Autocrats and populists have undermined the very notion of an accepted fact-based truth which lives above politics. So how do we calibrate freedom in this context? If we have the freedom to offend, where do we draw the line? The BBC asks.
“Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without these three, we have no shared reality. You cannot have democracy,” notes Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, whose new book is called “How To Stand Up To A Dictator.”
“No human endeavor requires freedom as much as creativity does,” says best-selling Nigerian feminist writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In the latest of the BBC’s prestigious Reith Lectures, she argues that freedom of speech is under attack.
The year’s series was inspired by President Franklin D Roosevelt’s four freedoms speech of 1941 and asks what this terrain means now? It features four different lecturers. In addition to Chimamanda, the other lectures feature: Freedom of Worship by Rowan Williams; Freedom from Want by Darren McGarvey; Freedom from Fear by Fiona Hill.
