Introduction
Unlike in the past five decades when free speech laws aimed at protecting abusive expressions, today the right for free speech is being gradually exploited across the world, which heralds a new dawn of intolerance and repression. With the new communication technology and the revolutionary social networks, critics, bloggers, and journalists have gained a wide platform to express their ideas.
Consequently, governments and the majority of ordinary citizens have raised the alarm on the abuse of free speech, which sometimes leads to insecurity issues and religious intolerance. Free speech will not withstand the pressure from the government since security is a key issue as opposed to democracy in the contemporary times. In addition, managers will continue to face the ethical dilemma on how to control the abuse of free speech without contravening the employees’ civil liberties.
Reactions
Most governments, which hitherto perceived free speech as one of the absolute rights for humanity, now focus on international security and social stability as opposed to human rights. Governments have formed alliances to foster international security, while business people and ordinary citizens have opinions that pose threat to world security and social cohesion (Greenblatt, 2013).
The ongoing efforts to enforce the proposed religious sensibility regulations will play a critical role in ending the struggle that is witnessed especially in the Muslim communities across the world. Commentators, journalists, bloggers, and academicians who resist the government pressure will risk censorship and court trials.
Many journalists will have to give up the fight for free speech due to fear of the consequences assiociated with such agitation (Alexander & Richmond, 2007). The number of journalists being killed and jailed in the contemporary times is on the rise.
Media platforms are being misused with people showing outright ignorance on matters of national security, blasphemy, and cultural beliefs (Greenblatt, 2013). Few people, who express their views and experiences via the different media platforms, have little or no knowledge about the ethical issues governing this field.
Therefore, it is important for public administrators, human services managers, or non-profit agency directors to control the use of social media in the workplace by advocating responsible free speech. In the era Internet accessibility, managers should ensure that social media postings and other communication platforms are use responsibly to avoid vilification of some members of the society.
Free speech should yield social harmony and the desired values without hurting the beliefs and views of others based on culture or religion. Therefore, public administrators and human service managers are compelled to enforce policies that limit free speech due to the popular outcry on the lack of confidentiality and security.
These policies are well designed to ensure that people exercise free speech to limits that embrace cohesion. Non-profit agency directors are not exceptional in this dilemma, as dealing with workers of diverse cultures and religions means balancing concerns of all in a bid to maintain order in an organization. Since people have expressed the opposite of this requirement, it is upon the policymakers to let individuals and groups understand the confines of free speech rights and define the boundaries of exercising such rights.
For governments to counter whistleblowing, they insist on limiting free speech by indirectly emphasizing state confidentiality (Hall & Sutton, 2003). In the workplace, managers face the ethical dilemma of controlling the use of social media and ensuring civil liberties at the same time. Inasmuch as managers should not contravene the employees’ civil liberties, they should not allow such freedom to be abused. Therefore, managers should advocate responsible free speech for cohesion and productivity in the workplace.
References
Alexander, J., & Richmond, S. A. (2007). Administrative Discretion Can We Move Beyond Cider House Rules? American Review of Public Administration, 37(1), 51-64.
Greenblatt, A. (2013). Free speech at risk: Will it survive government repression? CQ Researcher, 23(16), 377-400.
Hall, T., &Sutton, A. (2003). Agency discretion and public ethics: the case of the immigration and naturalization service. Public Integrity, 5(4), 291-303.