Free speech paper

1. Ryan Taylor Taylor 1
1/26/15
FYS 100-205
Regulating Free Speech
Step Two
People all across the world are going to jail just for simply speaking their mind.
But the true underlying question is it their own fault? Should people such as you and I
and even more importantly journalists be punished if what they say or write goes to far
and offends someone or perhaps even puts themselves or their country into harms way? I
feel as if journalists should have to watch what they say for the sake of our country.
There should be some sorts of regulations from our government on what people can write
so that way they do not put us in harms way.
There are people from both sides on this topic and it is actually a topic that has
been circulating world wide. People and other countries are quite simply trying to figure
out whether to let their people speak and write freely or to put regulations on them. “But
as many commentators have noted, free speech online depends not only on government
policies and court rulings, but on private companies such as Twitter, Facebook and
Google. Increasingly, these companies are being called on to block posts by terrorists and
unpopular or banned political parties.” (Greenblatt, 2013) America is trying to decide
whether if they should be like other countries such as China and Russia and regulate what
journalists say on the internet. Websites such as Facebook and Twitter have made it so
everyone can see what people are saying and journalists who don’t have everything
published now get to put it on these sites and still everyone can see it. Journalists are now

2. Taylor 2
fearing for their life as well. “Countries like China have banned certain journalists from
entering into China such as journalists from the New York Times.” (Greenblatt, 2013)
So United States journalists have to constantly question themselves and their companies.
Should they take a chance and go overseas to do reports for United States news agency’s
and take the risk of getting seriously hurt. Or should they take the chance of staying home
and risk potetionally loosing their job.
There are many benefits of regulating what Journalists can and cannot say. If the
United States would regulate free speech for journalists then we would be safe from other
countries. If the United States did regulate Freedom of speech and freedom of the press
then things like “Threats to burn the Quran — as well as actual Quran burnings — by
Florida pastor Terry Jones which led to deadly riots in the Muslim world in 2010 and
2011.” (Greenblatt, 2013) After this exercise of free speech and freedom of the press
since the video was posted online. It caused many riots over seas. Later the President had
to go to the United Nations and explain there was nothing that he could do about it
because it was the pastors first amendment right. However if America would indeed
revise the first amendment and put stipulations about publishing things that might be
offensive to people and other then countries then riots and other protests would not
happen.
If the United States left the first amendment alone and let people have the
freedom of speech there could be a lot of potential harm that comes to the American
people and also the United states as a country. Other countries simply do not understand

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the First Amendment right that every American Citizen has. “While reality, some
commentators said it was foolish to expect other nations to understand the American right
to unbridled speech.” (Greenblatt, 2013) With these other countries not understanding the
rights of United States citizens it could set up each citizen for potential trouble when
going to other countries and trying to express their views. Just as other countries don’t
understand our first amendment right we as Americans don’t understand other countries
laws. With this being said when people travel to other countries they could end up in jail
or put to death just because of them saying their views while in that particular country.
Step Three
Freedom of the press is a very controversial topic now days. With America just
starting to finish the Iraq war, people are starting to wonder if regulating the press would
be a good idea. Regulating the press would indeed be a good idea. According to an
journal written by Joel Simon “Iraq has become extremely dangerous for the media, with
101 journalists and media workers killed as of June 2006.” (Simon, 2006) With that being
said one would see that regulating what journalists are publishing should be monitored
for their safety and also the safety of everyone else. If journalists are out writing and
publishing whatever they feel like then it not only puts themselves in harms way but it
could also put the United States into a position it might not want to be in. During times of
war it seems as if America has tried to an extent to regulate what information the press is
letting out. According to Takeya Mizuno “Wartime officials have attempted to restrict
unauthorized disclosures, while advancing their own versions of events.” (Mizuno, 2011)

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I believe that this is a good idea but not just necessarily during a time of war but it should
be a watched and regulated continuously all the time. However when the government
went and tried to regulate it during this time of war Americans were not happy about it
saying it infringes on the journalists first amendment rights. The hard part, that countries
even the unites states, is trying to figure out is journalists using social media to write
about the news and write about their opinion on what is going on. People hiding behind
false identities so that way the government will never figure out who they are so they
don’t get in trouble. “Now, with the arrival of Twitter, individuals are able to hide behind
truly anonymous identities, while flitting quickly from one Internet node or disposable
cell phone to another.” (Andelman, 2010)
The United States government needs to get control of the press and regulate what
they are saying about not just America but other countries as well. If America cant get
control on this situation then it could turn very bad for us as a country. With journalists
going out and publishing what they chose to publish it puts America in a big jam trying to
figure out if what our people are saying might offend someone or another country as a
whole. America must get this under control before a journalist says the wrong thing and
we end up in war again.

5. Works Cited Taylor 5
1) Simon, J. (2006). Muzzling the Media. World Policy Journal, 23(2), 51-61.
2) Mizuno, T. (2011). CENSORSHIP IN A DIFFERENT NAME: PRESS
"SUPERVISION" IN WARTIME JAPANESE AMERICAN CAMPS 1942-1943.
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 88(1), 121-141.
3) Andelman, D. A. (2010). Censorship: Might vs. Right. World Policy Journal,
27(3), 113-120.
4) Greenblatt, A. (2013, April 26). Free speech at risk. CQ Researcher, 23, 377-400.
Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/

6. Works Cited Taylor 5
1) Simon, J. (2006). Muzzling the Media. World Policy Journal, 23(2), 51-61.
2) Mizuno, T. (2011). CENSORSHIP IN A DIFFERENT NAME: PRESS
"SUPERVISION" IN WARTIME JAPANESE AMERICAN CAMPS 1942-1943.
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 88(1), 121-141.
3) Andelman, D. A. (2010). Censorship: Might vs. Right. World Policy Journal,
27(3), 113-120.
4) Greenblatt, A. (2013, April 26). Free speech at risk. CQ Researcher, 23, 377-400.
Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/