Does "freedom of speech" still exist?

Recently, there has been a lot of controversy here in New Zealand over two Canadian "far right activists". Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux, known for their extreme and controversial views were on tour, with an event planned here in Auckland. However, the Auckland mayor Phil Goff simply came out and said the two would be banned from speaking at any council or government owned venues (the same venues which have held radical Islamist events in the past), straight away this decision was decided to be a breach of their rights to freedom of speech, something which western society is completely based on. Anyways, this caused many debates over the past few weeks as the pair have continued to try and secure a venue for their event. Eventually, it was brought up in one of my law lectures at university and it really put things in perspective - the (current) New Zealand government is being run by a group of far left communists and the NZ media only encourages it.

Now I certainly don't agree with alot of their views but imo the whole situation is completely ridiculous. Over the past month, media outlets have been constantly labelling the two as racists and therefore not welcome in the country and even the Prime Minister claiming the country is 'hostile' towards their views. Clearly anyone who has opposed the event doesn't understand the concept of free speech and will only listen to what they want to hear.



www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/08/exclusive-patrick-gower-takes-on-lauren-southern-and-stefan-molyneux.html