Again, for almost everything, your character is free to say whatever he wants. The only exceptions are the Inalienable Rights.
And you may not understand it, or even believe it, but for a lot of people, when someone in a position of influence says something like, "You guys who went to the tournament are making trouble for the realm!", they don't ignore it. They take it to heart, and they start thinking, "Well, I shouldn't go to the tournament if it might have some adverse effect on the realm, even if it's something I want to do..."
Just saying, "Well, people should man up and ignore people saying stuff they don't want to do" isn't helpful, because it ignores basic realities of humans in societies of any type.
