1. Ihewulezi 1
Ihewulezi Jospeh Nicholas
FYS 100
Dr. Harold Blanco
1/24/15
Regulation of Free Speech
The issues been debated about free speech in the article how free speech has been made
easier and freer by technology and how most people in the society use this medium to propose
their opinion about certain situations. In the article, it talks about how Arab protesters protested
through the internet using twitter and this made journalists wonder if the whole world observed
what happened with twitter and how it was been used by protesters. This was the free speech
used due to technology, anyone can be able can be able to communicate with a person around the
globe and giving private opinions about a situation.
Moreover, there were some religious views about restricting free expression about a
religion. There are laws made by different countries that limit the freedom of speech toward
religion views and the consequences of anyone who disobeyed the laws were death penalties. In
the article different examples were giving pertaining religious opinions and blasphemous
activities by people. Few among them was about how a 17 year old Egyptian was sentenced to
three years in prison just because he posted cartoons on Facebook that seemed blasphemous to
the society and country at large.

2. Ihewulezi 2
However, regulation of free speech is important in some situation because there are
benefits of regulating free speech. There are people in power that don’t want their name to be
publicized by the press, but due to free speech, journalist will ignore the pleas of certain people
and say whatever they want anytime in order to be known around a region due to updates given
by them to the people. If the freedom of speech was regulated, then the publicity of a person that
doesn’t want to be known will be privatized. This is beneficial to the person because his feeling
are being recognized For instance, in the article, Mrs. McCann’s daughter, Madeleine
disappeared and was never seen, and it was notified that she begged the news of the world not to
publish anything pertaining the disappearance of her daughter but her feelings were overlooked
and they went ahead to publish it. When free speech are regulated, people benefit from it because
their feelings are been respected. In a situation such as McCann, she was probably in sorrow and
didn’t want the news to be all over her neighborhood because there will be constant reminder
about what she had lost and this hurts so much, but if nothing about her daughter’s disappearance
was published, the grief will be less.
Furthermore, when speech is unregulated in a country, effects may arise that affects the
country at large. Firstly, as notified in the article the media play a vital role in ensuring that
officials that are elected in a position are working hard to ensure that they work according to
what the citizen’s needs. This occurs with adequate updates given to the people by the media.
The article also explains how journalist are not above the law for any criminal acts they impose
in any way. With free speech unregulated, the press should ensure that the information given to
the people are authentic, anything less than that is seen as vague.

3. Ihewulezi 3
In terms of democratic societies, the issue of free speech might affect them positively or
negatively, depending on the conditions provided at a certain situation in time. Free speech might
have positive effects on them because they are able to express their views on certain ideas that
might be beneficial to them and to the people. Free speech might also affect democratic parties
because the press will look into their activities and make sure they are adequate and if there is
any omission of any kind they may inform the people in order for change. These implications are
beneficial to the democratic societies depending on factors that favor them.
In closure, regulating helps people mainly when they don’t want things about them to be
publicized. Privacy of most people should be respected because the people nominate the
government who should protect them in all conditions.