The mother of all rights!

The recent rise in intolerance towards different opinions among governments and individuals should greatly concern us all.

It seems that in the past decade or so, for whatever reason, people have forgotten the importance of free speech and are justifying the censorship of speech they disagree with using different reasons. But ultimately, once it is accepted that speech can and should be regulated for any reason whatsoever, that always ends up being used by the state to censor speech that it does not like.

It is incredible that we, in the 21st century, do not realise the importance of this lesson. Nor the fact that the right to free speech and expression is the mother of all rights—i.e., all other rights are negotiated and won using the right to free speech and expressions.

It is our lack of knowledge and understanding, despite the availability of ever greater information, that is leading to our own enslavement as we rapidly lose our right to free speech and our ability to articulate the world as we perceive it and offer solutions that could get us out of the various crises that we face today as a civilisation.

Nuzhat Chowdhury, Dhaka