Portal:Freedom of speech


The Freedom of speech portal

Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognised as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and international human rights law. Many countries have constitutional laws that protect freedom of speech. Terms such as free speech, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression are often used interchangeably in political discourse. However, in legal contexts, freedom of expression more broadly encompasses the right to seek, receive, and impart information or ideas, regardless of the medium used.

Article 19 of the UDHR states that "everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference" and "everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice". The version of Article 19 in the ICCPR later amends this by stating that the exercise of these rights carries "special duties and responsibilities" and may "therefore be subject to certain restrictions" when necessary "[f]or respect of the rights or reputation of others" or "[f]or the protection of national security or public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals". (Full article...)

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Fucking Machines (also known as Fuckingmachines.com and fuckingmachines) is a pornographic website founded in 2000 that features video and photographs of women engaged in autoerotic sexual stimulation with penetrative sex-machines and sex toys. The site is based in San Francisco, California, and is operated by Kink.com. Web entrepreneur Peter Acworth launched Fucking Machines on September 25, 2000, as his company's second website after Kink.com. Devices shown on the site were created with the intent to bring women authentic orgasms. Performers were instructed to allow themselves to be recorded experiencing pleasure. After the site applied in 2005 to trademark the phrase "fuckingmachines", the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) denied the application and ruled that the mark was obscene. Free speech lawyer Marc Randazza represented the site and appealed the decision. Orlando Weekly called his legal brief, "one of the most entertaining legal documents you're likely to come across." The appeal was denied in April 2008 and the case was terminated. Randazza's argument in the case became known as The Fuck Brief. The website has received analysis from journalists and academics studying sexuality. Writer Regina Lynn highlighted the site's emphasis on communication, and Annalee Newitz of AlterNet classed it as part of Porn 2.0. Violet Blue wrote in The Adventurous Couple's Guide to Sex Toys that it helped popularize the idea of machines aiding in sex acts. The 2008 edition of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History described the aesthetic of the devices as disturbing. Jessica Roy wrote for The New York Observer that Fucking Machines' examples of orgasms were a form of transhumanism. Sarah Schaschek devoted a chapter to the phenomenon in Screening the Dark Side of Love: From Euro-Horror to American Cinema, titled "Fucking Machines: High-Tech Bodies in Pornography". She observed, "Strictly speaking, the women in these videos are both the controllers and the controlled."

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Antonin Scalia (1936 - 2016) was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was the second most senior Associate Justice, following Justice John Paul Stevens. In 1982, he was appointed as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President Ronald Reagan. In 1986, Judge Scalia was appointed by Reagan to the Supreme Court to fill the seat as associate justice vacated when Justice William Rehnquist was elevated to Chief Justice. While Rehnquist's confirmation was contentious, Scalia was asked few difficult questions by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and faced no opposition. Scalia was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, and took the bench on September 26, 1986. In his near quarter-century on the Court, Justice Scalia staked out a conservative ideology in his opinions, advocating textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in constitutional interpretation. He was a strong defender of the powers of the executive branch, believing presidential power should be paramount in many areas. He opposed affirmative action and other policies that treat minorities as groups. He filed separate opinions in large numbers of cases, and, in his minority opinions, often castigated the Court's majority in scathing language. (more...)

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Subcategories

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Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech by country
Freedom of speech by continent
Free speech activists
Blacklisting
Books about freedom of speech
Commercial speech
Encryption debate
Free speech case law
Freedom of information
Lèse-majesté
Persecution of Wikipedians in Belarus
Pirate parties
Speech crimes

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Wikiprojects

Main parent WikiProject
  • WikiProject Freedom of speech
Related projects
  • Human rights
  • Internet
  • Journalism
  • Law
  • Media
  • Politics
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Things you can do


Here are some tasks awaiting attention:
  • Article requests : Check article requests in Law topics
  • Assess : Tag article talk pages using {{WikiProject Freedom of speech}}
  • Cleanup : Check the Special:RecentChangesLinked/Category:Freedom of speech page for improvements, other changes, and vandalism to these articles
  • Collaborate : Expert help may be needed at Category:Freedom of speech articles needing expert attention.
  • Copyedit : Check Freedom of speech "Article Alerts" for developments in quality to Freedom of speech-related articles for interesting articles to copyedit
  • Expand : Expand articles in categories including: Freedom of speech and Category:Free speech activists
  • Featured article candidates : Review Freedom of speech-related articles submitted at Featured Article candidates, especially those at FAC urgents
  • Good article nominations : Check out articles under review for Good Article candidacy, in the Social sciences and society section
  • Stubs : Take on project for improvement of one of the Freedom of speech stubs
  • Update : Update links between sister projects, at Commons:Category:Freedom of speech
  • Verify : Articles with notability concerns, listed at WikiProject Notability, more specific Freedom of speech related articles, at Articles with topics of unclear notability listing.
  • Wikify : Wikify links between primary-source-documents and articles from Wikisource:Category:Freedom of speech
  • Other : Check article deletion discussions listed at Deletion sorting – Law

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