Freedom of Speech Research

However, it has been hard for most nations to assure them without waiver due to numerous factors that come into play interfering with how these rights and freedoms are enjoyed by the citizens. In most cases, the ruling regime if autocratic tries to curtail these rights since they are mostly the tools used to fight against an oppressive leadership. In particular, the freedom of speech and expression has been the one under attack in many nations where activist are barred from speaking in public or with other people. This is done in a move to stop them from reaching the people who could take up the fight to bring down a bad government (Barendt, 2005). Nevertheless, freedom of speech and the other basic right and freedoms have been upheld in most countries and are enshrined in constitutions to ensure it is difficult for any government to interfere with them without having a good legal backing.

Federalism and Freedom of Speech Federalism refers to a system of ruling where a single nation is ruled by several governments. The US is an example of a country where several governments lead in the same nation. These are the many states governments and the central government. All these government have different jurisdictions but are all answerable to the central government currently headed by President Donald Trump (Elazar, 1972). The constitution of the United States gives both the states and the central governments but in both cases, freedom of speech and expression is well enshrined and protected by the constitution through the First Amendment. One of these is on democracy. In the U. S, having the freedom to free speech is considered a basic right by all the citizens and therefore, it is considered as an important ingredient to the enhancement of healthy democracy (Editor, 2015).

It is no brainer that having the freedom to stand up and speak out one’s mind, democracy is realized in a country. This explains why in aristocratic regimes, free speech is one of the first rights that are curtailed. S citizens’ basic constitutional right. Others have questioned the existence of freedom of speech in the country. Whenever a citizen sends a threat to the elected leader cautioning him or her on issues such as corruption and poor distribution of resources an arrest usually follows. Such individuals are tried in courts and jailed or fined for exercising their freedom of speech. A good example is the recent case of Jewish and Muslim leaders among other people from different nationalities but with US citizenship who was arrested outside Paul Ryan’s House Speaker’s office (Sampathkumar, 2018).

They also offer equal rights to protection from any type of threat including torture, segregation, and others. Good examples of civil right include the rights to elect a leader on one's choice without being forced, right to free and fair trial, right to services from the government of the day among others. Civil rights and freedom of speech go hand in hand. Civil rights activist reached the milestones they achieved only by having a freedom to free speech as enshrined in the constitution and protected by the First Amendment. Without the freedom of speech and expression, it would have been very hard of them to express the grievances and to call for equality of all people. These individuals also addressed civil rights violations and lack of proper and equal distribution of states’ resources amongst all the citizens.

This means that some areas, especially those predominantly occupied by whites, were favored at the expense of other places where the rest of the races were living. In today’s US, some of these struggles are still on like racism and racial segregation and the civil rights activist of the modern day still banks on the freedom of speech to express and pass their grievances to the authorities (Hudson, 2002). On the negative aspects, civil rights create an adverse effect on the freedom of speech through a number of ways. One is through the extremists who have over the years expressed their distaste on issues that they feel infringes with their civil rights. This has also been the case all over the world when it comes to the issue of terrorism.

Terrorists have explored the freedom of speech to spread their beliefs and by so doing spread terrorism and radicalization. The advent of the internet on which social media such as Facebook and the rest are based upon makes this issue very serious since they enhance free speech and promotes the speed at which information is spread from one corner of the globe to the other. These terrorist groups claim there are fighting for their civil rights (Kaplan, 2016). Civil Liberties and Freedom of Speech Civil liberty relates to the state of one being only under the laws put in place for the good course of the community. For instance, there are videos on the internet showing women, for example, being undressed in some nations in the world for wearing certain clothes.

The gay community has been able to come out openly and express their desires without fear of being jailed or being victimized by the society due to the civil liberties that exist in the US (Isham, Daniel, and Lant, 1997). Civil liberties impacts freedom of speech positively in that free speech and expression marks an essential civil liberty that the US citizens have been given by the constitution. This, in turn, impacts their social environment positively. Freedom of speech makes it possible for an individual to have a sort of protection when it comes to speaking out their minds without risking that you will attract a fine since some people did not like what a particular individual said. Conclusion Freedom of speech is perhaps one of the most important basic rights that the American enjoys, which comes as a privilege since not every person in the world has the same opportunity.

Freedom of Speech and Expression has been under attack in many nations where activist are barred from speaking in public or with others. This is done in a move to stop them from reaching the people who could take up the fight to bring down a bad government. The relationship between federalism, civil rights, civil liberties and freedom of speech paints a good picture of the status of this essential right in the world. The First Amendment offered protection of freedom of speech on the US constitution, the numerous states’ constitutions and from the federal laws. E. "Scope of the First Amendment freedom of speech. " Ucla L. Rev. Barendt, E. Elazar, Daniel Judah. (1972) American federalism: A view from the states. Crowell, 1972.