An Analysis Of Balance Between Freedom Of Speech And Right Of Privacy

Freedom of speech is the right that an individual can freely expresses his thoughts and will,the right that the obligee actively fight for and carry on.However,the right of privacy is a negative right,which meant to exclude the interference from outside and preserve the independent private space.They are like the two ends of a scale: one positive,one negative.With the development of cyber technology and newly emerged we media,the conflicts between freedom of speech and the right of privacy are getting more and more intense: the exercise of freedom of speech will suppress others' right of privacy,the excessive exercise may lead to fully disclosure of individual privacy;conversely,the exercise of the right of privacy will refrain the freedom of speech,the excessive exercise may render the whole society into an information vacuum.Under this circumstance,any improper emphasize on one of the two rights will cause unbalance of the right scale and give rise to social disruption.In fact,as parts of the scheme of fundamental rights,the set of these two rights is meant to facilitate the obligees to realize their interests and values.Yet the intense relationship between the two rights is getting so worse that cannot be ignored.Therefore,it's vital to search a balance spot between the two rights.From a wider perspective,the balance of the two rights is crucial to the construction of fundamental right system and the harmony of the society.The similarities these two rights shared together is the lynchpin to find their balance spot.Freedom of speech and right of privacy seem like two opposing rights: one is open,and the other is close.They are doomed to be incompatible with each other.However,the freedom of speech doesn't mean one must consistently to express and tell.It still concludes the right that an individual has an independent mind without the interference from outside,which can be seen in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.Actually,this implication of freedom of speech has the integrating point with the right of privacy,namely,rejecting the invasion and interference from outside.It is undeniable that every development of rights is the consequence of social movement.Whereby the balance of rights needs to connect with the social reality.Every era has its own focus.For example,the improvement of American privacy is the result of the civil rights movement in that period.It kept growing with the feminist movement,the fight for the right of homosexual and euthanasia.Its importance was gradually equaling to the freedom of speech which was the most important rights in the eyes of American.Not to mention that it was capable of confronting with the freedom of speech at the same standards in specific cases.The balance of these two rights shall be considered on the basis of each case,despite the fact they share some common values.Therefore,The USA not only established a series of balancing standards,but also built a judicial review system to balance the two rights in specific cases.The United States was the first country in the world to raise the notion of the right of privacy.The underlying reason came from the invasion of privacy by freedom of speech.After more than 100 year collisions and conflicts between freedom of speech and right of privacy,the USA gradually built up a multifaceted,dynamic and mature legal system to resolve the conflicts between the two rights.It should be noted that the essence of right of privacy in America is constitutional,which enables the USA to mediate and balance the two rights under the scheme of constitution.Thereby the whole legal system is driven by the constitution to regulate and coordinate the conflicts between the two rights.This approach has many benefits can be learnt from,despite its peculiarity.Thus,this article chooses the USA as a model to probe into the relationship between the two rights under the background of constitution.The evolving history of the conflicts in America between the two rights and solutions to cope with them accordingly will be analyzed and discussed in this essay,in order to give some suggestions to handle the current intense conflicts between the two rights in China.