"What separates a free country from a repressive one is the way government and citizens react, automatically, in all those constantly recurring situations where a “right” has to be translated into a response to a messy situation. What protects us is not so much the reference in a constitution to a right to free speech. It’s the more prosaic and harder to define guarantees like those of due process and proportionality in punishment, and the habit of governments and citizens of insisting that these actually be implemented. Still, it’s probably better to phrase the battle as one for freedom of expression. Due process and proportionality are just not very punk rock."

- M.S., writing in The Economist
Source: economist.com
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