Question 5:
What is meant by freedom of expression? What in your view would be a reasonable restriction on this freedom? Give examples.
Answers
ANSWER :
Freedom of expression is very essential for the development of the personality of the individual. Without this right ,there cannot be free discussion and honest exchange of opinion. Freedom of expression refers to communication, dissemination and propagation of ideas and opinions freely expressed by the word of mouth, writing, printing,etc. It includes freedom of press, movies, radio and television. Mill had absolutely no doubt regarding the absolute Liberty of thought and discussion. Thus freedom is a fundamental liberty of the individual and even the best government has no right to suppress any single individual for his opinion. Indian Constitution allows freedom of speech and expression.
But there is a need of reasonable restriction on the freedom of expression. In our opinion following are reasonable restrictions on the freedom of expression :
1.Sovereignty and integrity of the state.
2.Security of the state and friendly relations with other states.
3. Public Interest.
4. Public order, decency or morality or incitement to offence.
5. Contempt of court.
6. Defamation of any citizen.
HOPE THIS ANSWER WILL HELP YOU…
One of the issues that is considered to belong to the minimum area of non–interference is the freedom of expression.
(i)Freedom of expression is a fundamental value and for that society must be willing to bear some inconvenience to protect it from people who want to restrict it.
(ii)Reasonable restrictions on freedom of expression : Freedom of expression is a fundemental value and for that society must be willing to bear some inconvenience to protect it from the people who want to restrict it.
(iii)At various times there have been demands to ban books, plays, films, or academic articles in research journals.
(iv)Let us think about this demand to ban books in the light of our discussion so far which sees freedom as ‘The making of choices,” Where is a distinction made between negative and positive liberty, where we recognise the need for justifiable constraints but there have to be supported by people procedures and important moral arguments.