Speaking Freely 4.2 53
the speech may seem to some.^7 In 1989, the Supreme Court defended the burn-
ing of the U.S. flag as a “speech act” protected by the First Amendment. In 1997,
the Court struck down the highly controversial federal Communications De-
cency Act of 1996, which had imposed penalties for creating, transmitting, or
receiving obscene material on the Internet. The Court ruled that “the interest in
encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theo-
retical but unproven benefit of censorship.”^8
Perhaps no twentieth century test of free speech received more publicity than
the sensational 1998 lawsuit brought by four Texas cattlemen against popular
talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. In a 1996 televised show on “mad cow disease,”
Winfrey had declared that she would never eat another hamburger. Charging that
her statement caused cattle prices to plummet, the cattlemen sued for damages;
however, Winfrey’s attorneys successfully argued that the case was an important
test of free speech. Emerging from the courtroom after the verdict in her favor,
Winfrey shouted, “My reaction is that free speech not only lives, it rocks!”^9
Free Speech in the Twenty-First Century
One month after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States,
the pendulum again swung toward restriction of free speech with the passage of
the Patriot Act, which broadened the investigative powers of government agen-
cies. The Patriot Act was roundly criticized by various civil rights, free speech,
and publishing groups. One coalition of such groups described the Patriot Act
as “the latest in a long line of abuses of rights in times of conflict.”^10 It is ironic
that even as Americans debated the restrictions imposed by the Patriot Act, they
recognized and offered restitution for historical infringement on free speech.
In May 2006, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer formally pardoned seventy-
eight late citizens of Montana who had been imprisoned or fined under the
Montana Sedition Act of 1918, convictions that “violated basic American rights
of speech... .”^11
The pendulum swung back in June 2010, when the exercise of free speech cre-
ated controversy for and hastened the retirement of veteran White House correspon-
dent Helen Thomas. Asked by a rabbi to comment on Israel, Thomas responded
that the Israelis should get out of Palestine. Although Thomas later both apologized
and resigned from the White House press corps, her right to free speech was upheld
by former CBS News foreign correspondent Terry Phillips, who noted wryly, “Ap-
parently, journalists are now only willing to defend free speech when it is safe.”^12
In the twenty-first century, free speech has increasingly become an issue of
global concern. In 2012, with the support of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
and Nobel Peace Price winner Shirin Ebadi, an international team from Oxford
University launched an international, multilingual Web site for the discussion
of free speech. The site, FreeSpeechDebate.com, offers and invites discussion and
debate about ten draft principles for global free speech, which you can read in
Figure 4.1.