Freedom of speech in HR documents :
Concepts of freedom of speech can be found
in early human rights documents1 and the modern
concept of freedom of speech emerged gradually
during the European Enlightenment2. England’s
Bill of Rights 1689 granted ‘freedom of speech
in Parliament’ and the Declaration of the Rights
of Man and of the Citizen, adopted during the
French Revolution in 1789, specifically affirmed
freedom of speech as an inalienable right3. The
Declaration provides for freedom of expression
in Article 11, which states that: “The free
communication of ideas and opinions is one of
the most precious of the rights of man. Every
citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print
with freedom, but shall be responsible for such
abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by
law”4.
In U.S.A
The U.S. Constitution and the European
Human Rights Convention Law has played a
decisively pervasive role in many countries,
especially those whose political system is based
on the rule of law. The constitutional law on
freedom of expression epitomizes this. The First
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ‘reaffirms
the structural role of free speech and a free press
in a working democracy’5.
In a similar way, the European Convention
on Human Rights6 represents the vision of its
forty-six contracting states for a democratic
body politic in which protection of freedom
of expression is the norm, not an exception.
By its nature, law is more or less a process of
evolution – rarely a revolution – if it reflects an
emerging consensus of a democratic society.
The constitutional history of the United States
on free speech is a case in point. The European
Convention on Human Rights history of Article
10 is similar to the U.S. Supreme Court’s common
law interpretation of the First Amendment. The
European court’s approach is ‘an evolutive
interpretation’ that allows it to construe Article
10’s variable and changing concepts in light
of modern-day conditions. As an integrated
analytical framework, this paper examines the
judicial interpretations of the U.S. Supreme
Court and the ECHR on freedom of expression
from a historical perspective. It compares the
historical development of free speech law
under the First Amendment and Article 10 of
the European Convention on Human Rights
in the sense of ‘orderly and natural long-term
‘evolution”