Gareth O'Callaghan: Free speech, hate speech and the lessons from Jimmy Kimmel and Charlie Kirk

From Frederick Douglass to Jimmy Kimmel, the debate on free speech and its limits reveals democracy’s fragility and strength

Jimmy Kimmel: His reinstatement shows free speech is democracy talking. Picture: Randy Holmes/Disney via AP

“Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist”. In December 1860, these words were spoken by the American orator and former slave Frederick Douglass, one of the greatest leaders of the civil rights movement in the 19th century, from a talk he gave called 'A plea for free speech in Boston'.

A meeting scheduled in the city the week before to discuss what was then a highly controversial question — “How shall slavery be abolished?” — was invaded by anti-abolition protestors. Douglass knew the real danger the dissidents posed was not disorder, but to deny their fellow citizens the right to free speech.