The right to freedom of speech as a fundamental right

Introduction: the article considers the original constitutional and legal requirements of the right to freedom of speech as one of the fundamental human rights, noting its complex nature as of a personal and political right. Purpose: to analyze approaches developed in the constitutional law science and in judicial practice covering the concept of "freedom of speech " and to justify the statement that the right to freedom of speech is one of the fundamental rights of the individual. Methods: the methodological basis of the research is based on a set of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, induction and deduction) and specific scientific (formal-legal, comparative law) methods of cognition. Results: the use of the right to freedom of speech involves the person's use of all the powers vested by this freedom: the right to produce and search for information, the right to make up messages out of the information, the right to transfer and disseminate information, the right to use accessible communication channels, the right to receive and decode the transferred messages, the right to hold one's own opinions and beliefs, the possibility to enjoy the freedom of communication as a commonweal. Conclusions: the constitutional right to freedom of speech is classified as the fundamental human right, it is inalienable and is given to everyone since birth. As a fundamental right, the freedom of speech provides protection against arbitrary interference of the state into the important area of the human life -communication.