A Study Of Freedom Of Speech In Cyberspace

Freedom of speech is one of the basic constitutional rights."Citizens have freedom of speech,and of publication." prescribed by the Constitution is recognized by many countries in the world.Although cyberspace is virtual one,acts in cyberspace cannot stand on its own,since the cyberspace is just a new type of tool.Cyberspace has become a new medium with creative functions such as real-time chat,e-mail,Web Blog,and so on.There are some characteristics that not exist in traditional mediums,such as no center, anonymity and openness,which are helpful for storage and communication of information as well as the enhancement of the ability of speech.In the meantime it brings many problems of management.The rights are easily abused even for criminal purposes.How to regulate the cyberspace especially the speech is an arduous and urgent task for all governments.There are no substantive differences in form and content between cyberspace and other mediums.It is still the problems of government management and the free flow and control of the information.In this process,both parties have the same interests and conflicts.It proved that some policies have adopted to protect the freedom of speech,but in the meantime it often violated the right of freedom of speech when conflicts exist.Therefore,the problem of freedom of speech has become more acute and prominent and will meet new challenges brought by cyberspace.This paper discussed the connotation and values of speech in cyberspace focusing on its new properties.By the comparison of the protection and regulation of the network speech at home and abroad,we analyzed the legal problems brought by the cyberspace especially the conflicts of rights.On the reference of foreign experience,we put forward some suggestions to protect and regulate the speech in cyberspace by means of analyzing the limitation,the principles and the methods of regulating the speech in cyberspace.