ABSTRACT
Freedom of speech poses a dilemma, because a seemingly acceptable liberal principle must in the interests of justice and individual autonomy have limits and restrictions. A totalitarian state will restrict and/or manipulate the freedom of speech and information to avoid criticism of those in power and their ideology. In a multicultural society, there may have to be an additional level of voluntary censorship on the freedom to criticise the cultural beliefs, practices, and values of other cultures. The United States has a greater freedom of speech than Britain, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment. In Britain, in the interests of toleration, all public debate about immigration and race has for decades been virtually a political and social taboo. Social censorship is manifest in racist accusations about the publication of official statistics on differential crime rates and research into genetic determinism between races. Political correctness—a term first used in 1984—has been satirised as political paralysis or heresy by thought.
