What Are the Limits of Free Speech? Arif Ahmed, Sara Conly, Rae Langton, Mary Leng, and Ritula Shah

What are the limits of free speech? And who gets to decide? For instance, hate speech is normally considered illegal. But defining hate speech is not such an easy task. How can we distinguish hate speech from merely something other people don’t want to hear? What about lying? Some things may be obviously untrue to some, but not to others. Ritula Shah chairs this panel discussion between Arif Ahmed, Sara Conly, Rae Langton and Mary Leng on the limits of free speech, especially in the modern context of social media.

The Panel
Ritula Shah (chair) is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster. She is the presenter of ‘Calm Classics’ every weekday evening on ClassicFM. Ritula left the BBC in April 2023, after a career spanning almost 35 years. For the past 15 years, she was the main presenter of the World Tonight, Radio 4’s evening news programme, which has a focus on international affairs and domestic politics. She presented the programme from countries including Brazil, Jordan, India, China, the US, Guantanamo Bay, Finland and Germany. She was also the lead presenter of The Real Story, a weekly discussion programme on the BBC World Service. Ritula chairs events for businesses, universities and think tanks on everything from current affairs to philosophy. She is a trustee of the visual arts organisation INIVA and an ambassador for the British Asian Trust.

Rae Langton is Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. She works in moral and political philosophy, the history of philosophy, metaphysics, speech act theory, and feminist philosophy. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2013, and the British Academy in 2014. Her work on free speech and silencing was cited in Prospect Magazine’s voted list of 50 ‘World Thinkers 2014’, chosen for ‘engaging most originally and profoundly with the central questions of the world today’.

Mary Leng is Professor of Philosophy at the University of York. Her main research area is in the philosophy of mathematics and science where she defends mathematical fictionalism (arguing that 2 + 2 does not equal 4). She has also written in defence of religious fictionalism (arguing that the Pope isn't Catholic) and against moral fictionalism (holding that murder really is wrong). She has also contributed to recent discussions of sex and gender identity in the context of proposed legal reforms in the UK.

Sarah Conly is the author of Against Autonomy: Justifying Coercive Paternalism (Cambridge University Press, 2013) and One Child: Do We Have a Right to More? (Oxford University Press, 2016.)

Arif Ahmed is Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom at the Office for Students. He took up his position in August 2023. Just before taking up his present appointment, Arif was a Commissioner at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. He has held visiting academic posts around the world. For many years until 2021, he was a trade union representative and caseworker for the University and College Union. In 2021 he was awarded an MBE for services to education and the 2021 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Trustee Award.

Introduction - 00:00
Panel Discussion – 04:48
Q&A – 01:05:55