A Special Duty to Inform Properly and Communicate Truthfully for State Authorities in Liberal Democracies

Abstract

The problem addressed in this thesis is the vulnerability that unrestricted freedom of speech can cause for liberal democracies. While some have focused on the international aspect of the problem, where authoritarian regimes interfere in democracies to destabilize them (Sloss, 2022), I focus on the internal dimension from a conceptual perspective. My thesis is that restricting and/or sanctioning the harmful speech of state authorities is required for liberal democracies to properly function. To do so, I review the concept of freedom of speech and conclude that we have good reason to sometimes restrict this freedom to protect others from harm, and specially so in the case of state authorities. Additionally, I suggest that state authorities in liberal democracies have a special duty to communicate truthfully with citizens, based on citizens’ right to know (Watson, 2021).