The First Amendment

[Guest guest]

http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/index.html

 

 

 

Historically, at times of national stress -- real or imagined -- First

Amendment rights come under enormous pressure. During the " Red Scare "

of the early 1920s, thousands were deported for their political views.

During the McCarthy period, the infamous blacklist ruined lives and

careers.

 

Today, the creators, producers and distributers of popular culture are

often blamed for the nation's deep social problems. Calls for

censorship threaten to erode free speech.

 

The First Amendment exists precisely to protect the most offensive and

controversial speech from government suppression. The best way to

counter obnoxious speech is with more speech. Persuasion, not

coercion, is the solution.

 

Free Speech:

Freedom of speech is protected in the First Amendment of the Bill of

Rights and is guaranteed to all Americans. Since 1920, the ACLU has

worked to preserve our freedom of speech. Learn more and take action

to protect the right to free speech.

 

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When Citizen Journalists Are Silenced

 

January 5, 2006

 

While we can't all take to the airwaves to speak in the cadences of

Edward R. Murrow, more and more of us are finding voice online,

becoming citizen journalists. As a free speech activst, law professor,

and intellectual property attorney, I'm pleased to join the

conversation here.

 

We in the United States tend to take the First Amendment right to

express ourselves for granted, along with the market forces through

which we can find places to speak -- you can find free blog hosting

from Blogger or LiveJournal, pay for hosting with TypePad or Blogware,

and expect that you'll be able to speak freely about your Congress or

your cat.

 

Until you can't. I'll speak later about some of the restrictions on

speech here in the U.S., but first to China.

 

My Berkman Center colleague Rebecca MacKinnon has been investigating

censorship of Chinese blogs. She reports that Microsoft has taken down

a popular Chinese blogger:

continued.....

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