Freedom of expression must include the license to offend. Debate

Your Playlist:

Description

As valued as it is, the principle of free speech through which everyone can have their say is an especially slippery slope as populations grow more pluralistic and the desire to get along creates pressure to curtail any expression that may potentially insult some portion of the people. Must freedom of expression include the license to offend? That is the question in this Oxford Union-style debate as panelists make their case. Speakers for the motion bring up the pernicious effects of censorship, the suppression of healthy debate, and repressiveness that can lead to authoritarianism, while those against speak of freedom of speech as a means to an end rooted in a particular place and time rather than as an ideal and stress the value to society of outlawing expression such as child pornography. Questions from the floor follow. The final vote? Significantly for. BBC One O'Clock News presenter Anna Ford presides.