Acta Universitatis Danubius. Relationes Internationales, Vol 4, No 1 (2011)

Abstract

The issue of freedom is one of the fundamental issues of the philosophical thought. In the European cultural area, there is a strong tradition in this respect, starting from the Greek antiquity and reaching to the philosophies of the 20th century. Existentialism, as an exemplary philosophical trend of the last century, is founded in the horizon of freedom. Freedom is an element which allows us to classify the political regimes in democratic and non-democratic. The democratic regimes are defined as forms of government which allow for the manifestation of freedom, while the non-democratic ones are defined as governments which forbid individual freedoms. The concept of freedom is theoretically
shaped in the philosophical thought. We distinguish between the individual’s inner freedom and his outer freedom. According to the philosophical doctrines, each individual’s inner freedom may be
almost immune to any type of constraint, while our outer freedom is problematic. Constraints are exerted in the horizon of the individuals’ outer freedoms. This outer freedom makes itself felt in the public space and it is the only form of freedom which can manifest concretely, visibly. The concept of freedom is related to the concepts of communication, policy, and politics. These elements theoretically shape the issue of the freedom of speech. The truth and correctness of the information
presented to the public opinion will be correlated with the issue of the freedom of communication and the issue of the freedom of speech in the public arena. In order to highlight this aspect even better, we
have presented a case concerning the freedom of speech in recounting the facts in the Gaza Strip. At an international level, the public opinion is informed that in that area of eternal conflict there are “good characters”, namely the Jews, and “bad characters”, namely the Palestinians. But things are far from being that simple. To conclude, the issue of the freedom of speech in the public space represents, just like in Constantin Noica’s thinking, “an open concept”, opened towards questioning and conceptual clarification.