The Reith Lectures - The Four Freedoms: 1. Freedom of Speech

Chimamanda Ngozi Adicie argues that it feels like freedom of speech is under attack. Cancel culture, arguments about “wokeness" and the assault on Salman Rushdie have produced a febrile atmosphere. Meanwhile 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 lecture can be heard here.

The Reith Lectures is a series of annual British Broadcasting Corporation radio lectures given by leading figures of the day. They are commissioned by the BBC and broadcast on Radio 4 and the World Service. The lectures were inaugurated in 1948 to mark the historic contribution made to public service broadcasting by Lord Reith, the corporation's first director-general.

Reith held that broadcasting should be a public service that aimed to enrich the intellectual and cultural life of Britain. In this spirit the BBC each year invites a leading figure to deliver the lectures to advance public understanding and debate about issues of contemporary interest.

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, they are:
Freedom of Worship by Rowan Williams
Freedom from Want by Darren McGarvey
Freedom from Fear by Fiona Hill