Free speech is the natural way of expressing ones ideas or feelings without any limitations by either the government or any other party for that matter. It revolves around the social life of human beings. Free speech differs from freedom of speech in that it does not only involve delivery of a message through words but also involves the understanding of the message being passed across by considering the interests of the audience.
Free speech may not always be words but may as well be practiced in form of pictures or painting to put across a certain message. Others may pass on information through performances such as plays or through a song video. The main idea of free speech is to communicate through whatever means of expression (Robert, 1991, p. 55). Speech is protected by the constitution in the First Amendment. This paper compares and contrasts commercial and political speech, which are types of legally protected speech.
The First Amendment provides for the protection of commercial speech. The commercial speech protected by this amendment is normally in form of advertising.
However, the degree to which the First Amendment protects commercial speech is not the same as that for other forms of speech protected by the Amendment. Commercial speech therefore enjoys substantially less protection as compared to the other forms of speech. Basically, the kind of commercial speech that is protected by the First Amendment is the one that is not misleading, and it has to be true.
The speech must also advertise activities or goods that are legal, and that are not harmful to the public. The amendment provides that restriction of commercial speech should be subject to proved furtherance of a certain government interest. However, in certain cases where the furtherance of government interest is in doubt, commercial advertising is protected by the First Amendment (Robert, 1991, p. 37).
Protection of political speech by the First Amendment was motivated by the fact that formerly, political activists were subjected to torture and even executions for speaking in public. The amendment therefore provides for protection of dissident speech so that political minorities are protected. Unlike commercial speech, political speech enjoys substantially more protection. However, like commercial speech, political speech protection by the First Amendment also has its limits.
For instance, speech that is meant to advocate for illegal activities is not protected by this amendment. In the same way, subversive speech is strongly prohibited and it does not enjoy the protection of this amendment (Franks, 2011, p. 1). However, it is important to note that such speech is prohibited only if it is meant to cause the public to be involved in lawless action.
From the above discussion, it is apparent that commercial speech and political speech have some similarities and differences as legally protected forms of speech. One similarity is that they both have limits beyond which they do not enjoy their protection by the first amendment.
Additionally, they are both protected if they are not associated with illegal activities. On the other hand, one of the differences that can be pointed out is the fact that political speech enjoys more protection than commercial speech. Also among the differences is the fact that commercial speech protection is meant for all members of the society while political speech protection was developed primarily for protection of political minorities.
Reference List
Franks, R. (2011). First Ammendment – Freedom Of Speech. Retrieved from https://law.jrank.org/pages/6905/First-Amendment-Freedom-Speech.html
Robert, W. (1991). The First Amendment Book. New York. World Almanac.