On the other hand, people from the United States are often the first to tell you that “freedom of speech” is not a general aspiration for making the world a better place, but merely a specific amendment to their constitution, which importantly only applies to censorship done directly by the government… therefore it does not apply to censorship by companies or mobs or universities or whatever.
(As an extreme example, from this perspective, a country without an official government would count as 100% free speech, even if criticizing the local warlord gets you predictably tortured to death; as long as the local warlord is not considered a “government” because of some technicality.)
The indexes above seem to be concerned only with state restrictions on speech. But even if they weren’t, I would be surprised if the private situation was any better in the UK than it is here.
On the other hand, people from the United States are often the first to tell you that “freedom of speech” is not a general aspiration for making the world a better place, but merely a specific amendment to their constitution, which importantly only applies to censorship done directly by the government… therefore it does not apply to censorship by companies or mobs or universities or whatever.
(As an extreme example, from this perspective, a country without an official government would count as 100% free speech, even if criticizing the local warlord gets you predictably tortured to death; as long as the local warlord is not considered a “government” because of some technicality.)
The indexes above seem to be concerned only with state restrictions on speech. But even if they weren’t, I would be surprised if the private situation was any better in the UK than it is here.