On The Realization Of Freedom Of Expression

As a fundamental right enjoyed by a citizen, freedom of expression is the cornerstone of democratic politics which plays a very important role in the existence and development of human beings. In some sense, freedom of expression and extensive communication are necessary to some social elements such as the development of economy, political reform, progresses of science, prosperity of culture and the evolution of man himself. So we can say that each step of our society forward is in close relation to freedom of expression and the history of freedom is the history of expressing freedom to a large extent. However the route to the goal that one can express oneself freely is not so smooth. Many calamities occurred in the history of human beings: Emperor Qin shihuang exterminated the culture of Confucius; the Council of Trent made a list of banned book; Mussolini greased the palm of French press; Stalin dominated the media of Soviet. The history of human beings of fighting for freedom of expression has seen a lot of conflicts, bleeding, bribery and various tragedies. There were so many handicaps encountering human beings who were longing for freedom that the constitutions of modern times and many international documents on human rights stipulate freedom of expression as their principal ingredient so as to remove the obstacles annoying those pursuing freedom of expression.However it is not so easy to get rid of the obstacles for freedom of expression, and it's not reliable to depend only on the rationality of the law. Of course the right is obscure without statute laws, but the right will be abused without control, and what is worse, the right will become a dole without relief. Therefore just as other rights, rational illustration, reasonable control and enough relief is necessary to remove the obstacles and realize freedom of expression.This paper is organized as follows.Section one provides the basic theoretical issues on freedom of expression. By analyzing the issues such as its name and range, section one illustrates the concept of freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is a basic independent right confirmed, defined and protected by constitutions and laws, which is enjoyed by natural persons and social organizations. This right permits us, by means of sounds, characters, images, languages or their composition, and through various information-exchanged instruments and social activities, to pass and get information and to express our opinions and feelings free of interference, restriction, and punishment. Meanwhile, different theories in history concerning freedom of expression are commented briefly. This section summarizes different kinds of elements causing the obstacles and analyzes the causations and the harm of the elements, which leads to the conclusion that only by removing those elements can we realize freedom of expression successfully.Section two elucidates the rational illustration of freedom of expression by law. Activities not forbidden by law are in deed the freedom of citizens. But as a fundamental right, freedom of expression is illustrated rationally in laws of different states and international documents of human rights. The illustration is a confirmation that freedom of expression is the principal right and it is helpful to remove the obstacles to pursue freedom of expression.Section three concerns the proper control of freedom of expression by law. In my opinion, freedom of expression is not an unrestricted right. Laws must provide reasonable restrictions for freedom of expression, otherwise the abuse of freedom will inevitably violates the benefits of the state, the society and other persons, and will lead to no freedom of expression.Section four provides the view that enough relief should be given to freedom of expression. A complete right contains relief. Without appropriate relief but only by the demand of justice and the stipulation of laws, the value pursuing by freedom of expression and the results of its implementation will never come into being. And the relief should be provided by administrative means and, especially by judiciary means.