Episode 18 - Colonial Dissent: Blasphemy, Libel and Tolerance in 17th Century America
Clear and Present Danger - A history of free speech
Release Date: 12/14/2018
Episode 41 - Free Speech and Racial Justice: Friends or Foes?
Clear and Present Danger - A history of free speech
This episode will focus on what role the dynamic between censorship and free speech has played in maintaining and challenging racist and oppressive societies. The episode will use American slavery and segregation, British colonialism, and South African apartheid as case studies.
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Special Edition - Suzanne Nossel
Clear and Present Danger - A history of free speech
In this Special Edition, we will zoom in on current challenges to free speech – specifically in the US. With me to discuss this timely subject, I have CEO of PEN America, Suzanne Nossel, who has just published her new book Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All.
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Special Edition - Daphne Keller & Kate Klonick
Clear and Present Danger - A history of free speech
“Internet Speech Will Never Go Back to Normal” read a recent Atlantic article, that stated that “governments must play a large role in these practices to ensure that the internet is compatible with a society’s norms and values.”
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Special Edition - Dunja Mijatović
Clear and Present Danger - A history of free speech
Since the coronavirus became a pandemic, governments around the world have adopted a wide range of measures affecting basic human rights. This includes many of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe all of whom are legally bound by the European Convention on Human Rights.
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Special Edition - Monika Bickert
Clear and Present Danger - A history of free speech
The Coronavirus has disrupted life as we know it. And the Internet overflows with torrents of data, news and updates about the ongoing crisis. But in parallel with the corona pandemic, WHO has warned of an “infodemic” of mis- and disinformation spreading through social media and messaging apps.
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Episode 40 - The Age of Human Rights: Tragedy and Triumph
Clear and Present Danger - A history of free speech
In this episode we will explore:
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Episode 39 - The Totalitarian Temptation – Part II - Der Untergang
Clear and Present Danger - A history of free speech
Weimar Germany was deeply conflicted about the value of free speech. On the one hand, freedom of expression was constitutionally protected. On the other hand, the constitution allowed censorship of cinema and “trash and filth” in literature.
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Episode 38 - The Totalitarian Temptation – Part I
Clear and Present Danger - A history of free speech
In this first of a two-part episode on totalitarianism in Communist Russia, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany, we will focus on the rise of communism and Italian fascism and the effects of these ideologies on free expression. Hopefully this journey into the darkest of pasts will help shed light on how to grapple with one of democracy’s eternal and inevitable dilemmas: What should be the limits of free speech?
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Episode 37 - Expert opinion: The History of Mass Surveillance, with Andreas Marklund
Clear and Present Danger - A history of free speech
In this episode, we discuss the history of mass surveillance and its consequences for freedom of expression and information. With me is Andreas Marklund who is the head of research at the ENIGMA Museum of Communication, in Copenhagen.
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Episode 36 - Expert opinion: Thomas Healy on how Oliver Wendell Holmes changed the history of free speech in America
Clear and Present Danger - A history of free speech
In this conversation, professor Thomas Healy explains how Wendell Holmes changed his mind on free speech and laid the foundation for the current strong legal protection of the First Amendment. Thomas Healy is a professor of law at Seton Hall University School of Law and the author of the award-winning book “The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind--And Changed the History of Free Speech in America”.
info_outlineAmericans 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”
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