The four freedoms: Freedom of speech

Best-selling Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, gives the first of four 2022 Reith Lectures on freedom of speech. It feels like freedom of speech is under attack. Cancel culture, arguments about “wokeness" and the attack 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? This lecture is recorded in London in front of an audience and presented by Anita Anand.

(Photo: Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Credit: Jeff Overs)