Free Speech before 9/11
Katharine Gelber · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2016
This chapter discusses the framework that will be used to analyse changes in policies affecting free speech, and the justifications used to effect those changes. It articulates how the principle of freedom of speech has been mediated by and within institutions, using a new institutionalism analysis. It articulates how new institutionalism explains the differences and similarities in the protections for freedom of speech that existed prior to 9/11. The chapter then articulates the state of play before 9/11 for the protection of civil liberties generally, and freedom of speech specifically, in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, noting the differences in the form and scope of free speech protection in each country. It then outlines the regulation of sedition and hate speech prior to 9/11, arguing these are the two best comparators for terrorist-related speech.