First Amendment / Free Speech

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By Paul K. McMasters | Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Most Americans are always ready to tick off any number of reasons they value their privacy. One of the most important reasons does not come quickly to mind, however, and that is how important personal privacy is to freedom of expression.

By Paul K. McMasters | Thursday, January 12, 2006

When it comes to free-speech protections for federal employees, the Constitution sometimes isn’t quite enough.

By Paul K. McMasters | Monday, January 02, 2006

An increasingly formidable barrier of official secrecy has made it very difficult for the press to report on covert government activities against its citizens. But such reporting has never been more important.

By Paul K. McMasters | Friday, December 16, 2005

Because nearly every matter of consequence and controversy in our society eventually winds up in court, Americans have a vital interest in staying informed about how well justice is delivered.

By Paul K. McMasters | Monday, December 05, 2005

Handheld devices such as cell phones and digital music players offer much in the way of features and convenience. Most also are capable of providing adult content: pornography to go.

By Paul K. McMasters | Friday, November 18, 2005

Without an elaborate system for circumventing secrecy and information management and manipulation, there would be no way or no one to hold accountable those entrusted with our government.

By Paul K. McMasters | Thursday, November 03, 2005

Defenders of criminal-libel laws insist that they are needed to ensure public order and government stability. If those rationales ever had any validity, they no longer do. Instead, such laws are a pernicious assault on our First Amendment principles.

By Paul K. McMasters | Thursday, October 20, 2005

One does not have to endorse or defend anti-war or anti-military sentiments raised in peaceful protests to recognize the risk that suppressing dissenting voices poses for a vital democracy. Whether stifling such voices is done in the name of good order or disagreement with the message, such actions reflect a fear of dissent.

By Paul K. McMasters | Thursday, October 06, 2005

Sooner or later, the nation's most vexing disagreements over our most vital issues wind up before the Supreme Court. None quite penetrates to the core of our democratic being more than those involving First Amendment rights and values.

By Paul K. McMasters | Thursday, September 22, 2005

We are much more circumspect when we threaten journalists who irritate government officials or confound government procedures. We try to follow the law and we respect the Constitution. But we still find ways to send journalists to jail.

By Paul K. McMasters | Thursday, September 01, 2005

Pornography fighters and some pornography producers have joined forces to oppose a seemingly uncontroversial proposal to create a special .xxx domain on the Internet to help protect children (and others) from adult content

By Paul K. McMasters | Thursday, August 18, 2005

Given the strong views Penny Nance has expressed as an activist and lobbyist and in congressional testimony, her arrival at the FCC may signal an invigorated FCC campaign against allegedly indecent programming.

By Paul K. McMasters | Tuesday, August 02, 2005

A steamy snippet of a new video game leaves lawmakers hot under the collar, and could lead to the turning of a voluntary ratings system into a political tool to limit free speech.

By Paul K. McMasters | Friday, July 15, 2005

The Patriot Act is only a fraction of the secrecy problem. Door after door in our open society is closing, generally without notice, let alone protest, as we try to secure our nation from attack.

By Steve Buttry | Friday, July 08, 2005

In training and education programs for budding journalists and veterans alike, we need to explain what the First Amendment means and how important the free press is to our democracy and our society. We need to teach journalists their responsibility to understand and defend that freedom.

By Paul K. McMasters | Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Last week, the courts delivered a one-two punch to journalists’ ability to protect their sources – and to the public’s right to know about federal officials abusing a public trust in one instance and the disappearance of nuclear secrets in another.

By Paul K. McMasters | Thursday, June 16, 2005

There is more than a trace of irony in the fact that the most freedom-loving people on the planet have decided collectively that some words, in some situations, are just too threatening to good order and comfort to allow.

By Paul K. McMasters | Thursday, June 02, 2005

Most of us believe that schools should serve as something of a sanctuary from the coarseness that permeates our culture. The trick is to find a way to teach the principles of freedom while limiting the practice of those principles.

By Paul K. McMasters | Thursday, May 19, 2005

There are some hopeful signs that both sides can find a way around this seeming impasse over when and how to use anonymous sources.

By Paul K. McMasters | Thursday, May 05, 2005

Proposals for restrictions on access to information continue to muddle and muzzle public discourse, whether invoked for privacy, security or, ironically, for "freedom."

By Paul K. McMasters | Friday, April 22, 2005

As the tools for tailoring all communication to our individual comfort zones become more sophisticated and available, we will have the power to convert everything that comes our way to just another version of what we already know and believe. That would be most unwise.

By Paul K. McMasters | Thursday, March 31, 2005

While censors twist themselves into logic pretzels by saying the darnedest things, the self-censors limit their creative rights by obsessing about offense.

By Paul K. McMasters | Tuesday, March 22, 2005

How does a nation that celebrates the idea of openness find itself shackled to a government information system that has a default setting of secrecy?

By Paul K. McMasters | Sunday, February 20, 2005

Those who push for laws based on exaggerated science and a low opinion of the moral and emotional fiber of young people and their parents’ judgment should think through the logic of their efforts.

By Paul K. McMasters | Monday, February 07, 2005

Americans must insist that government leaders manage sensitive information without trying to control public opinion or participation.

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