Is Regulated Free Speech Free?

At the UW, faculty have complained that the AAUP has restricted the use of its listserv to speak out on the issue of boycotting Israel as an occupying country.  While I oppose the boycott, I am even more disturbed by the lack of a free discussion.

Two examples from the current media elsewhere make the point that regulated free speech is not free.

In Russia, Pavel Durov, sometimes called Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg , — has left his post as CEO of VKontakte, or “In Contact,” a Russian media site taken over by Putin appointees.  Durov, for good reason, has fled his country.  What does free speech mean when all the presses … now websites … are controlled by a few people?  We face similar challenges now in the US with the effort by Comcast to create a near monopoly over the fibers that control the Internet.

The issue of restricted free speech is especially obvious on university campuses.  While other countries have explicit  laws that protect academic free speech, the US has its wonderful First Amendment,  US Courts have ruled that the First Amendment itself provides blanket protection of academic speech.  Sounds great and has been wonderful.  The questions is what happens when that speech is regulated?  Is regulated free speech free?

Merritt Burch and Anthony Vizzone, two right wing students at the University of Hawaii, are suing the university for violations of their first amendment rights.  The students were  prohibited from distributing copies of the US  Constitution at an outdoor event in January where student organizations had set up tables to distribute literature.   The University said that the student speech was limited to a free speech area at the edge of the campus.  The “free speech zone” at UH Hilo represents less than one percent of the college’s total area and has been described as muddy.

Whatever the intent of the University, its policies are all to similar to those of the Russians and the Chinese during their Olympic events. The Olympic free speech zones are an ironic effort to mimic Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park or even the UW’s own Red Square.   In Sochi the Russians set up designated “protest zones,” at a great distance from the games and, presumably, under surveillance.  The IOC President, Thomas Bach, said at that time that the IOC welcomed the Russian decision to create protest zones “so that everybody can express his or her opinion.”

Human rights activists have branded these Olympic versions of Hyde Park as worthless “protest pens.”   These groups have referred to the Sochi free speech zone as “Potemkin Village.”

The UW is obviously not Russia.  I hope our students’ free speech  … left, right of center is also better off than this story from the University of Hawaii.  Or perhaps, the right wing reaction is unfair to the Hawaiian University’s  administration.  Student free speech, however, is only one part of what an American  University should be. 

Public forums should encourage free speech on campus from all groups.