OPINION: When it comes to free speech, our rights must be right

Everyone should have the right to say whatever they want, about whatever they want. Especially perhaps, as George Orwell famously remarked, to tell people what they do not want to hear.

These fundamental lines, defining the Western notion of free speech, stand at the heart of my professional work, advocating and giving voice to minority campaigns or marginalised companies, ensuring that their interests are broadcasted too.

This freedom of expression is not just important for every individual person or business, but it stands as the basis of a free, thinking, advancing society. Democracies, by definition, must be composed of multiple perspectives, and dissenters, and have the space for those within to disagree, debate, and clash.

Yet this right of free speech, if I may say, is only half right. There are limits, both legal and moral, that should qualify it. Both the Human Rights Act and the First Amendment make clear that incitement and hate speech are prohibited. One cannot harm others.

Furthermore, along with this right, there remains a modifying, crucial responsibility at play.

Underpinning the right of free speech is the belief that our opinions and ideas matter, that they have efficacy and influence. As such, in order to ensure our society remains stable, we must also bear this in mind, and weigh our words with care.

This, I believe, is a value that is being threatened, drowned out by the desire of all to speak and shout at will.

The implications of one’s tweets, comments, and videos must be considered. Words need to matter far more.

Today, everyone has, in their pockets and a few taps of their thumbs, a freedom of expression of monumental scale. Approximately 556 million people use “X” (formally Twitter), each given a platform to opine on any issue to that same number of users. Every person is a pundit, given a power like never before. Their right of expression has been magnified. Yet, frighteningly, their sense of responsibility lags far behind.

Celebrities, influencers, and common folk are all too quick to pump out fake news, surreptitiously paid content, or agenda-driven messages. The banner of free speech is held so high that it wobbles precariously, and may topple completely, through a lack of responsibility to it. It must stand grounded and with a firm foundation. The implications of one’s tweets, comments, and videos must be considered. Words need to matter far more.

Even more shockingly, this value – of considering the impact of what we say, of the need to create a stable, truthful society, aware of the weight of our speech – is being threatened by the irresponsibility not just of smartphone users, but of the press.

Distortion and bias twist news reports, even, ironically, perhaps driven by the self-righteous desire to remain impartial.

The BBC’s reporting of the Israel-Gaza conflict unleashed a pogrom at a Dagestan airport, caused His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan to cancel a peace summit with President Biden, and helped fan the flames of increasing antisemitism in the UK. The outlet uses Hamas Press Release without qualms and cites their statistics without qualification. The BBC has been irresponsible.

In this environment, of wilful, politicised speech, where each individual’s expressions, whatever the consequences, is almost sacred, one may think that my profession of PR and public affairs can benefit well, clamouring loudly in the public space for our clients.

However, this lack of responsibility is in fact harmful. Advocating for our clients is ultimately about speaking the truth, about understanding the inner details of the businesses and campaign groups that so desperately want to be heard, and translating their messages into a language the wider public or the Government will understand.

Before we meet with journalists or ministers, each word is weighed, every statement and briefing paper painstakingly edited and updated to ensure the veracity and significance of its argument. What we do falls under the rubric of our responsibility to the power of speech, not just our right to speak.

We can and should all open our mouths, that is our right, but let us do so with the right caution and care