In any case, I have been doing some thinking myself, and it seems to me that speech is either free or it isn't. In the same train of thought as 'being a little bit pregnant', it's an 'either-or' proposition.
Now of course laws also dictate what it is permissible to communicate, you can't threaten anyone with death and expect no consequences. I refer to what is permissible within the law.
Having established those boundaries many people still like to use the maxim that 'free speech isn't a license to slander'.
I can't help but disagree. It seems to me that that is exactly what free speech also is, again within the limits of the law, and of course you can slander within the law, just chose your adjectives carefully.
The maxim is subjective, whereas the principle of free speech within the law is completely definable. It means among other things that we have to contend with anything from Neo Nazis and racists, to gross exaggerations and political bias.
Free speech isn't pretty, those that think it should be have gotten the definition wrong.