lesson in American law:
Even in America there is no *pure* freedom of speech.
for instance - fraud. is and has always been a crime in America. Its criminal to use speech in such a way as to commit fraud, and you can commit fraud w/speech alone, no physical act is required.
Or perhaps you work for the CIA and agree in writing that there are certain things you won't talk about or suffer criminal consequences.
Yelling "fire!!!" in a crowded theatre because you think its funny, is usually a crime as well. Its a common example in American law used to illustrate this very point, that freedom of speech is *not* the freedom to go around saying whatever you want no matter the consequences.
Freedom of speech is a limit on the government's ability to use its power to limit your speech. This especially applies to the media, no prior restraint is allowed at all in regards to the media. They can go after the media *after* they say something, for lets say, fraud or what have you, but they aren't allowed to tell the media *before hand* what they cannot say. But even w/this there are ways around this restriction. You own a radio station or major tv network and want to use such and such frequencies to broadcast it? Well guess who owns those frequencies? The government. You need their permission. And they'll only give you that permission if you agree to their rules, via the FDC. That's why cable t.v. can cuss and swear and show boobs, while network t.v. cannot. Its a legal way to limit their speech, by getting them to agree to said limit.
There are all sorts of limits on speech. Time, place, and manner limits are allowed. Content limitations are the ones that are usually overturned. And even a time/place/or_manner restriction is overturned if in effect, its a content limitation, or denial. Like, you can have your protest, but only for 3 seconds, 200 years from now, on the dark side of the moon. This would effectively deny your protest even though on its face it merely restricts the time/place/and manner of your protest.. Or, anyone can protest, but only if they acknowledge jesus as their savior as a part of their protest. Or if they pay a 6 digit fee (this way only the 'right kind' of people will be able to protest, in effect, limiting the *content* of such protests).
And as always, the freedom of speech is in danger, even at present. You can protest, but only over here in this fenced off area. The people who support this candidate can go anywhere, even right up to the candidate as he walks down the public sidewalk and shake his hand for the camera, but not you, and simply because what you ahve to say isn't as pleasing as what the person we are not restricting has to say. And you, the media, can cover the protest and the government's reaction to it, but you have to do it from the special media area we set up over here, its for your protection, wouldn't want us to think you are one of the peasants and hurt you, i mean protesters, did i say peasant? This of course is a time/place/manner type of restriction, that we see more and more of today, so ostensibly its ok, yet *in effect* its a lot more than that, and not just of speech, but also the freedom of association (another little right we have in the constitution, though much less talked about).
