“The Scope of Tolerance: Response to Nehushtan”, Israel L Rev (2007): 277-296.

What is it about?

The Scope of Tolerance is the third book in a trilogy that started with The Boundaries of Liberty and Tolerance, and continued with Speech, Media and Ethics: The Limits of Free Expression. All three books are concerned with boundaries and are interdisciplinary in nature. While the first was in the fields of political science, philosophy and law; the second and third are in the fields of communication, applied ethics, and law. The three books supplement each other and together aim to establish a coherent and comprehensive study on the intriguing issue of limits to free expression. The Scope of Tolerance is about the limits of tolerance and the costs of freedom of expression. The concept of tolerance and its legitimate scope lies at the centre of analysis. It considers problematic expressions that require society to pay a certain price if tolerated. The analysis includes discussions on media invasion into one's privacy; offensive speech; incitement; hate speech and Holocaust denial, and finally media coverage of terrorism. The book's primary aim is to formulate precepts and mechanisms designed to prescribe boundaries to freedom of expression conducive to safeguard democracy. This interdisciplinary study combines theory and practice, examining the issues of contention from philosophical, legal and media perspectives. Its methodology involved extensive literature survey (books, journal and newspapers articles, classified documents), study of law and precedents as well as interviews with experts in media ethics, constitutional law and political extremism in Israel, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. Yossi Nehushtan has limited his review to four of the ten book's chapters (including the Conclusion). The bulk of his discussion is concerned with the scope of tolerance and its moral reasoning (chapter 1). He also addresses the issue of offense to sensibilities (chapters 4 and 5) and the issue of incitement (chapter 6). At the end of the review he describes my rationales for the role of responsible media in a free democracy. With his review, Nehushtan has forced me to rethink complicated issues and to address some difficult questions. For this I am grateful.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Debate between Nehushtan and me about the scope of tolerance.

Perspectives