David Marr: The Australian is howling offence. But calling Bill Leak a racist is ‘free speech’ too

Seems the Australian only recognises free speech when it’s speaking. The paper is demanding an apology from the ABC because demonstrators in Monday night’s Q&A audience called Bill Leak a racist.

Imagine! How insulting! How offensive!

All the great names have joined the fray. The former PM and mighty advocate of free speech Tony Abbott is calling for the ABC to grovel. Warren Mundine is there calling the demonstrators “idiotic morons”. Paul Kelly is thundering about the self-righteous bigotry of progressives.

Bill Leak was free to draw – and the Australian was free to publish – cartoons attacking black people and Muslims. Free speech. But surely it is not news to a newspaper that citizens have free speech too.

I was there in the Q&A audience in Adelaide. Up on stage panel members were speaking with respect for Leak, carefully negotiating the difficult territory between regret for his death and regret for his work.

Then up the back, a couple of angry people started yelling that Leak was a racist. That ticks a few boxes. It’s offensive. It’s insulting. It breaks a taboo in our society about criticising the recently dead.

But it’s free speech.

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David Marr, Guardian