RIBA design award in 1975 but disappeared when the City Council redeveloped the Pier Head in the 1990s.
And not far away, in the Wirrall, Merseyside boasts another Speakers’ Corner on the Egremont Ferry Quay in Wallasey (photographs courtesy of, below left, allertonOak and, below right, www.mcnulty.co.uk).
A block of granite marks the space and, alongside the Wallasey coat of arms, bears the inscription County Borough of Wallasey Speakers’ Corner. This area is set apart as a place for the delivery of public speeches.
It is thought that the granite was excavated during the construction of the Kingsway
Tunnel under the Mersey between 1966 and 1971. As Wallasey lost its county borough status in the local government reorganisation of 1974, this suggests that the Speakers’ Corner was established some time in the preceding eight years. But why and by whom and who spoke there?
More recently, in February 2005, Peter Rabbich, a former Torbay Councillor, inspired the creation of a Speakers’ Corner in Torquay.
Does anyone know what became of the Speakers’ Corner on the Pier Head or have any further information about the one in Wallasey? Is the one in Torquay in regular use?
And does anyone have knowledge or memories of other Speakers’ Corners in the UK or overseas? If so, we would love to hear about them.
Please get in touch with SCT’s director Peter Bradley at peterbradley@speakerscornertrust.org.
Free Speech and Democracy
The Athenian statesman Pericles in the agora
The exchange and development of ideas among citizens has been at the heart of vigorous civil life from the time of the first classical experiments in democracy. The agora of ancient Athens and the Roman forum were market places not just for goods but also for the public debate which provided the focus for civil society then and have influenced western culture ever since.
Click image to expand
From the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, long before the introduction of either the universal franchise or electronic communications, those who could read devoured and debated the thousands of political, philosophical, scientific and religious tracts which rolled off the presses each year. In late eighteenth century France, as the ancien régime neared its end, 10,000 pamphlets a year were being printed for or against the monarchy or the revolution.
Estimates of the 1776 print run of Common Sense, Tom Paine’s argument for American independence from the British crown, vary from 150,000 to 600,000. Even the lower figure is astonishing given prevailing literacy rates.
Both traditions acknowledged not just the potency of ideas but also the role of citizens in making them a decisive influence on public policy.
Now freedom of expression is enshrined in the declarations of the world’s great assemblies. It is the right of those who live in democratic societies and the aspiration of those who do not.
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Timeline: A History of Free Speech 399BC Socrates speaks to jury at his trial: ‘If you offered to let me off this time on condition I am not any longer to speak my mind… I should say to you, “Men of Athens, I shall obey the Gods rather than you.”‘ 1215 Magna Carta, wrung from the unwilling King John by his rebellious barons, is signed. It will later be regarded as the cornerstone of liberty in England. 1516 The Education of a Christian Prince by Erasmus. ‘In a free state, tongues too should be free.’ 1633 Galileo Galilei hauled before the Inquisition after claiming the sun does not revolve around the earth. 1644 ‘Areopagitica’, a pamphlet by the poet John Milton, argues against restrictions of freedom of the press. ‘He who destroys a good book, kills reason itself.’ 1689 Bill of Rights grants ‘freedom of speech in Parliament’ after James II is overthrown and William and Mary installed as co-rulers. 1770 Voltaire writes in a letter: ‘Monsieur l’abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.’ 1789 ‘The Declaration of the Rights of Man’, a fundamental document of the French Revolution, provides for freedom of speech. 1791 The First Amendment of the US Constitution, as enshrined in the Bill of Rights, guarantees five freedoms: of religion, speech, the press, the right to assemble and the right to petition the government for the redress of grievances. 1859 ‘On Liberty’, an essay by the philosopher John Stuart Mill, argues for toleration and individuality. ‘If any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility.’ 1859 On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin, expounds the theory of natural selection. TH Huxley publicly defends Darwin against religious fundamentalists. 1929 Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, of the US Supreme Court, outlines his belief in free speech: ‘The principle of free thought is not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought we hate.’ 1948 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is adopted virtually unanimously by the UN General Assembly. It urges member nations to promote human, civil, economic and social rights, including freedom of expression and religion. 1958 Two Concepts of Liberty, by Isaiah Berlin, identifies negative liberty as an absence or lack of impediments, obstacles or coercion, as distinct from positive liberty (self-mastery and the presence of conditions for freedom). 1960 After a trial at Old Bailey, Penguin wins the right to publish D H Lawrence’s sexually explicit novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. 1962 One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn describes life in a labour camp during Stalin’s era. Solzhenitsyn is exiled in 1974. 1989 Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa against Salman Rushdie over the ‘blasphemous’ content of his novel, The Satanic Verses. The fatwa is lifted in 1998. 1992 In Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky points out: ‘Goebbels was in favour of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re in favour of free speech, then you’re in favour of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise.’ 2001 In the wake of 9/11, the Patriot Act gives the US government new powers to investigate individuals suspected of being a threat, raising fears for civil liberties. 2002 Nigerian journalist Isioma Daniel incenses Muslims by writing about the Prophet Mohammed and Miss World, provoking riots which leave more than 200 dead. 2004 Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh is killed after release of his movie about violence against women in Islamic societies. 2005 The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act bans protest without permit within 1km of the British Parliament. This timeline was compiled by David Smith and Luc Torres and originally appeared in
The Observer of 5 February 2005.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited
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Speaking of Free Speech
“Wherever the relevance of speech is at stake, matters become political by definition, for speech is what makes man a political being.”
Hannah Arendt, 1906-1975, German political philosopher
“Free speech is to a great people what winds are to oceans and malarial regions, which waft away the elements of disease and bring new elements of health; and where free speech is stopped, miasma is bred, and death comes fast.”
Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887, American preacher
“A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything.”
Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821, French Emperor
“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, 1833-1891, British social reformer
“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don\’t believe in it at all.”
Noam Chomsky, 1928 - , American linguist and political activist
“Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one\’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason… Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.”
Frederick Douglass, 1817-1895, American author and abolitionist
“Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1832, American writer
“We are willing enough to praise freedom when she is safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance. In the present, amidst dangers whose outcome we cannot foresee, we get nervous about her, and admit censorship.”
EM Forster, 1879-1970, British novelist
“The primacy of the word, basis of the human psyche, that has in our age been used for mind-bending persuasion and brain-washing pulp, disgraced by Goebbels and debased by advertising copy, remains a force for freedom that flies out between all bars.”
Nadine Gordimer, 1923 - , South African novelist
“The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may think what we like and say what we think.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-1894, American physician and writer
“To speak his thoughts is every freeman’s right, in peace and war, in council and in fight.”
Homer, pre 700BC, father of Greek literature
“Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent and debate.”
Hubert Humphrey, 1911-1978, US Senator and Presidential candidate
“Freedom and order are not incompatible…truth is strength…free discussion is the very life of truth.”
Thomas Henry Huxley, 1825-1895, British biologist
“Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the souls of our democracy.”
Jesse Jackson, 1941 - , American civil rights campaigner and preacher
“Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it.”
Samuel Johnson, 1709-1794, British essayist
“It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.”
Joseph Joubert, 1754-1824, French essayist
“Having a good discussion is like having riches.”
Kenyan proverb
“People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.”
Soren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855, Danish philosopher
“Free speech is a bourgeois prejudice.”
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, 1870-1924, Russian revolutionary leader
“Freedom to speak… can be maintained only by promoting debate.”
Walter Lippmann, 1889-1974, American journalist
“Freedom of expression must be considered sacred and thought can only be corrected by counter thought.”
Naguib Mahfouz, 1911 - , Egyptian writer
“In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny.”
John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873, British philosopher
“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
John Milton, 1606-1664, British poet
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
George Orwell, 1903-1950, British writer
“Speech is external thought, and thought internal speech.”
Antoine Rivarol, 1753-1801, French journalist
“I believe in active citizenship, for men and women equally, as a simple matter of right and justice. I believe we will have better government in all of our countries when men and women discuss public issues together and make their decisions on the basis of their different areas of experience and their common concern for the welfare of their families and their world.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962, chair of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights drafting committee
“In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression–everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way–everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want…everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear…anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.”
Franklin D Roosevelt, 1882-1945, US President
“Literature is the immortality of speech.”
August von Schlegel, 1767-1845, German poet and critic
“The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.”
Adlai E. Stevenson, 1906-1965, American lawyer and politician
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Francois Voltaire, 1694-1778, French philosopher and writer
“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
George Washington, 1732-1799, first US President
“I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.”
Woodrow Wilson, 1856-1924, US President
Universal Declaration of Human Rightsadopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, 10 December 1948 |
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Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Article 20: (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association. |
European Convention on Human Rightsincorporated in the UK Human Rights Act 1998 |
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US Bill of Rights 1791First Amendment to the Constitution |
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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. |
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 1789 |
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| Article 10: No-one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, providing their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law. | |
| Article 11: The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may accordingly speak, write and print with freedom but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law. | |