ABSTRACT
It is in the nature of any state to wish to restrict freedom of expression. This has been evident in this country from the state’s control of printing presses in the seventeenth century to the vain attempts to suppress Spycatcher in the twentieth. Britain has no equivalent to the First Amendment to the American Constitution, creating a constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression for all. The 1689 Bill of Rights-the last major statement of rights in this country-guaranteed freedom of speech only to Members of Parliament.
