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mrtksnyesterday at 1:21 PM1 replyview on HN

I got the impression that free speech in the US is limited to right to annoy people and harass politicians from distance. Seems to be more restricted than Europe actually since access is tied to private property and its culturally acceptable to remove people from private spaces if you don't like their speech. In this particular case the US embassy appears to have "hacked" their way by claiming that those journalists are a threat but if it was in US they could have been removed and have their free speech in a designated area simply because they don't want them there.

You can give finger to Trump from distance but you can't attend to his press conference to actually ask him stuff if he doesn't like you. That's just slightly different from Turkey where you will be arrested for giving the finger to Erdogan's motorcade(happened a few times, then Turks learned their lessons and in the stats Turkey doesn't arrest as much as Britain).

In contrast, in most of Europe you usually can approach and ask politicians whatever you like.


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aa-jvyesterday at 1:31 PM

>I got the impression that free speech in the US is limited to right to annoy people and harass politicians from distance.

That's a pretty trite way of looking at it. You could see for example how important free speech was to the US' civil rights movement in making sure that people were able to organize to challenge the status quo.

>.. if it was in US they could have been removed and have their free speech in a designated area simply because they don't want them there.

US' citizens generally have a better time in courts challenging such things than Europeans do, however.

>In contrast, in most of Europe you usually can approach and ask politicians whatever you like.

But can you tell them whatever you like without facing repercussion if they don't like what they're hearing? No.

In the US, you can still exercise your right to free speech to inform your fellow citizens about the genocide of Gaza - in Europe, most definitely not so easy. (Some European states, its easier than others ...)

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