This Week In Free Speech with Jacob Mchangama

June 4th, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the bloody culmination of the Chinese government´s Tiananmen Massacre of pro-democracy students and activists. But all public discussion and memories of the massacre have been erased within China itself. In our second episode from the Oslo Freedom Forum we will take a trip behind the Great Firewall into modern day China where the most ambitious and sophisticated attempt to control the flow and content of information in the history of mankind is taking place. To enlighten us, we sat down with Megha Rajagopalan who is a world correspondent for BuzzFeed News and Yuan Yang who is Financial Times´s Beijing correspondent.  In this discussion we explore:

• The structure of Chinese online censorship and surveillance, in terms of scope and purpose.
• How the Chinese Government applies new technologies like facial recognition and AI to ensure conformity in thoughts and action.  
• How the online public is being ‘flooded’ with pro-government propaganda in order to suppress criticism.
• How Xinjiang province has been turned into a surveillance police state
• How Western Companies, who enjoy the protection of the rule of law, play a role in the Chinese censorship system
• How China is exporting its super charged system on censorship beyond its borders, and why even western liberal democracies may not be immune.
• How the extensive censorship may actually limit the Chinese government´s endeavors to control and monitor its citizens.
• Why there may still be grounds for optimism

Megha Rajagopalan is a world correspondent for BuzzFeed News and is based in the Middle East. She is the former China bureau chief for BuzzFeed and political correspondent for Reuters in Beijing. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, TIME, WIRED, and other publications.

Yuan Yang is a Beijing correspondent for the Financial Times and writes about China’s technology. Before that, she wrote about development economics as a Marjorie Deane intern for the Economist in London. She is the co-founder of Rethinking Economics, a charity that seeks to make economics teaching more relevant to the 21st century.

Why have kings, emperors, and governments killed and imprisoned people to shut them up? And why have countless people risked death and imprisonment to express their beliefs? Jacob Mchangama guides you through the history of free speech from the trial of Socrates to the Great Firewall.

You can subscribe and listen to Clear and Present Danger on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, YouTube, TuneIn, and Stitcher, or download episodes directly from SoundCloud.

Stay up to date with Clear and Present Danger on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or visit the podcast’s website at freespeechhistory.com. Email us feedback at [email protected].

Today´s episode is going to be a radical departure from the chronological timeline of the general podcast so far. I´m currently in Oslo for the annual Oslo Freedom Forum, organized by the Human Rights Foundation. The Oslo Freedom Forum is a unique gathering of human rights and democracy activists from all over the world joining forces to connect, share ideas and build alliances to strengthen freedom and undermine authoritarianism. To take advantage of the Oslo Freedom Forum I have decided to do a number of Expert Opinions on current cutting-edge topics related to free speech. The first episode will look at why the so-called “Democratic Recession” is mirrored by a “Free Speech Recession,” with Stanford Professor Larry Diamond. In this discussion we explore:

• The nature and consequences of the “Democratic Recession”
• Why restricting freedom of expression is the precondition for the assault on democracy
• Why and modern authoritarian populist repression differs from the totalitarian methods of the 20th century
• An exposé of the step-by-step authoritarian´s guide to dismantle independent media, dissent and civil society (meant as a warning not a manual!)
• Why restrictions of free speech in liberal democracies embolden censorship efforts in authoritarian regimes
• The consequences of the current American administration´s hostility to independent media and disengagement from promoting free speech norms
• Whether social media has been a net benefit or liability to the causes of free speech and democracy
• Why and how global norms matter, and can help reverse the “Free Speech Recession”

Larry Diamond is professor of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford University and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy. He has written extensively on democracy and is most recently the author of Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency.

Why have kings, emperors, and governments killed and imprisoned people to shut them up? And why have countless people risked death and imprisonment to express their beliefs? Jacob Mchangama guides you through the history of free speech from the trial of Socrates to the “Great Firewall.”

You can subscribe and listen to Clear and Present Danger on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, YouTube, TuneIn, and Stitcher, or download episodes directly from SoundCloud.

Stay up to date with Clear and Present Danger on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or visit the podcast’s website at freespeechhistory.com. Email us feedback at [email protected].

In 1787, the newly authored U.S. Constitution was sent out to the states for ratification. Despite fierce objections from Anti-Federalists, the Constitution did not include a bill of rights protecting freedom of speech and the press. The Anti-Federalist newspaper the Independent Gazetteer published an ironic comment on what the future of free speech would look like if the Constitution was ratified:

Ah! what glorious days are coming; how I anticipate the brilliancy of the American court! … [H]ere is the president going in state to the senate house to confirm the law for the abolition of the liberty of the press. Men and brethren will not these things be so?

Even though the Bill of Rights was adopted in 1791, the Independent Gazetteer’s withering sarcasm had been prophetic: On July 14, 1798, President John Adams signed the Sedition Act into law, making it a crime to “write, print, utter, or publish…any false, scandalous and malicious writing against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame…or to bring them…into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them…the hatred of the good people of the United States.”

A mere seven years after the adoption of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment’s promise that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,” Congress had done just that. The Sedition Act paved the way for the prosecution and imprisonment of both journalists, editors, politicians, and ordinary Americans engaging in political, satirical and symbolic speech.

In part two of this conversation with NYU professor Stephen Solomon, we explore how the Americans who had championed freedom of speech as the “great bulwark of liberty” and thumbed their noses at English sedition laws in the lead up to the Revolution came to adopt their own sedition law. We discuss issues including:

• The deeply polarized political environment of the 1790s;
• The fiercely partisan attacks of both Federalist and Democratic-Republican newspapers on political opponents;
• How the Sedition Act differed from seditious libel under English common law;
• The arguments for and against the constitutionality of the Sedition Act;
• James Madison’s eloquent and elaborate defense of robust free speech protections;
• The congressman, journalists and ordinary Americans who were prosecuted and imprisoned for voicing their opinions;
• The prosecutorial zeal of Secretary of State Matthew Pickering and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase (aka “Old Bacon Face”);
• The unintended consequences of the Sedition Act which strengthened Democratic-Republican newspapers and politicians and weakened Federalists; and
• Thomas Jefferson’s magnanimous inauguration speech.

Marjorie Deane Professor of Journalism at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute; teaches First Amendment law and is founding editor of First Amendment Watch, which covers current conflicts over freedom of expression. Author of Revolutionary Dissent: How the Founding Generation Created the Freedom of Speech.

 Why have kings, emperors, and governments killed and imprisoned people to shut them up? And why have countless people risked death and imprisonment to express their beliefs? Jacob Mchangama guides you through the history of free speech from the trial of Socrates to the Great Firewall.

You can subscribe and listen to Clear and Present Danger on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, YouTube, TuneIn, and Stitcher, or download episodes directly from SoundCloud.

Stay up to date with Clear and Present Danger on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or visit the podcast’s website at freespeechhistory.com. Email us feedback at [email protected].

The First Amendment of the US Constitution was adopted as part of the Bill of Rights in 1791. This “Great bulwark of liberty” provides that 

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

In this conversation with professor Stephen Solomon we will explore the origins and drafting history of the First Amendment including:

• The inspiration from early state constitutions and declarations in Virginia and Pennsylvania
• The Articles of Confederation
• The fierce debate surrounding the Constitutional Convention and ratification process.
• How Federalists and anti-Federalists clashed over the necessity of a bill of rights
• How some Federalists used the Heckler´s Veto to silence anti-Federalists 
• James Madison´s first draft bill of rights and why Madison thought that the American conception of freedom of speech differed substantially from the British conception
• Whether Freedom of Speech is really “the First Freedom”
• What were the essential justification for freedom of speech envisaged by the Founders
• Whether the Founders would agree with 21. Century standards of free speech as developed by the Supreme Court

Why have kings, emperors, and governments killed and imprisoned people to shut them up? And why have countless people risked death and imprisonment to express their beliefs? Jacob Mchangama guides you through the history of free speech from the trial of Socrates to the Great Firewall.

You can subscribe and listen to Clear and Present Danger on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, YouTube, TuneIn, and Stitcher, or download episodes directly from SoundCloud.

Stay up to date with Clear and Present Danger on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or visit the podcast’s website at freespeechhistory.com. Email us feedback at [email protected].

In the second half of the 18th Century American, Patriots showed that freedom of the press was a potent weapon against authority. Not even the world´s most formidable empire could stop them from speaking truth, lies and insults to power.

In 1765 the announcement of the Stamp Act kicked off a tsunami of dissent in colonial pamphlets, newspapers, taverns and town meetings. The outpouring of protest shaped a public opinion increasingly hostile to taxation without representation and in favor of popular sovereignty. Additional taxes and disabilities imposed by Parliament further radicalized the patriot side and the anti-British propaganda. The revolutionary dissent included both principled arguments, pamphlet wars, slander, and some genuine “Fake News”.

Since prosecutions for seditious libel had effectively been abolished by the Zenger case in 1735 (see episode 21) the British were powerless to stop the onslaught of Patriot fighting words. More than ever press freedom had become the “Great Bulwark of Liberty”.

Though Patriots constantly invoked the principle of freedom of speech, loyalist printers and newspapers were subjected to the “Patriot´s Veto” through intimidation and mob violence.

Tom Paine´s pamphlet Common Sense became a sensation and pushed many Patriot fence-sitters into the independence camp. And just before and after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, several states protected freedom of the press in rights declarations.   

In this episode we’ll explore:

• How a mix of ideas from classical antiquity and the European Enlightenment inspired the Founding generation
• How the democratization of access to print technology created a vibrant public sphere in colonial America
• How pamphlet wars were the 18th century equivalent of Twitter feuds
• How the Boston Gazette became the centerpiece of #theresistance and the launch pad for fighting words directed at the British and loyalists
• How symbolic speech such as liberty trees, liberty poles and cartoons rallied popular opinion
• How the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston became the “Headquarters of the Revolution”
• How newspapers used “fake news” and analog “photoshopping” to further the Patriot cause
• How loyalist printers were silenced through intimidation and mob violence with the tacit consent of prominent patriots like Tom Paine and James Madison
• How Tom Paine´s Common Sense steeled Patriots’ resolve and made the case for independence
• How the ideas of freedom of the press and speech were included in rights declarations of states like Virginia and Pennsylvania in 1776

Why have kings, emperors, and governments killed and imprisoned people to shut them up? And why have countless people risked death and imprisonment to express their beliefs? Jacob Mchangama guides you through the history of free speech from the trial of Socrates to the Great Firewall.

You can subscribe and listen to Clear and Present Danger on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, YouTube, TuneIn, and Stitcher, or download episodes directly from SoundCloud.

Stay up to date with Clear and Present Danger on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or visit the podcast’s website at freespeechhistory.com. Email us feedback at [email protected].

18th century America was impacted and influenced by the so-called Glorious Revolution in the Motherland. And no-one had a bigger impact on American attitudes towards freedom of speech than Cato’s Letters written by the Radical Whigs John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon. Cato´s Letters created a powerful free speech meme, that went viral in the colonies: “Freedom of Speech is the great Bulwark of Liberty”.  The reach of Cato’s principles grew exponentially as colonists liked, shared and commented on them in newspapers, pamphlets and taverns. Americans were persuaded that “Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as publick liberty, without freedom of speech: Which is the right of every man”.  As a consequence, grand juries and juries refused to indict and convict colonists for seditious libel when criticizing governments and officials.

Despite the practical defeat of libels laws in colonial courts, legislative assemblies continued to threaten free speech. Under legislative privilege provocative writers could be jailed and fined by their own representatives. And even American heroes were sometimes willing to sacrifice principle.

In this episode we’ll explore

• How coffee-houses expanded the public sphere by cultivating the sharing of news and ideas, including revolutionary ones.
• How the common law crime of seditious libel impacted writers
• How English writers including Matthew Tindal, John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon paved the way for American ideas on free speech
• How the editor of the New England Courant in Boston combined anti-vaxxer propaganda with free speech advocacy
• How the 16-year old Benjamin Franklin used Cato’s Letters to argue for freedom of speech when his brother James was in jail
• How the New York Weekly Journal became America’s first opposition newspaper and justified its savage hit pieces on New York governor William Cosby with Cato’s free speech principles
• How a jury acquitted the printer of the New York Weekly Journal Peter Zenger, even though he was guilty according to the law   
• How legislative privilege was used to punish colonialists for offending their own representatives
• How Benjamin Franklin defended legislative privilege and the jailing of a Pennsylvania man for his writings

You can subscribe and listen to Clear and Present Danger on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, YouTube, TuneIn, and Stitcher, or download episodes directly from SoundCloud.

Stay up to date with Clear and Present Danger on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or visit the podcast’s website at freespeechhistory.com.

Email us feedback at [email protected].

1685 was a watershed year for events that would lead to what we call the Enlightenment. France´s Sun King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and initiated a policy of religious persecution of Protestants. In England, the Catholic James II assumed the throne to the horror of the protestant majority in Parliament. From their exiles in the Dutch Republic, the French philosopher Pierre Bayle wrote his groundbreaking defense of religious tolerance “Commentaire Philosophique” and John Locke wrote the original Latin version of his Letter Concerning Toleration. In this episode, we trace the seeds of the Enlightenment covering events in France, the Dutch Republic, and England.

• Why did Louis XIV revoke the Edict of Nantes and what were the consequences?
• Why did the Dutch Republic become famous for its religious tolerance and open debate in the 17th Century?
• Who was the late 16th century Dutch thinker who opposed censorship six decades before Milton?
• Why were several members of Spinoza´s circle of radical Dutch freethinkers targeted by censorship and repression?
• Why was the complete work of Spinoza and even the reworking of his ideas banned in the Dutch Republic?
• Why were Pierre Bayle’s ideas so controversial that he lost his professorship?
• Why did the Anglican majority in the English Parliament oppose religious tolerance favoured by both Charles II and James II?
• How tolerant was the Toleration Act really?
• How did John Locke provide the intellectual killer blow to the English Licensing Act?
• What were the consequences of the end of pre-publication censorship in England?

You can subscribe and listen to Clear and Present Danger on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, YouTube, TuneIn, and Stitcher, or download episodes directly from SoundCloud.

Stay up to date with Clear and Present Danger on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or visit the podcast’s website at freespeechhistory.com.

Baruch Spinoza (also known as Benedict de Spinoza) was born in Amsterdam in 1632. While his given name means “blessing” in both Hebrew and Latin, Spinoza’s “Theological-political treatise” from 1670 was condemned as “a book forged in hell.” Spinoza himself was denounced as a dangerous heretic or atheist by religious and secular rulers alike, and was pilloried in the court of public opinion.

Spinoza’s apparent crime consisted in systematically eroding the foundation of revealed religion and the authority of the Bible. But in addition to his materialist philosophy, Spinoza championed freedom of thought and expression as the precondition for social peace in a free democratic state. According to Spinoza, “The most tyrannical governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right over his thoughts” and therefore, “In a free state every man may think what he likes, and say what he thinks.” These were radical ideas in early modern Europe and too much to stomach for even the tolerant Dutch.

With me on this episode of Clear and Present Danger to explore Spinoza’s ideas on freedom of thought and expression is University of Wisconsin-Madison philosophy professor and Spinoza expert Steven Nadler. Nadler is the author of “Spinoza: A Life” and “A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age.”

In the episode we discuss issues including:

• Why the Dutch Republic was tolerant and liberal compared to most other states at the time
• Why Spinoza was excommunicated from the Portuguese-Jewish community of Amsterdam
• Why Spinoza’s ideas of religion shocked and outraged just about everyone
• Why Spinoza thought social peace depends on freedom of thought and expression
• Where Spinoza drew the line when it comes to free speech and religion

Bonus: Professor Nadler on Spinoza in New York Times: “Spinoza’s Vision of Freedom, and Ours” and “Judging Spinoza.”

You can subscribe and listen to Clear and Present Danger on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, YouTube, TuneIn and Stitcher, or download episodes directly from SoundCloud.

Stay up to date with Clear and Present Danger on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or visit the podcast’s website at freespeechhistory.com.

Email us feedback at [email protected].

Americans are more supportive of free speech than any other people. 95 % of Americans think it’s “very important” to be able to criticize the government without censorship and 77% support the right to offend religious feelings. But in 17th Century colonial America, criticizing the government, officials or the laws was punishable as seditious libel and could result in the cropping of ears, whippings, boring of the tongue and jail time. Religious speech was also tightly controlled. Blasphemy was punishable by death in several colonies and religious dissenters such as Quakers were viciously persecuted in Puritan New England. Despite the harsh climate of the 17th century, the boundaries of political speech and religious tolerance were significantly expanded.  In this episode we’ll explore:

• How the crime of seditious libel was exported to colonial America
• Why peddlers of “fake news” were seen as enemies of the state
• Why a Harvard student was whipped for blasphemy
• Why four Quakers were hanged in Boston and many more whipped, branded and jailed
• How colonies like Pennsylvania, Carolina and Maryland combined religious tolerance with laws against religious offense,
• How Roger Williams´ ”Rogue Island” and West New Jersey adopted polices of radical religious toleration
• The dangers of mixing alcohol and politics in Maryland
• How William Penn promoted religious tolerance and political intolerance
• How the colonies operated a strict licensing regime to suppress printing
• How John Wise protested taxation without representation and became “America’s First Great Democrat”

You can subscribe and listen to Clear and Present Danger on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, YouTube, TuneIn, and Stitcher, or download episodes directly from SoundCloud.

Stay up to date with Clear and Present Danger on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or visit the podcast’s website at freespeechhistory.com.

Email us feedback at [email protected].

In the 16th Century Spain and Portugal globalized the inquisition by spreading the fight for religious orthodoxy and against heresy, blasphemy and apostasy to the Americas, Africa and Asia allowing inquisitors to pry into the souls of men on five continents. In Episode 17 we try to answer questions such as:

• How many people were affected by the inquisition?
• What were the consequences for native Americans?
• What were the similarities and differences between inquisition in Europe and the different colonies?
• What where the links between inquisition, racism and anti-semitism?
• How did the inquisition stop the spread of books and information?
• Why and when did the inquisition end?

You can subscribe and listen to Clear and Present Danger on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, YouTube, TuneIn and Stitcher, or download episodes directly from SoundCloud.

Stay up to date with Clear and Present Danger on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or visit the podcast’s website at freespeechhistory.com.

Email us feedback at [email protected].