By now, we all assume that our constitution will certainly have free speech as an "universal right". However, as someone pointed out (I think it was Kendra), Neualtenburg is a social democracy and not an anarchy.
Like in RL, the expression of your "free speech" should have restrictions and regulamentations. This means if I suddenly want to get a group of residents to parade all over Neualtenburg and yell "Haney Linden is an idiot!!" spontaneously, that's a mob and should be handled accordingly (ie. eject & ban them
). If, worse than that, they start breaking things apart, or constructing new things like outdoors, without previous approval by the City Council, well, then, that's a riot. More than ejecting & banning, that should be reported as abuse to the Lindens.On the other hand, if I go to the City Council and say, "look, I want to organize a rally against Haney Linden in Neualtenburg and announce it on the events. When and where can I hold it?", that's the spirit of free speech expression. That is accepted and allowed. The City Council will look at the calendar, pick up a time that does not interfere with other city events, tell the rallyists that they can use a particular spot for their rally, and just ask them to post the event mentioning that it is "not representative of Neualtenburg citizens, but the city gladly embraces all exercise of free speech, according to its constitution" (we can work out the proper wording later). This is precisely how things are done in RL. And yes, the rallyists will be at the mercy and whim of the Councilers - they can say "the only time for you to do that is Monday at 4 AM, and you have to do it outside the city walls". Tough luck. You either accept it and make the most of it, or you try to pick another place. This is not a restriction of free speech, this is just respecting a minority's wish by limiting interferences with the majority.
I don't have any idea if any city in the western world views this differently (I can imagine that these concepts were stretched pretty thinly during the European Soccer Championship last Summer in Portugal when everybody went spontaneously out to the streets to celebrate
... but some city mayors were prepared to handle that as well).As a SL resident, I don't care if instead of "Haney Linden is an idiot" people are yelling "Bush is an idiot", "The Pope is an idiot" or "Santa Klaus is an idiot". In RL we can express our free speech against real or imaginary people. I don't think it makes sense to "restrict" our free speech in SL against real or imaginary people as well.
There are only "absolute no-nos" for things like child pornography. I'm not sure if there is a world-wide list of absolutely forbidden things to speak about. For instance, both Germany and Portugal constitutionally forbid nazi-related events (organisations, parties, associations, rallys, etc. are forbidden if they promote fascist/national-socialist ideas). I read that until recently you couldn't promote communist ideology in the US as well (this could have changed, you tell me
). We should get a list of those things that are accepted world-wide as a "restriction on free speech" (we could probably get them from the UN sites) and incorporate those on our constitution - but only those.As to the rest - free speech rallies, surely, about anything, but not spontaneously: organized and talked about with the City Council, which will set up the time and place for it. Mobs and riots ("public disturbance"
should be outlawed like in RL!
