The Dragon Says: Our Free Speech is Sacred – This Vile Anonymous Abuse Must Be Silenced

Published on: 1 Nov, 2019
Updated on: 3 Nov, 2019

Only rarely do we on the editorial team at The Dragon have to discard a reader’s comment because we judge it abusive.

From the outset, we have maintained a clear policy that no anonymous comments would be allowed and every one would be subject to moderation and editing.

We accept comments only where a name is given us, at the least a checkable surname and initial. And we do our best to weed out those where the given name may not be genuine.

Our moderation aims to remove anything that could unnecessarily or excessively offend, and our editing is aimed at removing inaccuracy, because even practised writers make mistakes. We want to help those who make comments express them clearly, in readable and correct English, as best we can.

Freedom of speech is a precious right we deeply believe is worth fighting for, worth risking our lives. It is, of course, a signal right for which millions of our countrymen and our allies have died. Now, again at this time, we wear our poppies to remember their sacrifice.

But we have no right to be anonymous. When we make a comment in the public arena we must take responsibility for it, be ready to defend it and be prepared to apologise if we are proved wrong.

As we approach another General Election, the tremendously increased volume of anonymous abuse hurled at our politicians, from evil and malicious insults to outright death threats, dominates the news.

I have… received two death threats, one which included my family. Anne Milton

This torrent of frightening nastiness, reckoned to be topping 500,000 messages, has forced decent MPs, many of them wives and mothers, to leave Parliament, to stop serving their constituents.

Even our own MP, Anne Milton, has suffered. She said: “Although not subject to the same level of abuse as some MPs I have still received two death threats, one which included my family.

“It is tragic that those in public life feel unable or less able to express their opinion because of fear of the abuse they will receive.

“We should never take for granted the freedom we have to express our views. But that freedom is already being constrained because holding a contrary opinion is tolerated less and less.”

And this dreadful modern evil of insults, this abuse of our hard-won right to freedom of speech, is not contained to politics. In the NHS, reported racist insults have tripled to more than 1,500 this year, directed at staff who have come to this country to help care for our sick and injured. Utterly shameful.

Those malicious trolls who use social media for their vile abuse and threats hide behind false names, or no names. They must be exposed for the nasty, pathetic cowards they are, named, shamed and prosecuted if necessary.

The giants that operate social media giants should instigate proper identity checks when users open an account.

And the government should legislate to force those giants to identify the culprits so they can be silenced.

Such abuse shames Britain before the world.

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