Publisher's Synopsis
Freedom of communication has long been central within democratic policies and freedom of speech and of the press have long enjoyed the status of fundamental individual rights. There is, however, little agreement as to the content of these rights and their scope or justification. The essays in this book take up fundamental philosophical issues concerning freedom of communication in general and follow these themes through into the discussion of several important and controversial areas of application, such as pornography, racial vilification and political advertising. More 'philosophical' essays concern various rationales from freedom of communication, the effects of 'private powers' upon freedom of speech and the problems of transplanting US free speech jurisprudence into other legal systems.
