11 Facts about Free Speech

1. In the US, Freedom of speech is established in the First Amendment of the Constitution, along with freedom of religion, “of the press” and “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” It is the first article in the Bill of Rights.
2. In 1948, the UN recognized the right to free speech as a human right in article 19 of the International Declaration of Human Rights.
3. The Bill of Rights is not the first example of a government protecting speech : The idea was used in making of the Magna Carta in 1215. The English Bill of Rights in 1689 granted freedom of speech in Parliament, and the French established the protection of free speech in their “Declarations of the Rights of Man” in 1789.
4. In what is probably the first recorded instance of an argument for the freedom of speech, Socrates, during his trial in 399 BC, told the jury if he was freed on the condition to never speak his mind, he’d sooner “obey the Gods rather than [them]”.
5. Since its establishment in the Bill of Rights, the judicial branch has had to define what exactly the freedom of speech clause protects and doesn’t protect. After multiple preceding definitions, the courts decided in 1969 in Brandenburg v. Ohio that speech can be restricted if the speaker strives to provoke an “imminent” and “likely” violation of law: the imminent lawless action test.
6. Libel, slander, or defamation is also not protected by free speech.
7. In 1633, Galileo Galilei, otherwise known as the “Father of Modern Science”, was brought before the Inquisition for insisting that the sun does not revolve around the earth, and was consequently forced to spend the rest of his life under house arrest… a verdict that would not stand if Italy had protected the freedom of speech at the time.
8. While it may seem counterintuitive, hate speech is actually protected in the US by the First Amendment. While we may not enjoy what someone says, they still have the right to say it…
9. …And most Americans agree. In a recent poll by the Washington Post: when asked “Do you think freedom of speech should mean that people should have the right to say what they believe...” 70% responded yes, “Even if they take positions that seem deeply offensive to most people”.
10. Obscenity, and most often pornography, has posed a difficult problem for judges in defining what exactly is too obscene to be protected by the First Amendment. In 1973, they established the Miller test, after Miller v. California for defining obscenity:

• (a) whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards" would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest
• (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law
• (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Sources

US Government Archives
The Guardian
Cornell Law
The Washington Post