Free speech has long been held as one of the fundamental merits of Western-style democracy, not just in the US where it’s apparently guaranteed by the First Amendment, but all around the Western world. One of the main attacks on China, for example, is that Facebook is banned here, apparently a sign that the population is muzzled. 

Follow me on Twitter: @AndyBxxx 
Watch as a video: http://www.youtube.com/ReportsOnChina

Free speech as a Western virtue, though, was dealt its final blow recently as Western governments and tech giants pushed for the shutting down of Russia’s foreign language news outlets, RT and Sputnik. 

Their claim was that Russian outlets promoted “systematic information manipulation and disinformation by the Kremlin". 

Many in the West have heralded the blocking of RT and Sputnik as the right thing to do, despite it going against everything the West apparently stands for. 

Please don't forget to hit like, leave a comment and subscribe – it really does help my content get seen by a wider audience.