Free to Speak

Thought Police examines the long history of governments suppressing speech – with clear echoes of George Orwell’s warning of a world without free speech. The program weaves personal stories from Hong Kong, North Korea, and Peru, whose governments tried to suppress free speech, one of them resulting in a monumental – and avoidable – human tragedy.

Challenging either religious or scientific dogma can prove explosive. The One True Faith looks at the once-sacrilegious beliefs of Galileo and shows the uproar caused by the Scopes Monkey Trial. The program also examines the work of Nobel Laureate Barry Marshall, who proved that ulcers were caused by bacteria, and explores the cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo that led to a horrifying massacre.

The Speech We Hate features a Kenyan filmmaker whose love story of two women garnered a nationwide ban. Viewers also meet a Turkish political artist who was censored for his provocative work in the U.S., a hip-hop historian who recalls the arrest of members of 2 Live Crew for obscenity, and a student who took a lawsuit over banned books in his school all the way to the Supreme Court.