Free Speech vs Feminism - an ongoing battle

The journalist and feminist in me are fighting an on-going battle. The women’s rights campaigner inside me gets angry at  sexist and discriminatory public statements. Is it better for voters to hear Donald Trump’s (what many consider to be appalling) attitudes towards women, Mexicans and Muslims, or should we banish him and other politicians and speakers from the public forum, and thus not know what they are thinking?…..'

On the other hand as a journalist and a democrat I am a firm believer of free speech and believe that a citizen’s right to freedom of expression within public discourse is a precious right to be nurtured. My article on Feminism versus Free Speech has  just been published and can be found here:https://www.opendemocracy.net/lesley-abdela/democracies-free-speech-and-right-to-offend

The article also refers to , 'Hate speech and Democratic Citizenship' by Eric Heinze, Professor of Law and Humanities at Queen Mary University of London. He says, the more a country is a genuinely developed democracy, the less it needs to impose 'speech bans'.