How free speech can get you fired

[Gerald]

In America, everyone has the right to free speech. But legally spoken remarks often have severe consequences - as the baseball coach who praised Fidel Castro has now discovered.

Ozzie Guillen, manager of the Miami Marlins baseball team, earned a five-game suspension after praising Fidel Castro in a Time magazine interview.

John Derbyshire, the conservative columnist, lost his job at the National Review after publishing an article warning his children to, among other things, avoid amusement parks with a high concentration of black visitors.

The first amendment to the US constitution protects the right to free speech, meaning Americans have the right to speak their mind.

"The courts take the position that this is the price of freedom," says free speech expert Craig Smith, of the University of California, Long Beach. As long as it is not personally defamatory, American speech is protected by law.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17660865


Note: 11 April 2012 Last updated at 01:23 GMT