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It is easier to appreciate what is at stake in the battles over when and what kind of speech should be protected if we think about just why we value free speech so much in the first place. Freedom of speech can help to empower citizens and limit government in four ways:

 Free speech is important because citizens are responsible for participating in their government’s decisions and they need information provided by an independent, free press to protect them from government manipulation. Mediated citizenship gives us many more channels through which to access information, but that means many more channels to monitor for truth and reliability. In an age in which the president of the United States feels free to label unflattering or critical news coverage “fake news,” the imperative to maintain a free press is more critical than ever.

 Free speech can limit government corruption. By being free to voice criticism of government, to investigate its actions, and to debate its decisions, both citizens and journalists are able to exercise an additional check on government that supplements our valued principle of checks and balances.

 Denying free speech sets a dangerous precedent. Censorship in a democracy usually allows the voice of the majority to prevail. One of the reasons to support minority rights as well as majority rule, however, is that we never know when we may fall into the minority on an issue.

 Free speech ensures the vigorous protection of the truth. According to the nineteenth-century English philosopher John Stuart Mill, by allowing the expression of all speech, we discover truths we had previously believed to be false and we develop strong defenses against known falsehoods like racist and sexist ideas.

free press a press that is able to report fully on government’s activities

If free speech is so valuable, why is it so controversial? Like freedom of religion, free speech requires tolerance of ideas and beliefs other than our own, even ideas and beliefs that we find personally repugnant. Those who are convinced that their views are absolutely and eternally true often see no real reason to practice toleration. Many people believe that, in a democracy, the majority should determine the prevailing views and the minority, having lost the vote, so to speak, should shut up. In addition, conflicting ideas about what constitutes the public interest can lead reasonable people to disagree about whether speech ought to be protected or restricted.³⁰