An 1872 law made it legal to assemble an audience and address them on whatever topic you chose. Since then, this corner of Hyde Park has become the established venue for the orators or the eccentrics.
Lord Justice Sedley, in his decision regarding freedom of speech in Redmond-Bate v Director of Public Prosecution (1999) held that "Free speech includes not only the inoffensive but the irritating, the
contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the
provocative provided it does not tend to provoke violence. Freedom only
to speak inoffensively is not worth having. What Speakers' Corner
(where the law applies as fully as anywhere else) demonstrates is the
tolerance which is both extended by the law to opinion of every kind and
expected by the law in the conduct of those who disagree, even
strongly, with what they hear."
Does your Faith help you after death?
Support Animals Rights, the Labour Party is Evil
"There is no God except Allah"
"Jesus Christ is our Lord"
"Repent!"
"Yes, I know"
They listened intently to him
They understood what he said
They could empathised him
Then they realised it was all so funny!
Speakers' Corner 1987
Yours Truly
Yours Truly
I believe you will not find the above scenes elsewhere in the world. Here is where the true spirit of the freedom of speech is practised without the fear of prosecution.
No comments:
Post a Comment