Censoring opinions not in society’s best interest

By Lethbridge Herald on November 2, 2022.

Lethbridge Herald Editorial Board

Freedom of speech. It’s a term we hear often from people who have opinions on any subject and feel they have the right to a public forum to express them.

We’ve seen attacks made on this newspaper from both the right and left sides of the political spectrum because of the tone of opinions expressed on this page, mostly in letters to the editor.

We’ve gotten attacked because of the tone of columnists whose opinion pieces we run that people disagree with.

Some, on both sides of the political spectrum, feel others’ viewpoints have no merit and don’t have a right to be publicly expressed. This is freedom of speech with an asterisk. It’s OK to run columns or letters that follow a particular ideology but not others? 

That’s not freedom of speech, it’s censorship. And no media outlet – newspaper, television or radio – that allows opinions to be expressed can afford to start acting as censors. 

It’s one thing to cut out – or refuse – commentary that is defamatory, racist, slanderous or blatantly false. And we regularly reject letters for publication for those reasons.

 But to discard an opinion piece just because someone disagrees with its contents?

 If we were to only allow columns and letters from liberals, we would be subject to justified wrath from conservative audiences. Just as we now are subject to contempt from left-wing audiences who object to members of the public with conservative viewpoints being allowed a forum in this newspaper.

Out of fairness we’ve given space on this page to those who have publicly attacked us and our journalists regardless how we feel about those attacks.

The opinion page of a newspaper is – and needs to be – a place for a diverse range of views to be expressed. Depending on the issues in any community, there may be a tendency of public opinion to lean one way or another. We have no control over that.  

Expecting the newspaper to censor opinions because they don’t fit a particular political slant or viewpoint is unfair to us, our audience and the concept of freedom of speech – which all in this country are entitled to have. 

Not just those with  liberal or conservative political viewpoints.

All residents of this country are entitled to express an opinion until such time as a government removes that right. 

And hopefully, that will never happen in Canada.