EDITORIAL: Free speech on campus – The Daily Progress

With free speech under so much fire from so many directions lately, its encouraging to see Virginia lawmakers sponsoring bills to protect it.

One measure, sponsored by Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, would extend legal protection against spurious lawsuits to both political speech and to consumer reviews of the sort that have grown popular on websites such as Yelp.

The bill takes aim at SLAPP cases, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. A perfect example occurred in Richmond a couple of years ago when Style Weekly published a letter from parents criticizing a school principals performance. The principal sued, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Consumers also have found themselves staring down the barrel of a lawsuit after posting critical commercial reviews.

The measure would not protect people against defamation, and it shouldnt. But it would ensure that people can express their honest views in the public square without having to worry they will be bankrupted by legal fees for doing so.

The second measure, from our own Del. Steve Landes, R-Weyers Cave, and 19 co-patrons, is a shot over the bow of public colleges and universities.

It stipulates: Except as otherwise permitted by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, no public institution of higher education shall abridge the freedom of any individual, including enrolled students, faculty and other employees, and invited guests, to speak on campus.

Believe it or not, some in higher education actually think this is a bad idea.

Siva Vaidhyanathan, who teaches media studies at the University of Virginia, says there is a moral panic in America that free speech is under assault at universities, but its absolutely not true.

Wrong. It absolutely is true. The evidenceof such an assault is pervasive and overwhelming. Denying it requires the sort of willful refusal to face facts that climate-change skeptics often exhibit.

The fact that most of the criticism appears to be coming from the left is telling.

Liberals have done their level best to squelch the free speech of far-right activists and conservatives at public college campuses across the country in recent years. They have a right to protest and in many cases, The News Virginian has supported those protests, having found the views of many on the extreme right abhorrent (we dont much like the views of many on the extreme left, either, but thats for another day.) But intimidating and physically denying anyone the right to peacefully express their views, no matter how objectionable, is in itself objectionable and cannot be justified.

Marcus Messner, who teaches about media at VCU, also claims the problem is fictitious because students there express themselves on a broad variety of topics every day.

Good for VCU. But the point is irrelevant. Just because students at VCU hold forth does not mean there is no effort to squelch free expression elsewhere. One might as well argue that since the vast majority of police officers treat most black men well, no black man ever experiences police brutality.

Landes bill is a narrow casting of the First Amendment for Virginias public institutions. The mere fact that it is meeting resistance shows how very badly it is needed.

Adapted from The Richmond Times-Dispatch

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EDITORIAL: Free speech on campus - The Daily Progress