The Ignore Principle: Demarcating Freedom of Expression

In order to recognize the interests of individuals who may be affected by the expressions of others, individuals’ own judgment of what constitutes ‘harm’ should be decisive. This does not mean that freedom of expression should on that basis potentially be reduced to nothing, for individuals may be expected to ignore certain expressions that harm them. Acknowledging the difficulty of determining the extent of freedom of expression, and the concurrent extent of acceptable harm, an absolute principle is forgone here, and the ignore principle is proposed instead. It dictates that only harm that cannot reasonably be ignored must be accepted.