Here's a very good speech about the freedom of expression delivered by writer Salman Rushdie to the 'India Today Conclave 2012'; an event in which cricketer, turned politician, now scumbag, Imran Khan, refused to appear due to Rushdie's presence, because this would be an "immeasurable hurt" to Islam. The whole speech is pretty damned good, mainly concerned with freedom of expression issues arising from Rushdie's Satanic Verses and the fatwa this earned him from Muslim clerics, and pinpointing just where the real 'immeasurable hurt' is with Islam. But, freedom is freedom, the concepts apply universally, and I hope Judith Collins reads this section:

This word, freedom. It's a beautiful sounding word, isn't it? Who would be against freedom? It's a word everyone would automatically be "for", one would think. A free society is one in which a thousand flowers bloom, in which a thousand and one voices speak. And what a simple and grand idea that seems. It's like that copper goddess standing in the harbour, enlightening the world.

But in our time, many essential freedoms are in danger of defeat and not only in totalitarian or authoritarian states. Here in India also, a combination of religious fanaticism, political opportunism and, I have to say, public apathy is damaging that freedom upon which all other freedoms depend: the freedom of expression.

In fact every politician, 90% of voters, and all political and economic commentators need to refresh themselves with these principles, and take note of the warning. Judith Collins just legislated away a major 'essential freedom': the right of a journalist to protect a source.