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Chris Berg OErs a Bold Reinterpretation of Why Freedom of Speech Matters

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PRINT - COVER - Freedom of Speech.pdf 23/04/2012 3:01:46 PM IN DEFENCE of freedom speech MONOGRAPHS ON WESTERN CIVILISATION SPECIAL IN DEFENCE of freedom of speech IN DEFENCE from ancient greece to andrew bolt Freedom of speech is at the heart of individual liberty and democracy. Yet it is under attack on all sides: from regulations to force ëbalanceí on the press, to new human rights like the right not to be oended. OF FREEDOM In this important new book, Chris Berg oers a bold reinterpretation of why freedom of speech matters. As he argues, the liberty to express our thoughts and opinions is one of the central foundations of Western Civilisation. When governments threaten that freedom of speech, they C threaten the foundations of liberty and the democratic system. M Y OFSPEECH CM from ancient greece to andrew bolt MY CY e essential features of our free societyócivil society, liberal democracy, CMY Chris Berg the rule of law, individual rights, and personal responsibilityóare the K inheritance of centuries of Western Civilisation. e Foundations of Western Civilisation Program seeks to defend and extend Australiansí chris berg understanding of that inheritance. e Foundations of Western Civilisation Program is a joint program of the Institute of Public Aairs and Mannkal Economic Education Foundation. Institute of Public Aairs Free people, free society www.ipa.org.au IPA/ Ma nn W W W. M A NNKA L . GRO kal IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH Freedom of Speech - From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt.indd 3 3/08/2012 12:40:47 PM Freedom of Speech - From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt.indd 4 3/08/2012 12:40:47 PM IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt Chris Berg Monographs on Western Civilisation Special http://westerncivilisation.ipa.org.au/ Institute of Public Aairs Mannkal Economic Education Foundation Freedom of Speech - From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt.indd 5 3/08/2012 12:40:47 PM Copyright © 2012 Institute of Public Affairs and Mannkal Economic Education Foundation All rights reserved First published 2012 Institute of Public Affairs Level 2, 410 Collins St Melbourne, Victoria 3000 Phone: 03 9600 4744 Email: [email protected] Website: www.ipa.org.au Mannkal Economic Education Foundation Hayek on Hood 3/31 Hood Street Subiaco, Western Australia 6008 Phone: (08) 9382 1288 Email: [email protected] Website: www.mannkal.org ISBN: 978-0-909536-74-9 Printed in Australia by Ligare Freedom of Speech - From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt.indd 6 3/08/2012 12:40:47 PM Today, to restrain the freedom of the press is to restrain the human race’s intellectual freedom … Printing has been made the sole means of publicising things, the only mode of communication between nations as much as between individuals, by the nature and extent of our modern societies and by the abolition of all the popular and disorderly ways of doing this. e question of press freedom is therefore the general one about the development of the human mind. — Benjamin Constant, 1815 Freedom of Speech - From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt.indd 1 3/08/2012 12:40:47 PM Freedom of Speech - From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt.indd 2 3/08/2012 12:40:47 PM Contents Foreword iv About the author vii Introduction 1 1 The Ancient World 7 2 Christianity and Freedom of Conscience 23 3 The Birth of Liberalism 53 4 The Radical Enlightenment 85 5 Two Revolutions 111 6 The Utilitarian Turn 135 7 Threats to Freedom of Speech 159 Individual Liberty and Freedom of Speech 219 Bibliography 223 iii Freedom of Speech - From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt.indd 3 3/08/2012 12:40:47 PM Foreword Freedom of speech is one of our most fundamental rights. But, as Chris Berg’s important new book explains, few of us really understand why. Freedom of speech is also a great legacy of Western Civilisation. It took centuries to develop and evolve, and it should not be discard- ed lightly. Unfortunately like many of the endowments of Western Civilisation enjoyed by modern society, it is critically underappreciated. at’s why the Institute of Public Affairs and the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation have come together to form the Foundations of Western Civilisation program. is book is the latest piece of research from the program, which seeks to fill the role sadly neglected by our schools and universities: transmitting to the next generation the funda- mental features that make our civilisation special. Recent events in Australia demonstrate how freedom of speech is un- der threat. Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt was hounded through the courts for the crime of writing an article that offended people. Broadcaster Alan Jones was investigated by a government agency because he said that public servants ‘preyed on productive people’. en he was investigated by that same agency for interviewing too many climate sceptics. e federal government announced a major inquiry headed up by former judge Ray Finkelstein into the media because they felt that the coverage they received iv Freedom of Speech - From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt.indd 4 3/08/2012 12:40:47 PM FOREWORD in some newspapers was too hostile. Finkelstein recommended a mas- sive attack on press freedom and freedom of speech. He proposed a leg- islatively-empowered, taxpayer-funded super-media regulator that would have compulsory membership—even for newspapers. It’s tantamount to a return to press licensing, which as this book explains, was abandoned in England in 1695. at’s why now is the right time to properly investigate the history of freedom of speech, and to understand where the arguments for and against it really come from. As Chris Berg’s book argues, freedom of speech defines the relation- ship between government and individual. Freedom of speech and freedom of thought are two sides of the same liberty. If a state thinks that it should control the very thoughts of its citizens it is, by definition, not a liberal state. reats to freedom of speech—like the Finkelstein inquiry, the Bolt case, or the Alan Jones investigations—are not trivial. ey go to the very heart of individual liberty. Ranging across Greek, Roman, Dutch and English history, In Defence of Freedom of Speech is the first serious attempt at tracing the development of the philosophy of free speech. Censorship, defamation, hate speech and sedition are all covered in depth in this book, which explores the boundaries that have been commonly placed on speech. is is the definitive history and defence of freedom of speech in Australia. John Roskam Executive Director Institute of Public Affairs April 2012 v Freedom of Speech - From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt.indd 5 3/08/2012 12:40:47 PM Freedom of Speech - From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt.indd 6 3/08/2012 12:40:47 PM About the author Chris Berg is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs. He is a regular columnist with the Sunday Age and ABC’s e Drum, covering cultural, political and economic issues. He is an award-winning former editor of the IPA Review. His Growth of Australia’s Regulatory State: Ideology, Accountability and the Mega-Regulators was published in 2008. He is also the editor of 100 Great Books of Liberty: e Essential Introduction to the Greatest Idea of Western Civilisation (with John Roskam) published by Connor Court Publishing in 2010, and e National Curriculum: A Critique (2011). I would like to thank Richard Allsop, Charles Richardson, Darren Ferrari, and John Roskam for their valuable feedback on the manuscript. Errors remain my own. vii Freedom of Speech - From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt.indd 7 3/08/2012 12:40:47 PM Freedom of Speech - From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt.indd 8 3/08/2012 12:40:47 PM Introduction On 29 December 1819, the young Earl of Ellenborough addressed the House of Lords in defence of the Tory government’s Newspaper Stamp Duties Bill. e Bill substantially increased the taxes on cheap news- papers and pamphlets. It was a controversial measure, in no small part because it was transparently directed at the government’s radical critics in the press. Ellenborough had taken his seat just a year earlier and he sought to calm his fellow peers. e Bill was not directed against the ‘respectable press’, Ellenborough told the House. It was targeted at the ‘pauper press’—cheap publications that were ‘administering to the prejudices and passions of a mob’. ese newspapers and pamphlets ‘only sent forth a continual stream of false- hood and malignity’. So, he proclaimed, ‘in the best interests of the country’ his government must extinguish the ‘gross and flagrant abuse of the press’.1 Against Whig protest, the Bill passed. Two hundred years later, the report of Australia’s Independent Inquiry into Media and Media Regulation in 2012 struck remarkably similar notes. is report, commissioned by the Gillard government and written by the former judge Ray Finkelstein, claimed that freedom of the press—and freedom of speech in general—has resulted in ‘inequality, abuse of power, intellectual squalor, avid interest in scandal, an insatia- 1 Freedom of Speech - From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt.indd 1 3/08/2012 12:40:47 PM IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH ble appetite for entertainment and other debasements and distortions’. Finkelstein’s proposed solution was a regulatory agency that would en- force ‘standards’ on newspapers, magazines and virtually all Australian news or opinion websites.2 Ellenborough was frustrated by the disruptive, anti-authoritarian journalism of radicals like William Cobbett.
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