Philosophy Minutes

Freedom of expression was at the heart of Liberal Day

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written by Sam Lécole · 13 March 2025 · 0 comment

La liberté d’expression a été au cœur de la Journée libérale

La Journée libérale romande s'est déroulée samedi à Lausanne. Photo: Sam Lécole pour Le Regard Libre

The limits of free speech, its expression through caricature and the challenges posed by wokism to this fundamental right were themes at the center of the 2025 edition of this annual meeting co-organized by Le Regard Libre, held on Saturday.

No fewer than 70 people accepted the invitation from the Institut libéral, the Cercle démocratique de Lausanne and your favorite monthly magazine, dedicating one day of their weekend to this convivial and intellectual colloquium. This year, the Journée libérale romande welcomed essayist Alain Laurent, contemporary art history professor Phillipe Kaenel and journalist Jonas Follonier, author of The spread of wokism in Switzerland, in a hotel in the capital of Vaud.

The limits of free speech

Having come from France despite discovering a shell under the Gare du Nord train station on the eve of his departure, Alain Laurent is astonished at how little he has written about the limits of freedom of expression among liberal thinkers. Since this principle is enshrined in the Declaration of Human Rights, it is difficult to define its limits. On the one hand, insult is forbidden, which Alain Laurent seems to think is a good thing. On the other, «you can't ban everything that hurts just because it hurts».

The essayist asserts that it is not only the state that can repress freedom of expression. This is also the case for ideological pressure groups such as Daesh. In France, factions can even use the legal system to exercise censorship by filing a complaint for «hate speech». For the philosopher, it is important to fight against restrictions on free expression, as they engender self-censorship via their conscious or unconscious internalization.

Cartooning and censorship in Switzerland

Cartoons test the limits of freedom of expression. This is what Philippe Kaenel supports in his presentation. Caricature also enables us to convey reality more faithfully than drawing, by magnifying the relevant features. The lecturer agrees with Jean Huber on the relationship between caricature and drawing, which would be the same as that between light and shadow, both necessary to each other.

Acting on reality, this art form also expressed social theories without necessarily calling into question the structure of society. In the XV^th In the 19th century, Martin Luther understood the power of images and used them to his advantage. The pamphleteer Thomas Murner turned images into caricatures to challenge his ideas. A century later, they were still referred to as ’outrageous images«. Today, although public figures may still feel unjustly attacked, they are legally obliged to accept distortions of their portrayal.

Wokism and prohibitions

It was in defining his subject that Jonas Follonier, author of The spread of wokism in Switzerland, begins his closing address. According to Olivier Massin, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Neuchâtel, wokism - or identity politics - refers to an ideology that defends the following postulates: oppressive relations are omnipresent, they define social identities, and a victim need only call himself a victim in order to be recognized as such.

Jonas Follonier notes the presence of this movement in Switzerland. Between inclusive posters and cancelled conferences, the editor-in-chief of Regard Libre cites an example of a form used by Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) to support a film, with fields to be completed on the gender or religion of team members.

For wokes, any offense from a «dominant» group is immediately equated with oppression, and any oppression with wrongdoing, so any offense from a «dominant» group must be prohibited. Such prohibitions by definition restrict individual freedom, including freedom of expression. This makes wokism an illiberal ideology, especially as it posits that groups have rights, whereas the liberal maintains that it is the individual who has rights, by virtue of his or her humanity and not any other group.

One point emerges from the three conferences: freedom of expression is fundamentally oriented towards others. Necessary for the confrontation of individual thought, it enables the development of the latter and of society as a whole. A day of lively, sometimes heated debate.

Sam Lécole is a trainee at Regard Libre.