Free speech, religious freedom and vilification in Australia.

In Australia, the marriage-equality plebiscite of 2017 prompted significant debate over appropriate limits to free speech in the context of expressions of religious belief. This article reports on the results of a political discourse analysis of media coverage in prominent national newspapers from 2017 to 2021. Findings show the debate was dominated by three representations: discrimination against Christians, disagreement as rights abrogation, and the meaning of 'free speech' as unbridled and unlimited. These representations were deployed in an (ultimately unsuccessful) endeavour to override long-held views about the appropriate place of freedom of speech in Australian political culture and law, and to misrepresent the meaning and purpose of vilification laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]