Free Speech & Peace

Bennett L. Gershman writes for the Huffington Post about the ongoing controversy over Cleveland, Ohio’s imposition of a free-speech zone in advance of the upcoming Republican National Convention. Cleveland city regulators have created a 3.5-square mile area dubbed the “Event Zone,” and are restricting parades, demonstrations, and speech-making anywhere in the zone. The regulations require […]

Writing for Heat Street, Kieran Corcoran reflects on how the United Kingdom’s recent vote to exit the European Union, commonly referred to as “Brexit,” will exempt the U.K. from the EU’s expanding regime of “hate speech” laws. Brexit further separates the U.K. from other EU regulations that touch on speech such as the “Right to […]

Christian universities have long been a part of the United States’ educational landscape, but Mary Eberstadt notes in The Federalist that there have been increasing “legal and other attacks on Christian colleges, Christian associations and clubs, Christian schools, Christian students, and Christian homeschooling,” including calls to deny accreditation to Christian schools. For instance, Trinity Western […]

The City University of New York (CUNY) has prepared a draft policy document aimed at safeguarding free speech. As Maxine Joselow reports for Inside Higher Education, the policy states, among other things, that “concerns about civility can never be used as a justification for closing off discussion of ideas, however disagreeable or offensive they may […]

Lam Wing-kee, a bookseller from Hong Kong who had been secretly arrested and confined by the Chinese government, is free and is speaking openly about how he was treated. As The Washington Post reports, Wing-kee is one of five employees of a Hong Kong publishing company known for publishing works critical of the communist party […]

Jim Tankersley recently profiled Charles Koch for The Washington Post in an interview that covered Mr. Koch’s philanthropy, particularly his academic support. In the profile, Mr. Koch articulates his respect for the scholars and students who pursue what Michael Polanyi called “The Republic of Science” and explains his support for the never-ending exploration of ideas. As Tankersly writes: […]

In his new op-ed for Time, William Ruger, vice president of policy and research at Stand Together Trust, discussed why America should remain committed to the ideal of free speech, even when such speech is uncomfortable. As he writes: “As a society, we seem to have forgotten that free speech is central to our dignity as […]

A moderator on the popular site Reddit recently closed and deleted discussion threads deemed offensive, which discussed the attacks in Orlando and the issue of Islamic terrorism. As John Brandon reports for Fox News,  Reddit responded that the deletions were due to automated filters that aim to remove hate speech. Yet users have criticized the […]

As communication technology continues to become integrated into our daily lives, the internet is increasingly the go-to source for on-the-go information about where to shop, where to eat, where to work, and where to live. And thanks to the entrepreneurial innovation of businesses and consumers alike, the ability to share information through online user reviews […]

This week, Michael Bloomberg and Charles Koch co-authored an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal to highlight how free speech has eroded on college campuses, the very place where open inquiry has historically been celebrated, protected, and enshrined as necessary to students’ intellectual growth. This deterioration is troubling, because free expression is essential to all […]