Ya know, SP, you are absolutely correct! Our right to Freedom of Speech is contained in the first amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights! It was not even an original part of the Constitution because the drafters were all originally, of course, British lawyers! It was crafted, as were most of those first ten amendments to the Constitution, as a response to King George's treatment of the American colonists under valid British law at the time. So this seems to be a particularly American thing.