By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 10-24-17 The Justice Department has backed the challenge to a college speech policy that allegedly confined that speech to a 616-square-foot "Free Speech Area" and has "unpublished" rules governing speech that students aren't apprised of unless they apply for a permit. That came in a "statement of [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 10-24-17 The FCC has proposed to reduce some more broadcasters paperwork burdens. At its public meeting Tuesday (Oct. 24), the FCC proposed no longer requiring broadcasters who use spectrum for ancillary services like subscription video or data transmission to file annual reports unless they actually earn revenue [...]
By Abigail Hauslohner and Susan Svrluga, washingtonpost.com, 10-20-17 SAN FRANCISCO – When the posters went up a third time, it happened in broad daylight, midmorning on a Thursday. Rabab Abdulhadi saw the move as increasingly bold and deeply unsettling. There was her face, and the names of her students, again plastered all over campus [...]
Will Feature Articles by Constitutional Scholars, Attorneys, Experts FOR RELEASE: October 20, 2017 Contact: Richard T. Kaplar The Media Institute 703-243-5700 Arlington, Va., October 20, 2017 – The Media Institute today launched a new online publication titled “First Amendment Trends” that will feature articles on timely developments related to free speech and free press. [...]
By Laurence H. Winer... A Sunday “Peanuts” comic strip (from a bygone era) begins with Charlie Brown and friends on the baseball diamond. The character “Rerun,” too small to play, sits dejected on the sidelines. But when the ball bounces his way, Rerun scoops up his “souvenir” and scampers off with it. The gang immediately [...]
By Rod Smolla... Is It the Medium or the Message? “The medium is the message,” wrote the American philosopher Marshall McLuhan.[1] From the inception of the Internet, American law has been vexed by whether to follow McLuhan’s dictum, or instead insist on its opposite. In fashioning the constitutional, common-law, and statutory doctrines that govern liability [...]
By John Bussian... In the lore of the American First Amendment, truth as a defense to libel is an article of faith. As it should be. Since the fabled 1735 trial of New York publisher John Peter Zenger, there has not been a serious, much less a successful effort to argue that truth of the underlying [...]
By Floyd Abrams... American First Amendment law, former United States solicitor general and associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Charles Fried has rightly said, “is the most libertarian and speech protective of any liberal democratic regime.” As such, its consequences and implications are profound. The exceptionalism of the United States in the [...]
Public Awareness of Free Speech Is Goal of Nationwide Event FOR RELEASE: October 12, 2017 Contact: Richard T. Kaplar The Media Institute 703-243-5700 Arlington, Va., October 12, 2017 – Free Speech Week (FSW) will begin Monday, Oct. 16, and run through Sunday, Oct. 22. Media organizations, schools, universities, and community groups around the country [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 9-26-17 Opponents of the FCC's proposal to roll back the Title II reclassification of internet access providers and rethink the 2015 Open Internet order are preparing for their Sept. 27 Day of Advocacy. The protest is focused on Capitol Hill and is being led by Public Knowledge, [...]