Esmaeel1 Freedom, a word which we hear on everyday basis, a word which is being used in many different part of our everyday life. There are many different kind of freedoms (i.e. freedom of speech, freedom from slavery, political freedom, freedom from borders, spiritual freedom, freedom of information, self-freedom and financial freedom.) Each individual or certain group of individuals look at the concept of freedom in a totally different way. Hadenius suggests that “Each Individual or certain group of individual look at the concept of freedom in a totally different way”. For some of us, a freedom could be freedom based on going anywhere we want to go at any time or the freedom to do anything we would like at any given time. This essay will try to explore the idea behind freedom and how it affects our daily life. I will also look at the freedom in a very literate way and try to describe what it is and how it has developed over the past few years by the help of examples from different part of the world (Hadenius 27).In order to explore the concept freedom, let me describe the literate meaning of the word freedom, let me describe the literate meaning of the word freedom. Pam Seabright has tried to define in one of two ways: “The power to control action without limitation,” and “[t]he absence of restraint regarding choice or action” (12). Seabright declares that “democracy is the true kind of freedom”. There are various countries in the world now who have democracy such as, Denmark, Dominican Republic ,El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy and many others. I will use an example from United States of America. The current democratic system in US embraces its several commitments in a way which encourages a contented and comfortable society. In other words, due to freedom (democracy), once a government is elected it made sure that normal citizens can carry on with their everyday life knowing that government is working in the background to make sure everything works smoothly (13).I am going to try and look at some examples which shows us what freedom means to different people at different time. Schubert emphasizes “freedom of speech and freedom of press” by mentioning a very famous case, there was a very famous case which involved John Peter Zenger who was a publisher for New York Weekly Journal, back in 1735. Zenger was among the first journalist who was sued after he published some serious political stories about the officials at the time. This was the time when there was no such thing as Freedom of speech of freedom of press. This case eventually lead the establishment to the right of the press to criticize public and political officials. Thereafter, in 1791, the First Amendment was recognised. This Amendment is the foundation of the freedom of speech and specially freedom of press in United States (4). There are more than 200 independent nations in our planet, and government in ...

1. Esmaeel1
Freedom, a word which we hear on everyday basis, a word
which is being used in many different part of our everyday life.
There are many different kind of freedoms (i.e. freedom of
speech, freedom from slavery, political freedom, freedom from
borders, spiritual freedom, freedom of information, self-
freedom and financial freedom.) Each individual or certain
group of individuals look at the concept of freedom in a totally
different way. Hadenius suggests that “Each Individual or
certain group of individual look at the concept of freedom in a
totally different way”. For some of us, a freedom could be
freedom based on going anywhere we want to go at any time or
the freedom to do anything we would like at any given time.
This essay will try to explore the idea behind freedom and how
it affects our daily life. I will also look at the freedom in a very
literate way and try to describe what it is and how it has
developed over the past few years by the help of examples from
different part of the world (Hadenius 27).In order to explore the
concept freedom, let me describe the literate meaning of the
word freedom, let me describe the literate meaning of the word
freedom. Pam Seabright has tried to define in one of two ways:
“The power to control action without limitation,” and “[t]he
absence of restraint regarding choice or action” (12).
Seabright declares that “democracy is the true kind of
freedom”. There are various countries in the world now who
have democracy such as, Denmark, Dominican Republic
,El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana,
Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy and many others. I
will use an example from United States of America. The current
democratic system in US embraces its several commitments in a

2. way which encourages a contented and comfortable society. In
other words, due to freedom (democracy), once a government is
elected it made sure that normal citizens can carry on with their
everyday life knowing that government is working in the
background to make sure everything works smoothly (13).I am
going to try and look at some examples which shows us what
freedom means to different people at different time. Schubert
emphasizes “freedom of speech and freedom of press” by
mentioning a very famous case, there was a very famous case
which involved John Peter Zenger who was a publisher for New
York Weekly Journal, back in 1735. Zenger was among the first
journalist who was sued after he published some serious
political stories about the officials at the time. This was the
time when there was no such thing as Freedom of speech of
freedom of press. This case eventually lead the establishment to
the right of the press to criticize public and political officials.
Thereafter, in 1791, the First Amendment was recognised. This
Amendment is the foundation of the freedom of speech and
specially freedom of press in United States (4).
There are more than 200 independent nations in our planet, and
government in most of those nations have identified the
responsibility of freedom and what does it mean to people
especially in today’s highly modern world. It means that,
general public is free to express their selves with all-purpose
towards valuing the singular freedom of others. A simple
example would be none other than United State of America, it is
known as one of very few countries which tend to provide
freedom at many different levels each American citizen. This is
mainly due to a very stable democratic system developed by the
government. In simple words, Americans have establish an
improved understanding of self-worth, an improved intellect of
communication and a will to follow an expressive life.
Puddington looks at this topic in detail, he goes on by saying
that US is one of very few countires in the world, where
regardless what religion you follow and what belief you have
you can pratcice it in public and no one will stop you or ask you

3. about it. A simple way to look at the religion freedom is the fact
that, in US you will find Church, Mosques, temple and
synagogue for various different kind of religions so people can
actually go their holy places and pray (12).
On the other hand, there are still various nations in the world
who not just have so called independent countries but also they
tend to preach about the different sort of freedoms. But when
you look at countries like Algeria, Zimbabwe and many other
rural countries in Africa and Asia, the situation is totally
opposite. We are in twenty first century, it is so far the most
advance time we have seen in many way. However, a large part
of our planet is still not just rural and living under worst
possible conditions but they don’t have any freedom to do
anything. It is from freedom to speech to freedom of religion.
The question we should ask ourselves is that if freedom is
actually a very good concept that only very few of us are
enjoying it at the best and rest of world is still going through
life in a different way (Beetham 12). I also want to shed some
light on the freedom of religion, after democracy and a country
being an independent nation. This is one of the most type or
degree of freedom, because there are currently thousands of
different types of religion being practiced in the World. In
countries like USA or UK, according to a recent survey, there
are more than 100 religion being practiced just in New York and
London. If these countries and their governments have not given
full fledge freedom to their citizen, I don’t see that freedom of
religion would have been possible (Carr 139).
There are many different examples at front of us from many
different countries, but I would like to point out a very
unorthodox example from a small country Romania. Traer
points out that population is primarily Romanian and Eastern
Orthodox. Here the minority community of Hungarian origin is
under hostile to preserve its traditional and spiritual life. In this
case minorities have protested and tried their best to get same
rights as everyone else. It has been more than two decades since

4. this is being happening in Romania and they still have not given
full rights or freedom of religion to Hungarians (2).
However, on this exact argument I would also like to point out
one other thing that, yes freedom and more specifically freedom
of religion is very important. Everyone should be allowed to
practice their belief freely. But, most of the terror and other
crime activities are also being done one the name of religion.
Now this is something we as human being and our governments
will have to work on. There are always individuals among us
who take advantage of freedom. It is not just our government
but also our responsibility not to misuse the freedom given to us
(Sullivan 487).
To conclude, I would like to start by saying that, yes any kind
of freedom is a good thing to have in our society and we have
developed many different degrees of freedom in past few
decades. This intense development in technology and mass
media to be everywhere at any given time has made sure that
there is freedom of speech in most developed and even
developing countries. As mention above in the essay most
countries in the world are not just following the democracy
examples set by nations like US, but they are making them more
and more common everywhere. However, there is one thing
which we should be very careful about it is the fact that yes we
do have freedom, freedom of religion and speech. We should
not misuse this power. In an essence freedom is nothing but a
power and when some of us start looking at this remarkable
concept as something like a power play. This is where problem
comes and this is when we start to think that do we actually
need this freedom in that part of the world. A simple example
comes to mind which was of a Danish journalist creating awful
cartoons of a Holy Prophet. We need to make sure that having
this much freedom doesn’t lead to an incident like that again.
Work cited
Beetham, David. Liberal Democracy and the Limits
Democratization. 1993: Stanford University Press, 1993.

5. Carr, Marilyn, Martha Alter Chen, and Jane Tate.
"Globalization and Home-Based Workers." Feminist Economics
(2000): 123-42.
Freidman, M. "Free to Choose." Freidman, M. Free to Choose.
London: Secker & Warburg, 1980. 128.
Hadenius, Axel. "Democracy and Development." Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press., 1992. 27.
Pam, Nurse. Explaining Freedom To Republicans. 20 April
2012. <http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/04/20/explaining-
freedom-to-republicans/>.
Puddington, Arch. Freedom in the World 3013: Democratic
Breakthroughs in the Balance. New York, 2013.
Schubert, Jessica. What is Freedom of the Press? - Definition,
History & Examples. 21 February 2012. Website:
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/what-is-freedom-of-
the-press-definition-history-examples.html#lesson. 5 May 2014.
Seabright, Paul. The Road Upward: Development as Freedom.
New York: New York Review of Books, 2001.
Sullivan, D. "Advancing the Freedom of Religion or Belief
Through the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Religious
Intolerance and Discrimination ." The American Journal of
International Law (1988): 487.
Traer, Robert. Religious Freedom: A Community Right. 3
March 1991. Website:
http://religionhumanrights.com/Law/ICCPR/community.rt.htm.
24 May 2014.
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