is anyone worried over freedom of speech in the uk?

[†good horseman and the raven ♞]

i just saw this news story earlier; Web Word Wars: Twitter posts provoke prosecutions in UK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZX0ozJrqe0

'' A silly joke, or venting your anger on Twitter and Facebook could now net you a jail sentence, courtesy of the British authorities.

There's a growing number of prosecutions resulting from offensive, provocative or even misunderstood posts. RT's Polly Boiko reports from London. ''

thats by rt news.


because of this story is anyone worried where free speech, freedom of opinion is going in the uk or where it may go ?

[free willy]

If you beleive RT

[Tom]

Not really. I can say what I want to and I never get in trouble. It's the idiots who go racially abusing footballers on twitter who get arrested.

By and large, the only things you cant do in this country are swear near a police officer or start racially abusing people over the internet. Both of which serve you right for being so stupid in the first place, but I'd rather they were legal.

[Jim G]

Free speech went down the pan courtesy of Tony Blair and his Labour party traitors.
Yet the dumb masses still vote for that dinosaur of a political party.

[Luckyhydrant892]

Thats why I never Tweet now as you cant be sure. Saying anything on these pages doesnt seem to count? Yes I am worried the way things are going.

[Ford Prefect]

The time to worry is too late - 100 years ago was the time to grab free speech

[Jungle Jim]

No!!!! Whatever the bureaucrats decree I will always speak my mind.

[Mr_R_Swipe]

Despite the common citing of a 'freedom of speech'... no such thing exists in UK law, and it never has done. It is a political slogan that has been used for centuries... but it never had any legal meaning at all... until 1998 that is. When the UK adopted the Human Rights Act, it adopted the article of the right to freedom of expression. This is not the same as the 'notion' of free speech, as it is a qualified right.

It is 'qualified' because it does not protect anything unlawful, and it does not immunise anything from legal challenge under the common law or civil law. This means that a site like this can keep posting whatever it likes as long as no one bothers to collate evidence against it, and mount a challenge in the courts to its contents... but... that doesn't make it legal. The only reason that people can still post hate messages about race, religion, political belief etc... is because Yahoo hasn't come under the spotlight... yet.

It is absolutely nothing to do with 'freedom of speech'... because it doesn't exist.

[Manxbiker]

A few odd stories picked up by the press and blown out of proportion you still have freedom of speech in britain

[Sà i Gòn]

Shado

The UK or the USA the most of speech are free that do not forbide by their government.