Imprisoned journalist denied new hearing
"A federal appeals court denied a new hearing Thursday to Josh Wolf, an activist and freelance journalist who has been in prison nearly three months for refusing to provide a grand jury with outtakes of videos he shot at a San Francisco protest.
...
"Wolf, 24, took videos of a July 2005 anarchist demonstration in the Mission District against an overseas economic summit. Some of his footage was shown on local television, but federal prosecutors have demanded the outtakes, saying they might contain evidence for a grand jury investigation of an alleged attempt to burn a police car."
SAN FRANCISCO / Imprisoned journalist denied new hearing
First permits filed for 2008 RNC protests
Going to a protest? File for a demonstration permit -- and don't forget to get your
Free Speech Zone T-shirt orders in early!
"With nearly two years to go before the gavel falls at the 2008 Republican National Convention, anti-war demonstrators already are planning to march on the convention arena in St. Paul. The Anti-War Committee, based in Minneapolis, has applied for marching and demonstration permits from the city of St. Paul."
First permits filed for 2008 RNC protests
U.S. in 53rd place for freedom of the press
"The latest survey of global press freedoms, released recently by Reporters Without Borders, shows the United States falling another nine places since the previous year to 53rd, tying with Botswana, Croatia and Tonga.
"Cited as part of the reason for the steady decline in the rankings was the sharp tension between the Bush administration and the press that has developed since 9/11 and the federal courts' refusal to recognize a reporter's right to protect confidential sources."
U.S. falls to 53rd in survey of global press freedoms (opinion article)
Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Index 2006
Do death row inmates have a right to MySpace pages?
"As much as I’m a believer in free enterprise and freedom of speech, you have to draw the line somewhere," said [Houston official] Mr. Kahan. "I asked MySpace to take the high road. You don’t have to allow convicted killers on death row the opportunity to legitimize themselves and influence young minds that are easily manipulated."
RED HERRING | Death Row Inmates’ MySpace Fame
Judge rejects request to strike don't-tell-how-to-make-a-bomb law
"On Aug. 1, 2003, [radical activist Rodney] Coronado gave a speech in Hillcrest in which, in response to a question from the audience, he demonstrated how he made a gasoline-fueled device he used to burn down a Michigan State University laboratory in 1992.
Hours earlier, an arson fire destroyed a huge housing complex under construction in University City causing $50 million in damage. A group for which Coronado has acted as spokesman, the Earth Liberation Front, or ELF, took credit.
Coronado has not been charged in connection with that arson, but he was charged with breaking the law on telling people how to make a destructive device."
Maybe he should have just told the audience to go look it up in the library.
SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- Judge rejects request to strike don't-tell-how-to-make-a-bomb law:
Wendy Kaminer on academic freedom.
Wendy Kaminer: "Why is academic freedom important? Because in order to think, in order to exercise your freedom, you need to be educated – and in order for people to be educated they need to have the freedom to consider a very wide range of ideas, to have their own preconceptions questioned, and questioned vigorously."
This article makes a good case for the importance of academic freedom, and discusses some of the ways in which university administrators (and students) are increasingly nervous about people being too outspoken on campus -- whether the outspoken ones are on the left or the right. The article emphasizes the excesses of students aiming to quash right-wing opinions somewhat more than the reverse, however.
LambCurry666 - “Free Speech.” Or, “Don’t be a self-righteous young authoritarian, dickhead.” - MOGSource:
Spiked | The left has been infected by the disease of intolerance
A free speech landmark.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the precedent-setting free-speech trial over Allen Ginsburg's "Howl and Other Poems," the San Francisco chronicle has reprinted the introduction to
Howl on Trial: The Battle for Free Expression
(City Lights, 2006).
link (
printable version)
