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| Rowan Williams defends free speech and praises BBC World Service | Rowan Williams defends free speech and praises BBC World Service |
| (21 days later) | |
| The outgoing archbishop of Canterbury has stressed the importance of freedom of speech and hit out at those who debase it by spreading "random or trivial information" and conducting "intrusive and insensitive" investigations. | The outgoing archbishop of Canterbury has stressed the importance of freedom of speech and hit out at those who debase it by spreading "random or trivial information" and conducting "intrusive and insensitive" investigations. |
| Speaking for the first time about Lord Justice Leveson's report into the culture, practice and ethics of the media, Rowan Williams acknowledged that the UK was "in the middle of a lively argument about free speech and the regulation of the media", but said it was vital that freedom of speech was safeguarded. | Speaking for the first time about Lord Justice Leveson's report into the culture, practice and ethics of the media, Rowan Williams acknowledged that the UK was "in the middle of a lively argument about free speech and the regulation of the media", but said it was vital that freedom of speech was safeguarded. |
| "It's easy to get bogged down in the pros and cons of press regulation and the exact degree of legal backing it needs," he said in a sermon in St Martin-in-the-Fields church during a service of thanksgiving to celebrate 80 years of the BBC World Service. "But we risk forgetting the all-important issue of why free speech really matters." | "It's easy to get bogged down in the pros and cons of press regulation and the exact degree of legal backing it needs," he said in a sermon in St Martin-in-the-Fields church during a service of thanksgiving to celebrate 80 years of the BBC World Service. "But we risk forgetting the all-important issue of why free speech really matters." |
| He described freedom of speech as the "freedom to stand back from any particular loyalty in the name of loyalty to the truth, and freedom to speak truths that the powerful want hidden or ignored", adding: "It is not simply a matter of the liberty to spread random or trivial information, certainly not the liberty of expressing abusive or demeaning opinions." | He described freedom of speech as the "freedom to stand back from any particular loyalty in the name of loyalty to the truth, and freedom to speak truths that the powerful want hidden or ignored", adding: "It is not simply a matter of the liberty to spread random or trivial information, certainly not the liberty of expressing abusive or demeaning opinions." |
| In an apparent reference to those who have been victims of phone-hacking and unscrupulous reporting, he said: "No one can be complacent about the levels of hurt and distress experienced by those who have been at the receiving end of intrusive and insensitive investigation in the name of this debased version of liberty." | In an apparent reference to those who have been victims of phone-hacking and unscrupulous reporting, he said: "No one can be complacent about the levels of hurt and distress experienced by those who have been at the receiving end of intrusive and insensitive investigation in the name of this debased version of liberty." |
| Dr Williams paid tribute to the BBC World Service as "one of the modern age's great symbols of freedom of speech" and praised it for fighting back against attempts to silence it from the former Soviet Union and China in the 1990s. | Dr Williams paid tribute to the BBC World Service as "one of the modern age's great symbols of freedom of speech" and praised it for fighting back against attempts to silence it from the former Soviet Union and China in the 1990s. |
| True freedom of speech, he added, was both radical and challenging. | True freedom of speech, he added, was both radical and challenging. |
| "It is about sharing the reality of painful and difficult human experience so that others may know it for what it is and so that they may have no excuse for ignoring it," he said. "Truth is not likely to be found where people are told never to ask questions or where those who are backed by force have the right to dictate what counts as news, so that the human reality and human cost of injustice or disaster can be swept out of sight and mind." | "It is about sharing the reality of painful and difficult human experience so that others may know it for what it is and so that they may have no excuse for ignoring it," he said. "Truth is not likely to be found where people are told never to ask questions or where those who are backed by force have the right to dictate what counts as news, so that the human reality and human cost of injustice or disaster can be swept out of sight and mind." |
| The archbishop concluded his sermon by asking God to help people honour and preserve "the freedom of speech that matters. The freedom to step aside from tribal and local partisanship for the sake of a wider human sympathy, the freedom to listen patiently and passionately for the voices that are being silenced by violence or injustice, the freedom to speak to and for the dignity of all". | The archbishop concluded his sermon by asking God to help people honour and preserve "the freedom of speech that matters. The freedom to step aside from tribal and local partisanship for the sake of a wider human sympathy, the freedom to listen patiently and passionately for the voices that are being silenced by violence or injustice, the freedom to speak to and for the dignity of all". |
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