ABSTRACT
What is a ‘right’? Briefly, a ‘right’ to do something (for example, to publicly state one’s views) implies that what is proposed is not wrong and that others accept that it would be wrong to interfere. This has been described as conditions of ‘permissibility’ and of ‘prohibition of interference’ (Mautner, 2000, p. 487, definition 3). I have a right to free speech if it is not wrong to speak freely and if others agree they should not interfere. For every right, it can be argued, there is a commensurate responsibility placed on others not to prevent the exercise of that right. Any individual or group in isolation, therefore, cannot announce a right in the sense described. It has to be agreed and negotiated with others within the fabric of a society at a particular time.
