Comment by shkkmo
1 year ago
The freeness of speech is a continuum. In some countries you can't say anything critical of the ruling party, even if it's true. In other countries you can say untrue and critical things as long as you don't know they are untrue. The standards and penalties for defamation and libel are an important part of the freeness of speech.
Countries have different standards for what qualifies as obscenity and what the consequences are.
Countries have different standards for what types of hate speech are allowed.
Freedom of Speech isn't a binary value.
> In other countries you can say untrue and critical things as long as you don't know they are untrue.
In case it's not clear, in democracies a private citizen can knowingly say false things about public figures, especially political figures. A private citizen can sue you if you damage their reputation. Journalists can't usually knowingly publish falsehoods as news, but can as opinion. (Generally speaking; each country has its own implementations, of course.)
> democracies a private citizen can knowingly say false things about public figure
That is not true.
> Journalists can't usually knowingly publish falsehoods as news, but can as opinion
Also not true.
In the USA, journalists and private individuals have the same free speech rights and there no legal distinction between "opinion" and "news", it just matters if a reasonable person would see a statement of fact.
>> democracies a private citizen can knowingly say false things about public figure
> That is not true.
President Biden kicks puppies and secretly owns $2B in BTC, and the SEC manipulates the price for him. Can Biden sue me? Can I be arrested?
The Constitution provides special protection for the press, as do many other laws, precedents, etc. What are your claims based on?
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