The Importance of freedom of speech 

Equality Tasmania calls journalist Benjamin Seeder article in the Examiner bias, putting in doubt his journalistic integrity when the opposite could not be more true. At this moment when many are afraid to raise their voices for fear of offending and reputation cancelation, he raises his.

Robust debate and the exchange of ideas no matter how different these may be is the cornerstone of a free and democratic society, contrary to what Equality Tasmania believes we should not shelter ourselves from the fray but we must engage with willingness, curiosity and understanding.

There are many examples of how speech has been limited to the detriment of society. One such example that comes to my mind is the legal precedent that nobody should be able to call out ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre.  It is questionable at best, the Schenck case this argument is based on, used the theoretical idea that if someone is yelling fire in a theater, they are endangering the public through inciting fear, thus speech must be limited for the good of society.  When this law was in place, how was it actually used?  It was used to jail anti war protestors, this decision was later struck down in 1919, never to be taken up again.  This is quite relevant today, at the moment Equality Tasmania is trying to limit what we can say on the basis that it causes harm to transgender and gender diverse people, these coments are only used to censor and alienate us from one another.

Censorship is one of the few solidly common traits of dictatorships and totalitarian societies, it fosters mistrust in eachother, governments, and brings a lack of community engagement, resulting in the erosion of civility, communities and societies.  Censorship is always on the wrong side of history.

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it” 

-Aristotle

It is possible, necessary even, to listen to the thoughts of others and be able to entertain them in our own minds for analysis to know if the correct decisions are being made.  This is not possible if speech, the way ideas are conveyed, has been banned.  

This is the moment when listening to dissenting voices becomes paramount, in order to think we must be able to speak with on another, even if the idea makes us uncomfortable, because it’s easy to agree with someone who thinks like us but if we can uphold freedom of speech when we disagree then we grow as individuals and as a society.

Dr. Elizabeth Caballero (retired GP)

Letter to the Examiner