Tuesday, March 21, 2017
#FreeSpeech in the News: March 21, 2017
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 - this week.
“On free speech, the U.S. and Europe have also gone different ways.”
Free Speech in Europe Isn’t What Americans Think, BloombergView
"That to me is not censorship, that is creating an atmosphere for exchange of ideas.”
Experts discuss free speech on college campuses at CRC meeting, Cleveland Jewish News
“I find this absolutely strange that an argument is being raised that I have the free speech to advocate that India should be broken in to pieces.”
‘Anti-national’: Is free speech being stifled at Indian universities?, CNN
“Half said they believed in complete freedom, while 45% thought there should be limits.”
Gallup Vault: Tolerance of Free Speech Had Its Limits, Gallup.com
“We are fighting for the right to be insulting and offensive. This is most odd.”
The History of Free Speech in Australia, Global Research
“Bill Leak was free to draw – and the Australian was free to publish – cartoons attacking black people and Muslims. Free speech. But surely it is not news to a newspaper that citizens have free speech too.”
The Australian is howling offence. But calling Bill Leak a racist is ‘free speech’ too, The Guardian
“The increasing willingness to allow anyone on campus to hear ideas with which one disagrees poses a grave risk to students’ intellectual development.”
Are college campuses growing more intolerant of free speech? The numbers say no., Los Angeles Times
“Keeping an eye on efforts to suppress free speech on college campuses is a worthy calling. But FIRE’s assertions that such efforts are on the rise — indeed, that they “set a record” in 2016 — can’t survive scrutiny, at least not based on the evidence it provides. Anecdotes can be useful, but not when they deflate at the slightest poking.”
‘Political correctness’ on campus: A free-speech watchdog defends its questionable evidence, Los Angeles Times
“We gloss over this history at our peril. In detaching “free speech” from politics, and turning it into an icon of our own righteousness, Americans forget something we once knew—and that citizens of Rwanda, or Sarajevo, have had to learn the hard way: In deeply polarized societies, the gap from speech to violence becomes dangerously short.”
Middlebury: Who Pays for Free Speech?, The Nation
