FREE SPEECH & WHY IT MATTERS PB

Free speech is the bedrock of all our liberties, and yet in recent years it has come to be mistrusted. A new form of social justice activism, which perceives language as potentially violent, has prompted a national debate on where the limitations of acceptable speech should be drawn. Governments throughout Europe have enacted 'hate speech' legislation to curb the dissemination of objectionable ideas, Silicon Valley tech giants are collaborating to ensure that they control the limitations of public discourse, and campaigners in the US are calling for revisions to the First Amendment.

However well-intentioned, these trends represent a threat to the freedoms that our ancestors fought and died to secure. In this incisive and fascinating book, Andrew Doyle addresses head-on the most common concerns of free speech sceptics, and offers a timely and robust defence of this most foundational of principles.

Stephen McQuoid's review (16/03/2022): 'Free Speech and why it Matters by Andrew Doyle; a book that was not written from a faith perspective, but is very important and relevant for Christians today. The author is a broadcaster, satirist and academic who has campaigned for the issue of free speech for years and does so now through the medium of GB News. In this brief book Doyle begins by noting that censorship used to be the preserve of the political right, but that has changed and today left leaning activists, including many who work for big tech firms, are currently highly influential in the silencing of apparently unacceptable viewpoints. He continues with a discussion on different forms of constraints on free speech before delving into the murky world of cancel culture and offense or hate speech. His overall point is to emphasize the importance of free speech and the dangers of restraining it.

Doyle points out that state censorship is rarely a force for good and that those who would sensor us cannot claim objectivity and usually use their censorial powers to control and socially engineer. This is a very important little book because, if free speech is undermined, it may have a significant impact on the proclamation of the gospel or the preaching of biblical truth. We are in danger, in this woke age, of eradicating freedom of thought, speech and conscience and bowing to the dictates of government overreach. Reading this book is a good way of engaging with the issue.'

Publisher: Constable (10 Feb. 2022)
Language: English
Paperback: 144 pages