People with power don’t want freedom of speech because they are already at the top
KARACHI: Freedom of the press is very important. It allows us to write freely about anything we want in the media. Journalists help in informing many different views/things that are happening across the world. Some label journalism as biased and political.
People might not like that others uncover stories about their misdoings, but they shouldn’t have a say in the matter, because someday they’ll need freedom of speech as a right for themselves. People with power don’t want freedom of speech because they are already at the top, mostly through illegitimate means and any form of freedom will come as a threat to their power.
The case of a debate on polarised lines are drawn and there is no room for critique and challenging discourse. If you disagree with the substance of others’ arguments, please engage with them on the issues that they bring up. But you cannot question the validity of someone’s fundamental rights based on their opinion. Each of us has a right to speak freely. But these freedoms do not exist in a vacuum as Eleanor Roosevelt said, “With freedom comes responsibility”. This responsibility is not realised by many and they use freedom of speech for their own malicious intents. We need to learn to respect each other first. Living in a community requires us to think about when our rights are paramount and should supersede the community’s, and when the community is paramount. Experience teaches us to use speech responsibly and thoughtfully, while being mindful that everyone will not agree with us. Just as freedom is not free, free speech is not free of cost and without consequence.
Abira Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, January 1st, 2020.
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