Forum on Public Policy

Modern society treats each person as a free individual who takes responsibility of his/her own decisions. Accordingly free speech is regarded as one of the most important values for citizens. On the other hand, free speech is a rare example of freedom which can often escape from responsibility even when it has influential power on the society. This may be the reason why not few people have started to think that some form of censorship is necessary with the rise of new media. To establish responsibility of speech without violating free speech, the author presents the notion of speech deposit system, which guarantees people to pay back the profit of press and speech when the description turns out to be wrong in the future. With this system we can give negative incentive to the writers or speakers who try to gain profits by publishing fraudulent information or fabricated stories. Since it is just a private system without any compulsory power, it does not violate rights of free speech. Yet it can control the influence of irresponsible speeches because people are expected to judge that speeches without deposit are less reliable than those with deposit. 1