The history of freedom of speech

The belief in the right to free speech is older than most people tend to believe. It actually goes back to the ancient Greeks and was considered to be one of the cornerstones of their democratic society. In reality the concept may go back even further than that but records from before this period are rather limited. In addition the ancient Romans considered free speech to be one of their most important rights. Another surprise for a lot of people is that one of the early tenets of Islam was the right to free speech.

In reality there were many ancient cultures that believed in the right to free speech, in fact the restrictions on what could be said really didn't start until the middle ages. This was in large part because prior to that the number of people who could hear what you had to say was very limited. Therefore free speech really didn't represent much of a threat to those in power. However the development of the printing press changed things. All of a sudden it was possible for messages to spread quickly and widely. This was when the first prohibitions on free speech started to appear.

The push to have free speech restored in large part coincided with the Protestant Reformation. Most of the restrictions on free speech had actually been placed there by the Catholic church so having them removed was an important goal of the Protestant churches, at least in the early days. Once they were established the new churches would place their own censorship on what could be said for pretty much the same reason the Catholic church had, to maintain control.

The right to free speech as we know it today is largely a development of the Enlightenment. It was during this period that science really came into its own and pretty much forced the church to allow them to publish theories that ran counter to church doctrine. It was also during this period that democracy was starting to become widespread and the church started to lose its power. It was during this time that freedom of speech started to be enshrined as a fundamental right.

It was during the Enlightenment that the countries started to create written constitutions and Bills of Rights that guaranteed citizens the right to free speech. The first of these was in Britain in 1689. Even then however the right to free speech was somewhat restricted. It was not until the United States established its own constitution that the right to free speech became universal. Of course as a practical matter unlimited free speech does not work because it may conflict with other rights. Therefore there is no such thing as completely free speech, but we are about as close as we can get in most Western countries.