Rule of law is as important as free speech to a free society – leader comment

Broadcaster Russia Today and EDL founder Tommy Robinson complain their rights to free speech have been breached, but the rule of law is vital to a free society.

Contrary to his t-shirt, Tommy Robinson was convicted of contempt of court. Picture: PA

Free speech is one of the fundamental rights of a free society and is absolutely vital to democracy. If citizens are to vote on the issues of the day, they need to hear robust arguments from all sides.

But speech is not entirely free. Incitement to violence, for example, is a crime in most countries. The UK, accepted around the world as a free, democratic state, actually imposes fairly strict rules on speech, with laws on defamation and the reporting of court proceedings, as the founder of the far-right English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, recently found to his cost. He was given a nine-month prison sentence for committing contempt of court in a video posted on Facebook during a criminal trial.

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In contrast, the US has strict constitutional protections of the right to free speech. But this noble aim has been abused in a most appalling way, such as the protests at the funerals of military personnel by the Westboro Baptist Church in which they “thank God for dead soldiers” or the foul lie by Alex Jones, of far-right conspiracy theory website Infowars, that the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook primary school, in which 20 young children and six adults were killed, did not happen and was invented by gun control advocates.

So there are good reasons why the UK has rules that require broadcasters to exercise a degree of impartiality – even if they may not get the balance between freedom and responsibility exactly right.

Russia Today (RT) – fined £200,000 by Ofcom for failing to be impartial over the Salisbury poisoning attack and the war in Syria – presumably knows the rules and, like any broadcaster, has to abide by them.

If it believes the rules are a breach of free speech, it has the right to make that case. It can also contest the fine.

But claiming the fine itself impinges on free speech is like Robinson’s claim he was jailed for journalism.

The rule of law – democratically decided in parliament after a robust debate – is just as important a right as free speech in any free society.