General Article Free speech: Are we getting the balance right?

Topic Selected: Racism
This article is 9 years old. Click here to view the latest articles for this topic.

Striking the right balance between protecting people’s right to speak freely, while also promoting respect, sensitivity and tolerance, seems to be a perpetual issue in the UK and other liberal democracies.

 

YouGov’s PoliticsLab invited you to speak out and tell us your views on freedom of speech:

 

Has society become too politically correct and oversensitive? OR are too many people still making racist, sexist and homophobic comments that need clamping down on?

 

  • The largest proportion of those who took part in the debate were of the opinion that political correctness has gone too far in Britain, to the detriment of public debate, and that both regular people and the media have become overly sensitive.
  • A smaller proportion of participants said that too many people are still making offensive remarks against certain groups, and that the right to freedom of speech should not be used to evade accountability for inciting hatred.
  • A very small proportion of you said you thought t...

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