Censorship dressed up is denial of free speech WHEN Andrew Bolt was brought before the courts by a group of aggrieved Aborigines he had allegedly insulted and offended, he defended his views on the basis of fair and free speech. The record will show that Bolt lost. At the time, senator George Brandis noted that under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, "we are not free as journalists, commentators and ordinary citizens to make critical remarks in the course of ordinary political exchange."