Christopher Hitchens - Free Speech

Caption notes

In a 2006 Hart House debate at the University of Toronto, Christopher Hitchens starts with the analogy of shouting fire in a crowded theater and asks who should decide in advance which speech is harmful. Drawing on Milton, Paine and Mill, he turns to the audience: limiting a speaker can also deny listeners a chance to hear dissent and test their own views. He uses a dialogue from A Man for All Seasons to argue that powers granted to a censor can later be turned against those who granted them. This guide focuses on Hitchens’s argument in the debate. Historical cases, legal judgments and allegations about religions in the speech were not independently verified.