&gt;In South Africa free speech is also progressively being stifled through new laws, whos purpose is said to punish racism and hate speech, but is actually being used to support the governing party in silencing dissidents and critics.<p>Stifling free speech, in any case, is always just like putting a band-aid on an infected boil which only serves to make the problem fester even more.<p>&gt;Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.<p>-Dr. King, Letter From a Birmingham Jail