This portal's subpages have been checked by an editor, and are needed.
Please take care when editing, especially if using automated editing software.Learn how to update the maintenance information here.
The Freedom of speech portal
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognised as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law by the United Nations. Many countries have constitutional law that protects free speech. Terms like free speech, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression are used interchangeably in political discourse. However, in a legal sense, the freedom of expression includes any activity of seeking, receiving, and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used.
Article 19 of the UDHR states that "everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference" and "everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice". The version of Article 19 in the ICCPR later amends this by stating that the exercise of these rights carries "special duties and responsibilities" and may "therefore be subject to certain restrictions" when necessary "[f]or respect of the rights or reputation of others" or "[f]or the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals". (Full article...)
Selected article
Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd. was a case heard by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by Judge Robert W. Sweet. In their complaint, Universal Studios alleged that Nintendo's video gameDonkey Kong was a trademark infringement of King Kong, the plot and characters of which Universal claimed for their own. Nintendo argued that Universal had themselves proved that King Kong's plot and characters were in the public domain in Universal City Studios, Inc. v. RKO General, Inc. Sweet ruled that Universal had acted in bad faith by threatening Nintendo's licensees and that it had no right over the name King Kong or the characters and story. He further held that there was no possibility for consumers to confuse Nintendo's game and characters with the King Kong films and their characters. Universal appealed the case, but the verdict was upheld. The case was an enormous victory for Nintendo, which was still a newcomer to the U.S. market. The case established Nintendo as a major player in the industry and arguably gave the company the confidence that it could compete with the giants of American media. The case was selected as #20 on GameSpy's list of the "25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming".
General images
The following are images from various freedom of speech-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 6Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)—Article 19 states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." (from Freedom of speech)
Image 7Protesters exercise freedom of speech to hold a vigil in front of the Zimbabwean Embassy in London, 2005. (from Freedom of speech by country)
Image 19George Orwell statue at the headquarters of the BBC. A defence of free speech in an open society, the wall behind the statue is inscribed with the words "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear", words from George Orwell's proposed preface to Animal Farm (1945). (from Freedom of speech)
Image 20A map of countries which have lèse-majesté laws as of January 2023 (from Freedom of speech)
Image 26Orthodox priest Libor Halík with a group of followers. Halík has been chanting daily for over five years against abortion via megaphone in front of a maternity hospital in Brno, Moravia. (from Freedom of speech by country)
Zoia Horn (born 1918 in Odessa, Ukraine) is an American librarian who is considered to be the first librarian ever to be jailed for refusing to divulge information that violated her belief in intellectual freedom. Horn, an outspoken member of the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee, worked at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania in the early 1970s. Horn was jailed for nearly three weeks for contempt after refusing to testify for the prosecution in the 1972 conspiracy trial of the "Harrisburg Seven" anti-war activists.
3 June 1926 – Birth of Allen Ginsberg(pictured); an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s
15 June 1917 – Passage of U.S. Espionage Act of 1917; originally prohibited any attempt to interfere with military operations, to support U.S. enemies during wartime, to promote insubordination in the military, or to interfere with military recruitment
This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk·contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged(e.g. {{WikiProject Freedom of speech}})or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.
Sample 09-F9 protest art, Free Speech Flag by John Marcotte
Streisand Estate
Wikiprojects
Main parent WikiProject
WikiProject Freedom of speech
Related projects
Human rights
Internet
Journalism
Law
Media
Politics
What are WikiProjects?
Things you can do
Here are some tasks awaiting attention:
Article requests: Check article requests in Law topics
Assess: Tag article talk pages using {{WikiProject Freedom of speech}}
Cleanup: Check the Special:RecentChangesLinked/Category:Freedom of speech page for improvements, other changes, and vandalism to these articles
Collaborate: Expert help may be needed at Category:Freedom of speech articles needing expert attention.
Copyedit: Check Freedom of speech "Article Alerts" for developments in quality to Freedom of speech-related articles for interesting articles to copyedit
Expand: Expand articles in categories including: Freedom of speech and Category:Free speech activists
Featured article candidates: Review Freedom of speech-related articles submitted at Featured Article candidates, especially those at FAC urgents
Good article nominations: Check out articles under review for Good Article candidacy, in the Social sciences and society section
Stubs: Take on project for improvement of one of the Freedom of speech stubs