Monday, December 16, 2019
#FREESPEECH IN THE NEWS: December 16, 2019
As the Citadel of Free Speech here in Cleveland, we work to protect and promote the basis of our democracy by sharing related stories, commentary, and opinions on free speech in the 21st century. Here's what's making the news – and what you should know about – in the past week.
Apple may be forced to clarify exactly how it responds to government demands that might limit free speech.
According to the Financial Times, shareholders at the firm's annual meeting next year are expected to ask Apple to describe how it will respond to future demands — whether from national governments or other groups — that might limit free expression or access to information.
This comes after campaigners working for the consumer-advocacy group SumOfUs submitted a successful proposal asking shareholders to press Apple for such a description. According to a spokeswoman, the proposal was submitted on behalf of the group by Apple shareholders who are SumOfUs members.
A high school newspaper’s blank front page is saying volumes about the struggle between free speech and the separation of church and state.
The Bossier Parish School District pulled the photo from the front page of the Askalada just hours before the Airline High newspaper was to go to print last week. But it’s how those student-journalists responded that’s attracted much of the attention.
Randy Brown, publisher of the Bossier Press Tribune, got the call last week, and it was direct.
The message: Hold the presses and don’t use the photo on the front page, the one with the words “I love Jesus” adorned on a tree ornament. When word came to replace the photo, Brown recalled, students decided to keep Page 1 blank.
3.) UMass Dartmouth campus ripped for ‘free speech zone’
A national group that defends free speech and the First Amendment is blasting UMass Dartmouth for its “unconstitutional free speech zone” — and urging the public university to change its policy that restricts student protests to a grassy area on campus.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education shreds UMass Dartmouth’s policy in the group’s “Speech Code of the Month” for December. FIRE each month highlights a campus policy.
“These are not reasonable restrictions at UMass Dartmouth,” Laura Beltz of FIRE told the Herald Thursday. “And even if the policy isn’t actually being enforced, it still can have a chilling effect on students who could be discouraged from going out and expressing themselves.”
