Category Archives: Free Speech

TV Papua news of july 2013, Student protest across Indonesia
Student protest across Indonesia Hundreds of West Papuan students have staged a peaceful action and free speech demonstration in the central Javanese city.

By: Ahmet Ali

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TV Papua news of july 2013, Student protest across Indonesia - Video

Duck Dynasty #39;s Right To Free Speech
Is it a violation of another #39;s First Amendment Rights to heavily criticize what you consider hate speech? Find out on this episode of Lawyer Flash. Lawyer Fl...

By: LawyerFlash

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Duck Dynasty's Right To Free Speech - Video

LA Times Talks With Alex Jones About JFK and Free Speech - HD
Do you like the term conspiracy theorist? One of the questions the LA Times asked Alex Jones while in Dallas for the JFK memorial. Stay in the know - Follow Alex on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Re...

By: AlexJonesInfoHD

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LA Times Talks With Alex Jones About JFK and Free Speech - HD - Video

Last week's "polar vortex" had much of the nation shivering, but only five U.S. cities hit temperatures lower than the day Nadezhda Toloknnikova walked out of a Siberian prison.

The 24-year-old woman smiled broadly for reporters and flashed the peace sign, as she came out into the -13 degree weather. She wore a thick down jacket but did not have a hat or scarf.

"How do you like our Siberian weather, here?" she quipped.

It wasn't just bravado.

The lady is tough. She is a married mother of a young daughter and is one of three members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot arrested for a concert it did in February 2012. In the concert, performed at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the band blasted the Russian Orthodox Church for supporting the election of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The women later filmed a music video of the experience, "Punk Prayer - Mother of God, Chase Putin Away!"

The three members were arrested and later convicted of hooliganism "motivated by religious hatred."

On Dec. 23, Toloknnikova was released hours after her band mate, Maria Alekhina, who had been in prison at a different location. The third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released shortly after conviction on a suspended sentence.

Prison could not shut Toloknnikova up. She continued to criticize Putin and led her fellow female prisoners in a hunger strike. That's when the government transferred her to a Siberian prison colony.

The punk rockers were far from grateful for the amnesty. They called it a stunt to make Russia look good ahead of the Winter Olympics, which the country will host in February. Putin has let thousands of people out of prison, including political opponent and prominent businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who had served 10 years.

Alekhina said: "If I had a chance to turn it down, I would have done it, no doubt about that. This is not an amnesty. This is a hoax and a PR move."

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Pitts: Understand free speech

Last month, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education released its list of the 10 worst universities for free speech and UNC-CH and Appalachian State University both made the list.

FIRE is a nonprofit organization that issues reports on U.S. university policies or actions that affect First Amendment rights. Universities are rated on a scale of red light to green light, depending on the number of policies that FIRE believes hinder free speech.

UNC-CH currently has a yellow light rating, which FIRE Senior Vice President Robert Shibley said is one policy away from a green light. The policy in question requires administrative approval before posting posters in residence halls.

Wed love to work with Chapel Hill to get rid of this last problematic policy, Shibley said. UNC is so close to a green light, it would be great to get em there.

David Ardia, a professor at the UNC School of Law who studies freedom of speech, said UNC-CH has a tradition of supporting freedom of speech, and FIRE plays an important role in keeping university policies in line with First Amendment rights.

FIRE is consistently in the forefront of shining a bright light on those universities in our society that are restrictive of speech, he said.

FIRE pointed to the Landen Gambill case as a blight against freedom of speech. Gambill, who brought a sexual assault case to UNC-CHs student-run Honor Court in spring 2012, was later charged with an Honor Court violation alleging that she intimidated the man she accused of raping her. Gambill claimed the charge was retaliatory.

Although the charge was dropped, FIRE found the case troubling.

Its not just that case, but the fact that UNC was warned about the problematic nature of the policy and ignored FIREs warning, Shibley said.

Appalachian State University has five free speech policies that FIRE deems problematic.

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UNC, ACU rank poorly in free speech

Proposed IRS rules for non-profits - limiting free speech!
Cleta Mitchell on proposed IRS rules on 501c4 organizations. Please visit http://www.TeaPartyPatriots.org for action items on how to fight these tyrannical regulations.

By: TPPatriots

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Proposed IRS rules for non-profits - limiting free speech! - Video

Freedom of speech, of the press, of association, of assembly and petition -- this set of guarantees, protected by the First Amendment, comprises what we refer to as freedom of expression. The Supreme Court has written that this freedom is "the matrix, the indispensable condition of nearly every other form of freedom." Without it, other fundamental rights, like the right to vote, would wither and die.

The ACLUs Project on Speech, Privacy, and Technology (SPT) is dedicated to protecting and expanding the First Amendment freedoms of expression, association, and inquiry; expanding the right to privacy and increasing the control that individuals have over their personal information; and ensuring that civil liberties are enhanced rather than compromised by new advances in science and technology. The project is currently working on a variety of issues, including political protest, freedom of expression online, privacy of electronic information, journalists rights, scientific freedom, and openness in the courts.

Know Your Rights: Demonstrations and Protests

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Law enforcement agencies across America continue to monitor and harass groups and individuals for doing little more than peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights. From the FBI to local police, U.S. law enforcement agencies have a long history of spying on American citizens and infiltrating or otherwise obstructing political activist groups.

The nation's commitment to freedom of expression has been tested over and over again. Especially during times of national stress, like war abroad or social upheaval at home, people exercising their First Amendment rights have been censored, fined, even jailed. Those with unpopular political ideas have always borne the brunt of government repression. It was during WWI -- hardly ancient history -- that a person could be jailed just for giving out anti-war leaflets. Out of those early cases, modern First Amendment law evolved. Many struggles and many cases later, ours is the most speech-protective country in the world.

A report on Police Surveillance and Obstruction of First Amendment-Protected Activity

Early Americans enjoyed great freedom compared to citizens of other nations. Nevertheless, once in power, even the Constitution's framers were guilty of overstepping the First Amendment they had so recently adopted. In 1798, during the French-Indian War, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Act, which made it a crime for anyone to publish "any false, scandalous and malicious writing" against the government. It was used by the then-dominant Federalist Party to prosecute prominent Republican newspaper editors during the late 18th century.

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Free Speech | American Civil Liberties Union

Hate speech vs free speech: Prashant Bhushan under attack
The Social Network: Lawyer and senior AAP leader Prashant Bhushan makes a statement about holding referendum in Kashmir inviting vandals to attack his party #39;...

By: NDTV

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Hate speech vs free speech: Prashant Bhushan under attack - Video

The Reality of Free Speech

By: YourRightToBeStupid

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The Reality of Free Speech - Video

Eleanor McCullen clutches a baby's hat knit in pink and blue as she patrols a yellow semicircle painted on the sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood health clinic on a frigid December morning with snow in the forecast.

The painted line marks 35 feet from the clinic's entrance and that's where the 77-year-old McCullen and all other abortion protesters and supporters must stay under a Massachusetts law that is being challenged at the U.S. Supreme Court as an unconstitutional infringement on free speech. Arguments are set for Wednesday.

Outside the line, McCullen and others are free to approach anyone with any message they wish. They risk arrest if they get closer to the door.

With her pleasant demeanor and grandmotherly mien, McCullen has become the new face of a decades-old fight between abortion opponents asserting their right to try to change the minds of women seeking abortions and abortion providers claiming that patients should be able to enter their facilities without being impeded or harassed.

In 2000, the Supreme Court upheld a different buffer zone in Colorado in a decision that some free speech advocates, who also support abortion rights, heavily criticized. Noted First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams recently called the decision in Hill v. Colorado "what may well be the most indefensible First Amendment ruling so far this century."

The three dissenters in that case Justices Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas remain on the court. They have been joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, who may be willing to provide the two additional votes in support of the protesters.

McCullen and other abortion opponents sued over the limits on their activities at Planned Parenthood health centers in Boston, Springfield and Worcester. At the latter two sites, the protesters say they have little chance of reaching patients arriving by car because they must stay 35 feet from the entrance to those buildings' parking lots.

Planned Parenthood provides health exams for women, cancer screenings, tests for sexually transmitted diseases, birth control and abortions at the clinic, although on this day Boston clinic employees said no abortions were performed.

McCullen doesn't know which services arriving patients are seeking, but she said that women arriving with someone else usually are about to have an abortion because they need a ride home.

Sometimes McCullen is able to start a conversation before a woman reaches the yellow line. Protesters can usually be close by when people emerge from taxicabs.

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High Court Case: Abortion Clinic Protest-Free Zone