Search for Common Ground: Where is the line between free and hate speech?

Common Ground is a local group of concerned citizens seeking to build a conversational community to facilitate productive discussion and critical thinking about complex and controversial issues.

It was founded by myself, with retired philosopher Joe Mintoff, and local entrepreneur Tim Cox.

In the past we have held debates and panels on topics like gender quotas, war, body image, echo chambers and more.

Next Saturday night, June 13, at The Base Health in Newcastle West, three panellists will take the stage to discuss what hate speech is and what we should do about it.

Most people agree that speech can be hateful, but they don't always agree about specific cases. Worse, it seems accusations of hate speech are sometimes used as political weapons, muddying the waters even further.

Arguably the Victorian government was right to ban the public display of Nazi symbols, but has the Queensland government gone too far to ban the public expression of Palestinian slogans?

What's the difference, if any? That's the question.

The panellists will be deputy lord mayor and Greens City of Newcastle councillor Charlotte McCabe; conjoint philosophy lecturer Dr Russell Blackford; and associate professor of law at the University of Newcastle, Neil Foster.

"I think the topic of free speech and its proper boundaries is especially important," Blackford says.

But knowing where those boundaries lie is difficult.

"There are justified concerns about different types of speech that incite violence, especially in the aftermath of the terrible massacre at Bondi in December in the midst of a Jewish festival," Foster says.

"But we need to think clearly about what types of speech should be limited and not jump too quickly to interfere with the freedom to share different views on controversial topics."

For McCabe, the definition of hate speech is simple.

"Hate speech is public communication that is intentionally discriminatory and incites violence," she says.

For Blackford it's more complex.

"The problem is that there's no agreed definition of hate speech, and any definition that I attempted to provide would be no more than a recommendation," Blackford says.

"If we're going to have such a concept, however, it should have something to do with the concept of hate.

"That's also hard to define, but at the least we should agree that hate is an extreme and destructive emotion that motivates people to want to inflict really serious harm on others.

"Hate speech must relate in some way to expressing this sort of extreme antipathy to other people and trying to stir it up more widely in the community. Accusations of hate speech should not be made lightly."

Foster is interested in free speech issues from a number of perspectives.

"I teach defamation as part of my Torts course," Foster says. "I also teach and research in the area of law and religion, and there are lots of issues around the intersection between religious freedom, free speech, and where we put limits on those things.

"I am keen for a respectful and thoughtful discussion of these issues."

After the panel, Common Ground will open the event up to the audience, as we always do, inviting participants to engage with the panellists.

There have been recent accusations that public discussion forums often platform only those with largely similar ideas and perspectives, like only from the right in certain media organisations and voices predominately from the left at certain writers' festivals.

Common Ground strives to present more politically diverse panels, hopefully giving a voice to those who are not always heard.

"I really appreciate that Common Ground is creating spaces for people to unpack challenging socio-political concepts in a safe space that's in person, not online," McCabe says.

"This allows our community to navigate complexity, consider different perspectives and take time to delve into the cause and effect of political decisions.

"In these increasingly polarising times, events like these are exactly what's needed."

Find more information and tickets by visiting commonground.forum.

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