Free Speech Crumbles in Europe

Imagine this scenario.

The interior minister of a country that considers itself a democracy reports hundreds of citizens to the police for making critical statements about her while she is in office. Many of them are given hefty monetary fines or even prison sentences.

In protest, a journalist publishes a satirical meme. It features a real photograph of the interior minister holding a sign that is digitally altered so that, apocryphally, it reads: “I hate freedom of speech.”