"Religion, Law, and Freedom: A Global Perspective" introduces readers to diverse perspectives on the interplay of religion, law, and communications freedom in different cultures around the world. Through discussion and analysis of the religious mores and cultural values that a nation adheres to, a greater understanding of that nation, its laws, and its freedoms can be cultivated. Rather than suggesting that harmony can be achieved without conflict, the essays in this volume seek to present the reader with a variety of perspectives from which to view and understand the relationships among religion, law, and freedom in various cultures. This multifaceted analysis, therefore, helps readers draw their own conclusions as to the best way to resolve cultural conflict brought about by the growing global community.

The book consists of fifteen chapters, authored or coauthored by 17 international scholars representing China, Germany, Israel, Iran, Japan, Latvia, Nigeria, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The chapters are organized into four parts: "Perspectives on Eastern and Western Religions; Press Freedom in Religious and Secular Societies; Journalism, Advertising, and Ethical Issues;" and "Religion, Politics, Media, and Human Rights." This important contribution will especially appeal to researchers and students in such fields as mass communications, legal studies, cultural studies, political science, religion, intercultural communications, international communications, and journalism.

Van Belle provides the first systematic analysis of the effects that press freedom has on the conduct of international politics. The institutionalization of press freedoms within a state and the free flow of information between the free presses of different nations creates a foreign policy decision making environment that systematically limits policy options, generates domestic political imperatives, and provides specific benefits to a leader. This shapes some aspects of foreign policy in a consistent and empirically identifiable manner, most notably by limiting international conflicts. When social-psychological propositions regarding dehumanization and the acceptance of killing in war are introduced to Van Belle's model, shared press freedom is shown to provide a mechanism that prevents lethal conflicts. The effects of press freedom on international conflict, particularly on hypotheses related to escalating conflicts beyond the threshold of casualties, are quite robust. However, Van Belle indicates there is no evidence of a complimentary effect on cooperation. The combination of findings from the empirical analyses suggest that the key to the effects of press freedom center on the creation of images, such as the dehumanized image of an enemy. A thoughtful analysis that scholars and researchers of foreign policy and international relations as well as journalism and mass communication will find particularly useful.

The freedom of academics to pursue knowledge and truth in their research, writing, and teaching is a fundamental principle of contemporary higher education in the United States. But this freedom has been hard won and regularly abridged, reinterpreted, and violated. Academic freedom has been central to many issues and controversies in higher education and has thus generated literature in a variety of disciplines. This book provides access to that literature. Included are entries for nearly 500 books, chapters, articles, reports, web sites, and other sources of information about academic freedom. Each entry includes a descriptive annotation, and the entries are grouped in topical chapters. While most of the works cited were published since the 1940 American Association of University Professors Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, some older studies have also been included. Though the volume focuses primarily on higher education in the U.S., it also includes a chapter on academic freedom in other countries.

Freedom of speech is a central tenet of the American way of life that is tested and fought over seemingly every day. Curiously, people who follow and study free speech issues assume that controversies and litigation about free speech began abruptly during World War I. The surprising research in this original book reveals that this conventional view is incorrect, and that the previously unknown history of free speech between the Civil War and World War I is rich and varied. For instance, the author shows that important free speech controversies, often involving the activities of sex reformers and labor unions, preceded the Espionage Act of 1917. A significant organization, the Free Speech League, became a principled defender of free expression two decades before the establishment of the ACLU in 1920. Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years uncovers a major episode in the history of American liberal thought. Furthermore, it sheds light on key current debates about "rights talk" and about the complicated historical enterprise of studying ideas over time. It should be of interest to people who follow free speech and civil liberties issues as well as people involved in women's and labor history.

The power and status of the press in America reached new heights after spectacular reporting triumphs in the segregated South, in Vietnam, and in Washington during the Watergate years. Then new technologies created instantaneous global reporting which left the government unable to control the flow of information ot the nation. The press thus became a formidable rival in critical struggles to control what the people know and when they know it. But that was, according to Richard Reeves, more power than the press could handle - and journalism crashed towards new lows in public esteem and public purpose. The dazzling new technologies, profit-driven owners, and celebrated editors, reporters, and broadcasters made it possible to bypass older values and standards of journalism. Journalists revelled in lusty pursuit after the power of politics, the profits of entertainment and trespass into privacy. Richard Reeves was there at the rise and the fall, beginning as a small-town editor, becoming the chief political correspondent of the "New York Times", and then a best-selling author and award-winning documentary film-maker. From the Pony Express to the Internet, Reeves chronicles what happened to the press as America accelerated into uncertainty, arguing that to survive, the press must go back to doing what it was hired to do a long time ago - stand as outsiders watching government and politics on behalf of a free people busy with their own affairs.

Does American free speech doctrine discriminate against women and minorities? In "Hate Speech, Pornography, and the Radical Attack on Free Speech Doctrine, " James Weinstein carefully examines the charge that in interpreting the First Amendment as protecting hate speech and pornography while allowing myriad other exceptions to free speech, American courts have privileged the interests of the rich and powerful over the interests of women and people of color. The author concludes that while free speech doctrine is not in any deep sense as neutral as some of its apologists believe, the claim that free speech decisions and principles systematically discriminate against women and minorities does not withstand scrutiny. He shows that this claim of discrimination is based upon a profound but widely shared misunderstanding of the actual workings of free speech doctrine.In order to expose this misunderstanding, the first section of the book thoroughly explores the basic cases and principles upon which free speech doctrine is built. The second section demonstrates that the relationship between free speech and equality is far more complex than either radical critics or many liberal defenders of doctrine suppose. The third section considers the cost and benefits of modifying free speech doctrine to allow for the suppression of hate speech and pornography. After reviewing the experience of hate speech and pornography in other democracies, Weinstein concludes that while such a modification would not lead straight to totalitarianism as alarmist defenders of current doctrine contend, it would nonetheless likely inhibit legitimate debate and artistic expression. Also contrary to dogmatic defenders of current doctrine, the author concludes that although the scientific evidence that pornography causes violence to women is not nearly as conclusive as radical feminists assert, this evidence is nonetheless cause for concern.While offering a scholarly analysis of the radical critique of free speech doctrine, this book has even larger ambition: to provide nonlawyers with the background to participate knowledgeably in the continuing debate about the role of free speech in a democratic society.

An ideal supplement for any course with the goal to make free speech issues meaningful and relevant to young media professionals today.

Features of the text:

1. INTERACTIVE - it helps instructors engage students in meaningful discussions about current free speech issues. It presents situations, often taken from court cases, followed by questions that challenge students to clarify and justify their own beliefs about freedom of expression.
2. INTERNATIONAL - communicates how and why countries and governments, other than the United States, deal with free speech issues in different ways.
3. NEUTRAL- not a flag-waving catechism for the "American way". Asks difficult questions as to whether the freedoms many U. S. citizens take for granted are the best approach to some issues. It develops critical thinking skills.

How do we know when one person or society is `freer' than another? Can freedom be measured? Is more freedom better than less? This book provides the first full-length treatment of these fundamental yet neglected issues, throwing new light both on the notion of freedom and on contemporary liberalism.

Zingo examines the conflicts inherent in restricting hate speech--the controversial speech codes--and freedom of expression as it affects the lives and rights of gay men and lesbians. While much has been written on speech code restrictions having to do with race and gender, both in the press and academic literature, few scholars or serious writers before Zingo have focused on the necessity and/or sagacity of instituting legal sanctions on hate speech based on sexual orientation/preference.

After providing an overview of the social and legal condition of outsiders, Zingo examines how the law has evolved on the issues of free speech, equality jurisprudence, and the hate speech controversy. She then analyzes these issues in the context of sexual identity, equality, and non-discrimination and concludes with a review of the Supreme Court's rulings on hate speech regulation. Throughout she discusses the extent to which such speech codes adequately protect lesbians and gay men in American society. A major study for students and scholars of Constitutional Law and policymakers and others concerned with gay and lesbian issues and free speech.

Although Americans tend to take the concept and protection of free expression for granted, free press and free speech are at best only tentatively established in some nations of the world. Covering prehistoric times to mid-1998, this book provides a year-by-year report of the efforts to free the press throughout the world. Since the American concept of free speech came from England, the early chapters place a heavy emphasis on events in England, while later chapters include other nations throughout the world. Ingelhart provides a thorough overview of free press and free speech principles and the continuing effort to extend those freedoms almost everywhere.

Beginning with the recognition that the Supreme Court is the most invisible branch of American government and the one that most Americans know the least about, this book examines the way in which television news, the primary source of the public's limited knowledge, covers the Supreme Court. The book relies on rich interviews with network news reporters who have covered the Court, coupled with actual videotapes of network newscast coverage, to develop a unique portrait of the constraints faced by reporters covering the institution as well as a thorough picture of what facets of the Court's work actually are covered by television news. The analysis demonstrates convincingly that there are characteristics of the television news industry (such as its heavy reliance on dramatic stories and visuals) that, coupled with the rules and habits of the Supreme Court (such as its refusal to allow cameras in the Court as well as its propensity to announce several critical rulings on the same day) come together to make network news coverage of the Court infrequent, brief, and in too many instances, simply plain wrong.

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely the unexamined media is not worth heeding. Sentinel Under Siege traces the evolution of the media in the United States and its capacity to examine and regulate itself, from its earliest colonial roots to the modern explosion of digital technology.Once the Bill of Rights was enacted in 1791, the press became the first and only enterprise explicitly protected by the United States Constitution. This book is concerned with the legal content given to freedom of the press by the Supreme Court, and the fitful attempts of media criticism?both intramural and external?to build a greater sense of responsibility among the practitioners.Stanley Flink, former correspondent of Life Magazine and writer/producer at NBC and CBS, is concerned less with the people's right to know than with the people's need to know. Only a competent, responsible press?whatever its means of distribution?can perform the role of watchdog over official abuse of power, business corruption, and political distortions. But the acquisition of so many newspapers, magazines, and broadcasting facilities by corporate conglomerates threatens a new kind of prior restraint on an independent press?the conflicts of interest; the power of advertising; the unspoken self-censorship of reporters and editors, print or electronic, based on the perceived predilections of their employers; and the financial interests of related companies.Flink believes that responsible journalism can also be economically viable in the twenty-first century because the mass communication of reliable news reporting and media accountability will be vital to the democratic process. Unless the news media persistently seeks the high moral ground of public service, the first casualty will be an informed electorate. The second may well be constitutional protection.

This book contains the oral testimony of victims of pornography, spoken on the record for the first time in history.

Speaking at hearings on a groundbreaking antipornography civil rights law, women offer eloquent witness to the devastation pornography has caused in their lives. Supported by social science experts and authorities on rape, battery, and prostitution, discounted and opposed by free speech advocates and absolutists, their riveting testimony articulates the centrality of pornography to sexual abuse and inequity today.

At issue in these hearings is a law conceived and drafted by Andrea Dworkin and Catharine A. MacKinnon that defines harm done through pornography as a legal injury of sex discrimination warranting civil redress. From the first set of hearings in Minneapolis in 1983 through those before the Massachusetts state legislature in 1992, the witnesses heard here expose the commonplace reality of denigration and sexual subordination due to pornography and refute the widespread notion that pornography is harmless expression that must be protected by the state.

Introduced with powerful essays by MacKinnon and Dworkin, these hearings--unabridged and with each word scrupulously verified--constitute a unique record of a conflict over the meaning of democracy itself--a major civil rights struggle for our time and a fundamental crisis in United States constitutional law: Can we sacrifice the lives of women and children to a pornographer's right to free "speech"? Can we allow the First Amendment to shield sexual exploitation and predatory sexual violence? These pages contain all the arguments for protecting pornography--and dramatically document its human cost.

How free is the speech of someone who can't be heard? Not very--and this, Owen Fiss suggests, is where the First Amendment comes in. In this book, a marvel of conciseness and eloquence, Fiss reframes the debate over free speech to reflect the First Amendment's role in ensuring public debate that is, in Justice William Brennan's words, truly "uninhibited, robust, and wide-open." Hate speech, pornography, campaign spending, funding for the arts: the heated, often overheated, struggle over these issues generally pits liberty, as embodied in the First Amendment, against equality, as in the Fourteenth. Fiss presents a democratic view of the First Amendment that transcends this opposition. If equal participation is a precondition of free and open public debate, then the First Amendment encompasses the values of both equality and liberty. By examining the silencing effects of speech--its power to overwhelm and intimidate the underfunded, underrepresented, or disadvantaged voice--Fiss shows how restrictions on political expenditures, hate speech, and pornography can be defended in terms of the First Amendment, not despite it. Similarly, when the state requires the media to air voices of opposition, or funds art that presents controversial or challenging points of view, it is doing its constitutional part to protect democratic self-rule from the aggregations of private power that threaten it. Where most liberal accounts cast the state as the enemy of freedom and the First Amendment as a restraint, this one reminds us that the state can also be the friend of freedom, protecting and fostering speech that might otherwise die unheard, depriving our democracy of the full range and richness of its expression.

The United States is founded upon the principles of freedom of religion, although it has been difficult at times to understand and apply those principles. Phillip Hammond argues that the Constitution assumes a radical religious liberty, which protects the convictions of individual Americans, whether or not those convictions are explicitly religious. This book is an excellent guide to the church-state debate of today, and deepens that discussion by examining the root cause of disagreement about what freedom of religion means in America.

Freedom of speech is a central tenet of the American way of life that is tested and fought over seemingly every day. Curiously, people who follow and study free speech issues assume that controversies and litigation about free speech began abruptly during World War I. The surprising research in this original book reveals that this conventional view is incorrect, and that the previously unknown history of free speech between the Civil War and World War I is rich and varied. For instance, the author shows that important free speech controversies, often involving the activities of sex reformers and labor unions, preceded the Espionage Act of 1917. A significant organization, the Free Speech League, became a principled defender of free expression two decades before the establishment of the ACLU in 1920. Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years uncovers a major episode in the history of American liberal thought. Furthermore, it sheds light on key current debates about "rights talk" and about the complicated historical enterprise of studying ideas over time. It should be of interest to people who follow free speech and civil liberties issues as well as people involved in women's and labor history.

The relationship between the media and government and the influence that relationship has on democracy and national development is explored in this book. The study provides a succinct descriptive review of scholarly research works on communication and its implications for freedom, democracy, and development. The book lists the most frequently cited works in political communication (specifically regarding media-government relationships and press-freedom issues) and development communication. Following a general introduction, Part One examines press-freedom issues and research worldwide, and Part Two presents the relevant literature on development communication issues and provides insights into why the concept is popular with the developing world's journalists. Students, scholars, and policymakers in political communication, development communication, and international development will find this an invaluable tool for their research endeavors.

All of us grumble, from time to time, about the ever-increasing commercialization of American life. Whether in the form of overt corporate sponsorship--as evidenced by the "branding" of every major sporting event--or the less conspicuous role of commercial interests in the funding of the arts, America's corporations are a ubiquitous presence.

While debates rage over the televising of liquor ads and the degree to which Joe Camel encourages adolescent smoking, of far greater concern, R. George Wright argues, should be the passivity with which we accept excessive commercialization. For many, the spread of commercialization by any means other than fraud or deception today seems merely a reflection of the capitalist pursuit of well-being. Yet owning and spending, for the middle- class consumers Wright discusses, is at best only weakly related to their happiness.

In recent years, corporate America has shrewdly sought shelter from reasonable regulation by embracing the First Amendment. Focusing on such flashpoint issues as the Internet, tobacco advertising, and intentionally controversial ads, and exposing the dangerous elephantiasis of our commercial culture, Selling Words serves up a forceful warning about the perils of conflating commerce with First Amendment rights.

A powerful indictment of contemporary attacks on free speech, this book argues for a vigorous First Amendment jurisprudence protecting even offensive types of speech. In recent years, political activists, academics, and legal specialists have attacked traditional notions of free speech protection as they concern hate speech, obscenity, and pornography. They have called for changes in Supreme Court doctrine in defining the First Amendment and have argued that the traditional view of free speech actually creates and perpetuates a society in which the weak--women, minorities, the poor--have no voice. While recognizing their fears, Nicholas Wolfson argues that it is impossible to separate "bad" speech from "good" speech without fatally compromising the uniquely American concept of free speech, and that efforts to modify our concept of free speech for a greater egalitarian good can only result in undue state influence over private speech. In a keenly argued analysis, he finds that, in the end, the preservation of free and vigorous speech requires a strong First Amendment protection for even the most hateful of speech.

Information technology has provided numerous options to individuals, governments, and corporations around the world. These options demand that choices be made, and such choices often involve ethical decisions. Users must decide, for example, whether certain data should be made available on the Internet, whether the information contained in various databases should be sold to third parties, and whether software developers should be held responsible for social and economic problems that result from their programs. This book provides a rigorous but accessible discussion of some of the major ethical issues concerning computers and information technology. The text gives particular attention to widespread issues concerning intellectual property rights, censorship, and privacy, along with less frequently raised topics, such as ethical worries about image manipulation, virtual reality, and the moral status of intelligent machines and expert systems. Computers and information technology have created numerous options for their users. Individuals, governments, and corporations around the world must decide whether a particular technology or application should be used, how it should be employed, and toward what end. Sometimes such decisions may be based on purely economic or personal considerations. For example, a user might feel more comfortable with a particular word processing software, and a company might decide that a particular spreadsheet package meets all of its needs at a lower cost than competing products. But decisions concerning computer and information technology also involve ethical issues. Companies must determine whether it is an ethically correct objective to save money by replacing workers with technology. Courts and governments must decide whether it is ethical to censor communication on the Internet, or require software developers to have liability for social ills caused by use of their products, or for corporations to collect and sell information about individuals and their habits. This volume provides a rigorous but accessible philosophical examination of ethical issues related to computers as information processing machines. Special attention is given to questions of intellectual property, censorship, and privacy, for these issues are continually raised in the popular press and are central ethical concerns. But the book also considers ethical worries about image manipulation, virtual reality, the use of expert systems, and the moral status of intelligent machines. Some of the moral questions discussed have not yet arisen in practical situations, but these issues should be examined before they become urgent. While many issues have been omitted, the examinations within the text help show how additional ethical concerns may be approached in the future.

Despite the end of the Cold War, America's national security apparatus for controlling information has remained in place. However, sex and secularism are emerging as the major targets of censorship. Federal decency standards have been imposed on art, the broadcast media, and the Internet. Virtually every major political issue of the 1990s (abortion, campaign finance, violence on TV, homosexuality, indecency on the Internet) has First Amendment implications, and all are included in this comprehensive encyclopedia. This work covers the full history of America's struggle for free expression, as well as the contemporary dynamics represented by pop figures like Frank Zappa, Howard Stern, and Danny Goldberg and politicians like Jesse Helms and Don Edwards. It goes beyond other academic works of its kind by recognizing the primacy of the mass media and the Internet in defining the modern contours of the First Amendment.

Tracing the battles between the repressors and proponents of free speech, this chronology overviews press and speech freedoms in the United States from 1619 through 1995. Beginning with the American Colonies, the volume covers the religious refugees and political dissidents who settled the Colonies and the press that heated up the struggle to rid America of the Crown. Although freedom of speech and the press became constitutional rights 15 years after the Declaration of Independence, these rights fared poorly until after World War II. This book traces the struggles, the press, and the contending views from 1760 to 1960 and the 35 years of commitment to freedom from 1960 to 1995. Arranged by year, the entries in the chronology include the views and comments of persons in favor of or opposed to freedom of speech, events that affected press freedoms, and technological changes that have had an impact.

Professor Fiss examines contemporary free-speech issues in the context of the collision of liberal ideas of equality and freedom with modern social structures and speculates on what role the state might play in furthering robust public debate.

In a society that prides itself on the most expansive legal guarantees of free speech in history, why are so many individuals and groups frustrated by the American system of freedom of expression? As the public sphere continues to be redefined by advances in technology, and new debates about this technology crop up daily, the time has come to move from reflexive discussions about the value of more speech to a detailed assessment of the real power and limits of speech.

Why, this volume asks, does the First Amendment--the very document intended to ensure the freedom of U.S. citizens--need to be freed? And from what?

Long an icon in American law, politics, and journalism, the First Amendment--and the potential and real dilemmas with which it presents us--have only recently begun to be scrutinized. Challenging the idea that the only champions of free speech are traditional liberal theorists who oppose alternatives to the mainstream interpretation of the First Amendment, the contributors to this volume, among them such prominent thinkers as Frederick Schauer, Owen Fiss, and Cass Sunstein, explore new and provocative ways to think about freedom of expression. By reformulating traditional liberal and libertarian approaches to the First Amendment, this volume convincingly disputes the notion that those who question an unwavering reliance on free- and-open competition between individuals to produce free expression are necessarily enemies of free speech. It argues instead that these alleged enemies can in fact be champions as well.

This volume, an updated collection of essays presented by leading scholars at a Hofstra University conference on group defamation, provides a cross-disciplinary examination of hate speech. Beginning with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in R.A.V. v. St. Paul, the volume analyzes the problem from historical, anthropological, comparative-legal, and American constitutional law perspectives. Among the topics examined are the role of hate speech in the persecutions of Jews and Asians during World War II, in the subordination of Blacks, Native Americans, and women, and the pros and cons of the legal controls on hate speech adopted in such countries as Australia, Canada, and Israel. The section on American constitutional law features several proposed statutes outlawing hate speech, along with model court opinions supporting and attacking their constitutionality. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and students in the areas of intergroup relations and constitutional law as well as policy makers.