Just today a friend and I started a discussion about that (we discuss via voice messages, as we're 10h apart, and answer when we can). He had claimed that there is no freedom of speech in Europe anymore, and that everything is censored.
I don't agree. It's not total freedom of speech, that is true. There are boundaries to every freedom, as soon as it one's freedom limits the freedom of another - and the integrity of body and soul is a higher value than freedom of speech, at least in Germany - Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar. Human Dignity is inviolable (in the sense of not to be violated).
When expression/speech violates the diginity of a person, it is NOT allowed. It's not allowed to insult somebody. It's not allowed to incite hate. It's not allowed to defame someone.
Now, of course, there are nuances. Everything has to be in a balance. Calling someone an idiot is not the same as racist slur. But that is again an expression of the values of those country and culture, and sacrificing those for total freedom of speech - I'd call that questionable.
Thank you so much for your input in the argument.
This is for sure one important point of start. Sometimes, when I see the news in the tele I just feel that I'm "out of this planet"... So many strange things happening, and that I thought they were "from the previous century"