Freedom of Expression

Freedom of Expression There are some issues and problems that are very hard to solve. Freedom of expression is one of them. Its hardship springs from the ambiguity of the term freedom itself. Philosophers always ponder on the question as to whether freedom has its own bounds, or it referres to the absence of any kind of restrictions. There are some people asserting that people can express themselves however they want, and all kinds of expression should be tolerated. However, In my opinion the way people express themselves determines the decision as to whether this expression is allowed or not. The radical idea that people are entitled to express themselves however they want sounds romantic and inconsistent. Expression is a broad term and it does not only include arts, but also insult and blasphemy. Therefore if we let every idea be expressed, then we also close our eyes to insulting. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) people have dignity. So does not disregarding, cursing and insulting someone lead to the violation of human rights? I think it breaches the idea of dignity and equality. However, we should not draw such a conclusion that all we can do is to stay calm. Without insult we can express our ideas and thoughts in an appropriate way. As you realize the term appropriate seems to be subjective and needs to be explained. In this context, appropriateness refers to the state of being friendly, and criticizing people withouth provoking them. As a consequence, whereas degrading and insulting lead to conflict, friendly and appropriate expression of ideas leads to compromiss. The former should be punished by state or society, and the latter should be rewarded. Finally, we should abandon the general ideas; instead, we should think occassional. Eventhough I have distinguished appropriate way from the degrading one, still there are some cases in which we can not clearly understand, whether the expression need to