As European countries have cracked down on free speech and many have found themselves imprisoned for Facebook posts, it is timely indeed that here in Australia Joe Hildebrand offers excellent perspectives about those feigning a passion for the free flow of vile hate speech under the virtue-signalling mantle of moral superiority (“Our fearless writers have lost their nerve”, DT, 26/1). Free speech is a social driver for the propagation of ideas, educating an audience who might otherwise persist in ignorance. If the subject of such speech is truthful, this is positive. But when the orator is distorting truth for political malevolence and is inciting action which is misguided, “free speech” has become a tool for social discord and is undeserving of legal protection. In the courtrooms, perjury can result in severe sentences, and yet in the court of public opinion, under the guise of “opinion” those distorting public debate are tolerated as their repeated lies are eventually believed. Alan Sexton, North Parramatta 27Jan2026