Free Speech Is Not An Entitlement To Free Disrespect

Rights they say comes with responsibilities. When I was first introduced to this saying in junior high school I thought it was bullshit, mainly because I didn’t understand it. I couldn’t understand why someone will tell me it’s my right to eat but that right could be taken away from me if I’d done something to warrant it.

The other confusing part about this whole thing was that we were mainly taught about responsibility to our parents or should I say shared responsibility at home so we didn’t see the bigger picture. After so many years it’s all beginning to make a lot of sense to me; not because I stay on my own(which I do not by way) but mainly because I’ve gone through life to understand that yes, your rights comes with responsibilities.

This brings me to the topic of the day. Freedom of speech and the media. The media I believe have been given so much freedom that they can come on air to respectfully talk about prominent people in the society without those people being able to retaliate in a bad way even if it goes against them.

Recently a twitter critique as he loves to call himself was arrested and detained by a group of men in the early hours of the day. According to him they claimed they were police men who said they were taking him to the station for questions and answers. Unfortunately for him these people were not the police but only disguised as the police so they could get him to follow them( if his story is true).

The reason for his arrest was that he said someone which was ridiculous about that persons family and the person decided to punish him for that. Am not justifying what the man did but if you know bongo ideas and you follow what he posts you’ll feel like punching him in the face. He is a critique who sees no reasoning in anything.

He criticises people to the point of insulting them on Twitter. The first time I came across his post was when he criticised a forex trader in Ghana. According to him the forex trader hides behind the face of forex trading but he is a scammer who makes his money illegally.

The forex trader did not take matters into his own hands but instead he decided to sue him. It looked like suing him didn’t change anything as he kept on with his criticism until this recent incident.

Freedom of speech with the media has always been a problem as some of the media houses always seem to over step. But according to the law they are granted that kind of power to talk freely and if the individual is not pleased he or she can sue rather than taking matters into his or her hands.

Just as we like the idea of freedom of speech I hope also learn to respect boundaries.

This is an entry for the #mayinleo prompt which is hosted by inleo. You can join by reading the blog