Freedom of speech?

The papers today have been full of the story of a pastor in Gainesville, Florida, who is planning to hold a ceremonial burning of Korans on Saturday, the anniversary of 9/11. Ironically, his church is named the Dove Outreach Centre. Hmmm. I'm not sure about his dodgy handlebar mustache either, but that's an aside.

Thankfully, the majority of people out there seem to condemn Pastor Terry Jones' actions. Hilary Clinton has publicly spoken out about it, and some in Gainesville are trying to thwart him, refusing him a burn permit. Half of his church has deserted him.

Needless to say, however, there are some nutters out there who support Jones. Some have apparently suggested he barbecue the Koran with pork, a meat forbidden by Islam.

It made me reflect, this morning, on the nature of free speech. America's constitution firmly defends it - the freedom of citizens to speak and believe what they want is written into the First Amendment. On the one hand, this is admirable: this is not a nation that represses its citizens or denies them the ability to speak out. On the other, however, there is the issue of respect - at what point does exercising ones' freedom of speech become an impingement of someone else's rights? Recently, there was the most almighty furore when Dr Laura Schlessinger, a 'self-help' (white) radio talk show host repeatedly used the word 'nigger' several times on air while giving advice to an African-American caller (who was actually calling to talk about her problem with racist terms including the word 'nigger'). Not particularly sensitive.

Unbelievably, however, there are those who support Schlessinger's insensitive comments and say she did nothing wrong. Well perhaps not in absolute terms - those of the first amendment, but surely to offend an interviewee in the way that she did is not at all right? You can read the full transcript of her rant here and decide for yourself. She has now resigned from her position, by the way.

In Britain, meanwhile, we have laws on 'hate speech' which arguably go too far the other way - even the mildest Irish joke could be said to fall under such laws. But I think, on the whole, that we should be aware that what we say may hurt others. Whether we legislate against it I'm not sure, but to allow people like Terry Jones and Laura Schlessinger to get away with their actions is surely not right in a modern, thinking society? Freedom of speech it may be, but burning the Koran smacks suspiciously of the very thinking which presumably inspired Jones in the first place - an intolerant attitude which allows for no deviation from its tenets. So who is right?