Salman Rushdie once wrote; “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.” And misattributed to Voltaire, Hall also said in ‘The Friends of Voltaire’; “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
The above statements roughly summarise the position of Freedom of Speech in many jurisdictions including Ghana and more importantly, they capture the fact that, the true essence of Free Speech is the right to be offensive.
Of course, but for the right to be offensive, there wouldn’t be any pressing constitutional need to have Freedom of Expression safeguarded. No one is going to be upset or punch your face for merely saying what the person deems pleasant, but because the law wants us to be able to somewhat hurt the feelings of others with our words, Free Speech has a robust constitutional backing.
Ghana has been plunged into a party mood and as expected, it sometimes gets chaotic when the intoxication of excitement is high, especially when those celebrating have been fighting a tough battle for many years to arrive at their achievement.
Mother Of Three Evicted By Landlord For Openly Supporting NPP Gets Help – Video
Mother of three who was thrown out by her landlord for openly declaring her support for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has received support from a good Samaritan. Reports from a Facebook user identified as Kweku Piesie Boamah, Madam Evelyn Akosua received an undisclosed amount of money from Roni Nicol, the deputy CEO of the … Read more