{"id":30841,"date":"2023-03-21T09:14:07","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T13:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=30841"},"modified":"2023-03-21T09:14:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T13:14:35","slug":"a-warning-to-americans-from-across-the-pond-dont-take-your-free-speech-rights-for-granted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2023\/03\/21\/a-warning-to-americans-from-across-the-pond-dont-take-your-free-speech-rights-for-granted\/","title":{"rendered":"A Warning to Americans From Across the Pond: Don\u2019t Take Your Free Speech Rights for Granted"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For the past decade, freedom of speech has been at the forefront of America’s culture war, and it should not be controversial to say that both sides are at least partly to blame for this.<\/p>\n

Many on the left have exploited their expanding cultural hegemony to suppress dissenting speech in universities, religious institutions, and the creative industries, while some on the right have attempted to suppress \u201cobscenity,\u201d punish the speech of their ideological enemies, and micromanage classroom instruction.<\/p>\n

To those on all sides who think of America\u2019s proud free speech tradition as a political football, I have a simple message: heed Britain\u2019s example.<\/p>\n

Last month, a woman was arrested in the UK for refusing to cooperate with a Police investigation into her activities near an abortion clinic. What stimulated this investigation? Was she blocking access to the clinic? Harassing women seeking an abortion? No, she was silently praying.<\/p>\n

The arrest of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce<\/a> <\/span>is just the latest in a tapestry of alarming censorship exhibits. Since the passage of the Communications Act in 2003, it has become the norm to see reports of people being <\/a>jailed for \u2018offensive\u2019 private text messages<\/a>; during the mourning period for Queen Elizabeth, several peaceful anti-monarchy protesters were <\/a>detained or arrested<\/a>; and in a <\/a>recent statement<\/a>, the Crown Prosecution Service argued sections of The Bible \u201care simply no longer appropriate in modern society and \u2026 would be deemed offensive if stated in public.\u201d<\/p>\n