Step 4: Freedom of Expression deliberation



We had “Should our democracy permit hate speech?” deliberation lesson on 4 February. There were 9 pupils of 10 present. Our teacher’s name is Nataliya Byzova. Before the one and half an hour work in class we had read the text “Freedom of expression”. At the beginning of the lesson we answered some questions. The most important among them were: 1)What is hate speech? 2)What documents protect freedom of expression? 3)How do democratic countries support freedom of expression? 4)Why is freedom of expression limited in democratic countries?
After that we worked in groups presenting points of view of those who are supporters and opponents of hate speech and at the same time we were listeners.
In the second part of the lesson we gave our own arguments on this issue and tried to find areas of agreement. They turned out to be the following:
1)Hate speech is not a crime.
2)Governments should have laws limiting hate speech which incourages hatred to people of different races and beliefs.
The most interesting thing during the deliberation was presenting our own attitude to the topic. Though it was not very easy, it was thrilling to conduct the deliberation in English. We also had to make some effort to translate the text for reading, but it was worth doing it. This work looks more serious and important than the one we did before in class.


Mykola Romashkin, Grade 9"Б"