Positive and negative rights

Here's Bob up to something again. For some reason he thinks that chewing gum cures cancer, and now he has written something about it. But, the island newspaper doesn't want to publish the text, as they consider it utter rubbish. Bob gets cross. He thinks this violates his freedom of speech.

Yes, because it does! That's censorship! Don't we have any freedom of speech on this island anymore? Freedom of the press? No?

Noooo, that's not actually how it works. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press doesn't make it mandatory for the paper to publish what you write. They are negative rights. Whaddaya mean negative? So you think freedom of speech is a bad thing?

No, that's not what it means. Like this: There are positive and negative rights. A negative right is the right not to have to put up with something. The right not to be tortured for instance, is a negative right. So is religious freedom.

It means that you may not be punished for what you believe in. It's the same with freedom of speech. It's a negative right. Freedom of speech gives you the right to express your opinions without punishment. But when you yell "censorship!" when the paper doesn't publish your text, you are treating freedom of speech and freedom of the press as if they were positive rights.

A positive right is the right to get something, rather than the right to not get something. It could be the right to healthcare, or the right to education for example. A positive right requires that someone else is obliged to make sure that the right is fulfilled. Most often it's the government who has that obligation. So, what is a positive right for one person, is an obligation for someone else.

A negative right on the other hand, doesn't require that someone else does something for you to enjoy it. Your freedom of speech only requires that others avoid trying to keep you from expressing your opinion. And since everyone else also is allowed to express themselves, freedom of speech means we have to tolerate seeing and hearing things we disagree with. We don't have the right to avoid hearing or seeing things we don't like, and we can't stop others from expressing themselves. But I don't do that!

I just tell the truth about cancer and chewing gum!Hmm. Well. You do have the right to write your text, but you don't have the right to insist someone publishes it. But you can always publish it yourself. Put it on the web, or print it on flyers.

That's alright. Just remember that everyone else has the right to choose not to read the text; or to read it and argue against it, and show if it's incorrect.