The uncompromising Nick Cohen exposes the reality behind the freedoms we enjoy in the book that won Polemic of the Year at the 2013 Political Book Awards. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of Communism, and the advent of the Web which allowed for even the smallest voice to be heard, everywhere you turned you were told that we were living in an age of unparalleled freedom. 'You Can't Read This Book' argues that this view is dangerously naive. From the revolution in Iran that wasn't, to the Great Firewall of China and the imposition of super-injunctions from the filthy rich protecting their privacy, the traditional opponents of freedom of speech - religious fanaticism, plutocratic power and dictatorial states - are thriving and in many respects finding the world a more comfortable place in the early 21st century than they did in the late 20th.

This title was first published in 2003. Militant racism is concerned with antagonism and hostility associated with racist activity. Within a society it is expressed by material that may stir up racial hatred and/or discrimination. It can also be seen on the streets and, indeed, the alleged racist criminality orchestrated by militant gangs. After examining the possible causes of militant racism and its effects, this book considers the new laws designed to tackle racially-motivated crime found in the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act. A central theme of the book is the balance between freedom of expression and penalizing racially-offensive expression.

Since 2005, Thailand has been in crisis, with unprecedented political instability and the worst political violence seen in the country in decades. In the aftermath of a military coup in 2006, Thailand's press freedom ranking plunged, while arrests for lese-majeste have skyrocketed to levels unknown in the modern world. Truth on Trial in Thailand traces the 110-year trajectory of defamation-based laws in Thailand. The most prominent of these is lese-majeste, but defamation aspects also appear in laws on sedition and treason, the press and cinema, anti-communism, contempt of court, insulting of religion, as well as libel. This book makes the case that despite the appearance of growing democratization, authoritarian structures and urges still drive politics in Thailand; the long-term effects of defamation law adjudication has skewed the way that Thai society approaches and perceives "truth."

Employing the work of Habermas, Foucault, Agamben, and Schmitt to construct an alternative framework to understand Thai history, Streckfuss contends that Thai history has become "suspended" since 1958, and repeatedly declining to face the truth of history has set the stage for an endless state of crisis.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of South East Asian politics, Asian history, and media and communication.

David Streckfuss is an independent scholar who has lived in Thailand for more than 20 years. His work primarily concerns human rights, and political and cultural history.

Since ratification of the First Amendment in the late eighteenth century, there has been a sea change in American life. When the amendment was ratified, individuals were almost completely free of unwanted speech; but today they are besieged by it. Indeed, the First Amendment has, for all practical purposes, been commandeered by the media to justify intrusions of offensive speech into private life.

In its application, the First Amendment has become one-sided. Even though America is virtually drowning in speech, the First Amendment only applies to the speaker's delivery of speech. Left out of consideration is the one participant in the communications process who is the most vulnerable and least protected--the helpless recipient of offensive speech. In "Rediscovering a Lost Freedom," Patrick Garry addresses what he sees as the most pressing speech problem of the twenty-first century: an often irresponsible media using the First Amendment as a shield behind which to hide its socially corrosive speech. To Garry, the First Amendment should protect the communicative process as a whole. And for this process to be free and open, listeners should have as much right to be free from unwanted speech as speakers do of not being thrown in jail for uttering unpopular ideas.

"Rediscovering a Lost Freedom" seeks to modernize the First Amendment. With other constitutional rights, changed circumstances have prompted changes in the law. Restrictions on political advertising seek to combat the perceived influences of big money; the Second Amendment right to bear arms, due to the prevalence of violence in America, has been curtailed; and the Equal Protection clause has been altered to permit affirmative action programs aimed at certain racial and ethnic groups. But when it comes to the flood of violent and vulgar media speech, there has been no change in First Amendment doctrines. This work proposes a government-facilitated private right to censor. "Rediscovering a Lost Freedom" will be of interest to students of American law, history, and the U.S. Constitution.

Chosen as one of the best books of 2022 by the Financial Times and the Telegraph. Longlisted for the Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing 'Compelling, powerful and necessary.' Shoshana Zuboff, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism 'Fascinating' Guardian Without a moment's pause, we share our most intimate thoughts with trillion-dollar tech companies. Their algorithms categorize us and jump to troubling conclusions about who we are. They also shape our everyday thoughts, choices and actions - from who we date to whether we vote. But this is just the latest front in an age-old struggle. Part history and part manifesto, Freedom to Think explores how the powerful have always sought to influence how we think and what we buy. Connecting the dots from Galileo to Alexa, human rights lawyer Susie Alegre charts the history and fragility of our most important human right: freedom of thought. Filled with shocking case-studies across politics, criminal justice, and everyday life, this ground-breaking book shows how our mental freedom is under threat like never before. Bold and radical, Alegre argues that only by recasting our human rights for the digital age can we safeguard our future.

International media assistance is a small but important form of international democracy-promotion aid. Media assistance boomed after the 1989 transitions in Central Europe, but now flows to virtually all regions of the world. Today the media assistance industry is focused on the problem of sustainability: How are free and independent public affairs media supposed to maintain their editorial mission while facing hostile political systems or the demands of the consumer marketplace? Many media in developing countries have been or are grant-dependent. When grants are exhausted or withdrawn, media that were funded to further democratic consolidation typically wither and die. Some become mere grant chasers. Others abandon public service to the demands of market competition, or political patronage. As a result, governmental and non-governmental grant makers now emphasize the need for sustainability in considering grants in the media sector. Many grant recipients have grown frustrated, sometimes bitter, and have sought to take a much more active role in the way assistance programs are put together. Just how is sustainability to be achieved while also ensuring a public-service editorial mission? "Exporting Press Freedom" examines the history and practice of media assistance, and argues that the dilemma of media independence and sustainability is best understood as an economic problem rather than one of poor editorial standards or lack of will. It includes profiles of news and public affairs media in developing and democratizing countries, and also of two non-governmental organizations that have pioneered the use of low-interest loans in media assistance. These profiles exemplify strategic and entrepreneurial approaches to developing and supporting public service media. Such approaches may be of use not only in the developing world, but in the consolidated Western democracies as well, where concern has grown about poor journalistic performance and its consequences for democratic governance. "Craig L. LaMay" is a journalist, an assistant professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, an adjunct professor at Northwestern's School of Law, and a faculty associate at Northwestern's Institute for Policy Research.

Broadening the notion of censorship, this volume explores the transformative role played by early modern censors in the fashioning of a distinct English literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In early modern England, the Privy Council, the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Stationers' Company, and the Master of the Revels each dealt with their own prerogatives and implemented different forms of censorship, with the result that authors penning both plays and satires had to juggle with various authorities and unequal degrees of freedom from one sector to the other. Text and press control thus did not give way to systematic intervention but to particular responses adapted to specific texts in a specific time. If the restrictions imposed by regulation practices are duly acknowledged in this edited collection, the different contributors are also keen to enhance the positive impact of censorship on early modern literature. The most difficult task consists in finding the exact moment when the balance tips in favour of creativity, and the zone where, in matters of artistic freedom, the disadvantages outweigh the benefits. This is what the twelve chapters of the volume proceed to do. Thanks to a wide variety of examples, they show that, in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, regulations seldom prevented writers to make themselves heard, albeit through indirect channels. By contrast, in the 1630s, the increased supremacy of the Church seemed to tip the balance the other way.

Since ratification of the First Amendment in the late eighteenth century, there has been a sea change in American life. When the amendment was ratified, individuals were almost completely free of unwanted speech; but today they are besieged by it. Indeed, the First Amendment has, for all practical purposes, been commandeered by the media to justify intrusions of offensive speech into private life.

In its application, the First Amendment has become one-sided. Even though America is virtually drowning in speech, the First Amendment only applies to the speaker's delivery of speech. Left out of consideration is the one participant in the communications process who is the most vulnerable and least protected--the helpless recipient of offensive speech. In "Rediscovering a Lost Freedom," Patrick Garry addresses what he sees as the most pressing speech problem of the twenty-first century: an often irresponsible media using the First Amendment as a shield behind which to hide its socially corrosive speech. To Garry, the First Amendment should protect the communicative process as a whole. And for this process to be free and open, listeners should have as much right to be free from unwanted speech as speakers do of not being thrown in jail for uttering unpopular ideas.

"Rediscovering a Lost Freedom" seeks to modernize the First Amendment. With other constitutional rights, changed circumstances have prompted changes in the law. Restrictions on political advertising seek to combat the perceived influences of big money; the Second Amendment right to bear arms, due to the prevalence of violence in America, has been curtailed; and the Equal Protection clause has been altered to permit affirmative action programs aimed at certain racial and ethnic groups. But when it comes to the flood of violent and vulgar media speech, there has been no change in First Amendment doctrines. This work proposes a government-facilitated private right to censor. "Rediscovering a Lost Freedom" will be of interest to students of American law, history, and the U.S. Constitution.

Combining a stimulating blend of academic authority and senior practitioner experience, this book tackles the principle of openness to official documentation and information flow. It covers important areas such as the Hutton Report into the death of Dr David Kelly, the freedom of speech in democratic societies, the value of the freedom of information and international comparisons. The book is a must read for courses on public policy and governance and information law.

"Freedom of Information in a Post 9-11 World" is, to date, the first international scholarly examination of the impact of the terrorist attack on the United States in terms of how it may alter academic and corporate research, as well as the sharing of information generated by that research, by international colleagues in technological fields. The collection of essays brings together a widely varied panel of communications experts from different backgrounds and cultures to focus their expertise on the ramifications of this world-changing event. Drawing upon the related but separate disciplines of law, interpersonal communication, semiotics, rhetoric, management, information sciences, and education, the collection adds new insight to the potential future challenges high-tech professionals and academics will face in a global community that now seems much less communal than it did prior to September 11, 2001.

This little gem of a book, which first appeared in 1920, was written in Walter Lippmann's thirtieth year. He was still full of the passionate faith in democracy that was evident in his writings before the First World War. From today's point of view, Lippmann's argument seems unusually prescient. He was troubled by distortions in newspaper journalism, but was also deeply aware of the need to protect a free press. Lippmann believed that toleration of alternative beliefs was essential to maintaining the vitality of democracy. Liberty and the News is a key transitional work in the corpus of Lippmann's writings. For it is here that he proposes that public opinion is largely a response not to truths but rather to a "pseudo-environment" which exists between people and the external world. Lippmann was worried that if the beliefs that get exchanged between people are hollow, and bear only a purely accidental relationship to the world as it truly is, then the entire case for democracy is in danger of having been built on sand. His concerns remain very much alive and important.

This title was first published in 2003. Militant racism is concerned with antagonism and hostility associated with racist activity. Within a society it is expressed by material that may stir up racial hatred and/or discrimination. It can also be seen on the streets and, indeed, the alleged racist criminality orchestrated by militant gangs. After examining the possible causes of militant racism and its effects, this book considers the new laws designed to tackle racially-motivated crime found in the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act. A central theme of the book is the balance between freedom of expression and penalizing racially-offensive expression.

This volume offers a historical, philosophical, and practical critique of public and civic journalism--a movement that gained momentum in the final decade of the 20th century. During that period, proponents of the movement have published nearly a dozen books expanding upon and expounding the virtues of journalism, seeking to repair what is thought to be the torn social, political, and moral fabric in America. Although previous works have established a strong practical underpinning for public and civic journalism, none has examined its philosophical roots or challenged its methodology and grounding in neoliberal constructs. This volume does just that, tracing its origins in early philosophy to the current newsroom policies and practices that conflict with traditional constructs in libertarian press theory.
"Twilight of Press Freedom" postulates that institutionalized journalism is fading away and world journalism--prompted by the people--is veering toward more order and social harmony, and away from the traditional idea of the great value of press freedom. The volume provides a critical examination of the trend toward public journalism and considers how press freedom will be impacted by this trend in coming years. Scholars and students in journalism, public opinion, and media studies will find this book insightful and invaluable.

"Free Speech" is a philosophical treatment of a topic which is of immense political and social importance to each and every one of us. In this book, Alan Haworth situates the main arguments for free speech by tracing their relationship to contemporary debates in politics and political philosophy. He considers some of the most important historical contributions to the free speech debate, concentrating most on the thoughts of John Stuart Mill. Haworth writes with great clarity, with wit and with genuine concern.
"Free Speech" is sure to appeal to anyone with an interest in philosophy, politics, and current affairs.

Free Speech is a philosophical treatment of a topic which is of immense importance to all of us.
Writing with great clarity, wit, and genuine concern, Alan Haworth situates the main arguments for free speech by tracing their relationship to contemporary debates in politics and political philosophy, and their historical roots to earlier controversies over religious toleration.
Free Speech will appeal to anyone with an interest in philosophy, politics and current affairs.

Critically examining the conceptions of freedom of some of the leading contemporary philosophers from Isaiah Berlin to Charles Taylor, this text explores the value and significance that freedom has acquired in our political consciousness. It looks specifically at: positive and negative freedom; freedom of the individual; freedom and society; emancipation and paternalism; and freedom and cultural politics on a theoretical level. The author aims to show that it is possible to have a discussion and reach a consensus on the meaning of contested concepts such as freedom and autonomy. Crucially, he addresses the question of how this conception might be applied to the real world, offering practical ways of increasing individual freedom in modern liberal Western democracies. First published in Dutch in 1991 this book won the "Pieter de la Court" award of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts Sciences and the 1992 political science award of the Netherlands Political Science Association. It has been updated to include material from the United States, Great Britain, France and Sweden as well as from the Netherlands.

Conducting computer analyses for the purposes of revealing information of significance to the press represents an extension of one of the most important forms of American journalism into the contemporary era of new technologies. Investigative reporting had its start with the establishment of the metropolitan newspaper during the early decades of the 1900s. At the time, it was a continuation of the evolving tradition of freedom of the press that had characterized American political life since colonial times. As it developed, investigative reporting stressed "facts" rather than the opinions of the editor or reporter. In turn, that tradition had its own intellectual roots. Today, computer-assisted investigative reporting (CAIR) extends that marketplace of ideas into systematic examinations of the electronic records of government. In addition, computer analyses of other kinds of information systematically gathered by journalists can provide the press with insights into trends and patterns unlikely to be revealed by other means.
This unique volume addresses procedures and issues in investigative journalism that have not been explained in other publications. It sets forth -- for the first time -- a detailed and specific "methodology" for conducting computer-assisted investigative analyses of both large and small scale electronic records of government and other agencies. That methodology consists of the logic of inquiry, strategies for reaching valid conclusions, and rules for reporting what has been revealed by the analyses to the public in clear ways. Such systematic methodologies are essential in social and other sciences and the development of a counterpart for investigative journalism has been badly needed.
That systematic methodology is developed within a context that explains the origin and major characteristics of those elements that have come together in American society to make computer-assisted investigative reporting both possible and increasingly a part of standard newsroom practices. These include the development of traditional investigative journalism, the evolution of computer technology, the use of computers by government to keep records, the legal evolution of freedom of information laws, the rapid adoption of computers in newsrooms, the increasing importance of precision journalism, and the sharp increase in recent times of computer-assisted investigative reporting by American newspapers both large and small. The issues addressed in this book are discussed in a very readable context with an abundance of examples and illustrations drawn from the real world of journalism as it is practiced daily in newsrooms around the country. Explanations of concepts, principles, and procedures are set forth in layperson's terms that require very little in the way of knowledge of computers or statistical methods.

Has legislation over-reached itself? The contributors to this volume discuss whether the increase in legislative instruments of many kinds, often promoted with good intentions, may be progressively limiting both our individual and our communal freedoms. Contributors include Bernard Crick, Maurice Peston and James Ferman discuss this key idea in accessible and forthright style.

Commentators on the media in Southeast Asia either emphasise with optimism the prospect for new media to provide possibilities for greater democratic discourse, or else, less optimistically, focus on the continuing ability of governments to exercise tight and sophisticated control of the media. This book explores these issues with reference to Malaysia and Singapore. It analyses how journalists monitor governments and cover elections, discussing what difference journalism makes; it examines citizen journalism, and the constraints on it, often self-imposed constraints; and it assesses how governments control the media, including outlining the development and current application of legal restrictions.

Critically examining conceptions of freedom of some of the leading contemporary philosophers from Isaiah Berlin to Charles Taylor, Hans Blokland explores the value and significance that freedom has acquired on our political consciousness. He looks specifically at: * positive and negative freedom * freedom of the individual * freedom and society * emancipation and paternalism * freedom and cultural politics.

This authoritative text concerns itself with freedom and alternatives to freedom', based on original survey research of public attitudes to civil and political rights.
It combines and connects explicit and implicit arguments for freedom, with the judgements of public opinion on two levels the general public and politicians encouraging the reader to think about issues both in terms of political theory and public opinion.
The issues considered, all of which may be viewed as alternatives to the narrow conception of freedom as the absence of coercion, are:
* parliamentary sovereignty
* the national interest
* responsibility
* accountability
* equality
* the moral community
Alternate chapters present powerful arguments from political figures such as Lord Armstrong, Lord Jenkins and Roy Hattersley, based on practical experience, and then assess public opinion for each issue.

In this text, leading analysts in education and policy provide an overview of methods for researching those in positions of power. Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in research studies on the powerful, bringing new understanding of the policy-making and policy-implementation process. This is the first book to bring together reflexive accounts of doing research on the powerful in education, and it focuses on issues with broad relevance to social scientists. The contributors have conducted studies of major significance on both sides of the Atlantic. Here they describe the range of methods applied to a diversity of research topics involving the powerful, showing how the particular difficulties involved in this type of research can be overcome. The book throws considerable light on the problems of access, the use of dual interviewers, encouraging interviewees to be forthcoming, interpreting responses, and the analysis and publication of final reports. It takes account of ethical and political problems, the role of theory and the impact of feminist perspectives on methods. Postgraduate and professional researchers should benefit from these illuminating insights an

Why do we protect free speech? What values does it serve? How has the Supreme Court interpreted the First Amendment? What has the Court gotten right and wrong? Why are current debates over free expression often so divisive? How can we do better? In this succinct but comprehensive and scholarly book, authors Len Niehoff and Thomas Sullivan tackle these pressing questions. Free Speech: From Core Values to Current Debates traces the development and evolution of the free speech doctrine in the Supreme Court and explores how the Court - with varying levels of success - has applied that doctrinal framework to "hard cases" and current controversies, such as those involving hate speech, speech on the internet, speech on campus, and campaign finance regulation. This is the perfect volume for anyone - student, general reader, or scholar - looking for an accessible overview of this critical topic.

Enacted in 1966, The Freedom of Information Act (or FOIA) was designed to promote oversight of governmental activities, under the notion that most users would be journalists. Today, however, FOIA is largely used for purposes other than fostering democratic accountability. Instead, most requesters are either individuals seeking their own files, businesses using FOIA as part of commercial enterprises, or others with idiosyncratic purposes like political opposition research. In this sweeping, empirical study, Margaret Kwoka documents how agencies have responded to the large volume of non-oversight requesters by creating new processes, systems, and specialists, which in turn has had a deleterious impact on journalists and the media. To address this problem, Kwoka proposes a series of structural solutions aimed at shrinking FOIA to re-center its oversight purposes.