Right to Speech – A Pillar of Democracy

Major milestone in providing right to speech and expression was achieved on 10th December 1948, when in Paris the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and whose Article 19 provides for, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers “ In India, there was no right to speech and expression up until the departure of British and birth of Constitution of India in 1949, the provision Article 19(1)(a) provides for, “All citizens shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression”. Freedom of speech and expression comes under purview of rule of law and works as a hallmark for the democracy. Without having the power to criticize the government or their policies, the main objective of democracy is violated. To ensure the survival of democracy and for the sake of all human beings to live a life worth living, each country in this world needs to provide its citizen with basic right to speech and expression. In this paper, the researcher’s main focus would be on the provisions provided under national and international law on implementation of Right to speech and expression