FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Receives Media Institute's Freedom Of Speech Award

Pai

FCC Commissioner AJIT PAI received the Freedom of Speech Award at the MEDIA INSTITUTE’S 2016 Awards Banquet in WASHINGTON on WEDNESDAY (10/20).

In his speech accepting the award, PAI called attention to cases like the FCC's "ill-advised Critical Information Needs study" that planned to send researchers to broadcast TV newsrooms to ask questions about editorial judgement, which PAI noted drew "the opposition of Americans from around the country and across the political spectrum."  But PAI added that he fears that "our cultural consensus on the importance of being able to speak one’s mind is eroding," especially on college campuses; he cited cases in which visiting speakers were subjected to opposition for their viewpoints, HALLOWEEN costumes became a contentious issue, and students proposed replacing "academic freedom" with "academic justice."  "This progressive impulse to squelch speech on college campuses is anything but progressive," PAI said, "and an academic culture pervaded by safe spaces, trigger warnings, and a fear of 'microaggressions' must be challenged if AMERICA is to preserve the first freedom embedded in our Bill of Rights."

"Elected officials should intervene to defend free speech when it is under attack at public universities," PAI prescribed. "Administrators should stand strong against the bullying of anti-speech activists.  Professors in all disciplines, but especially the  humanities, should embrace intellectual diversity and imbue in their students a desire to consider all points of view.  And those outside the academy, from organizations like the Media Institute to individual citizens, should make clear society’s expectation that college students will be leaders, not laggards, when it comes to defending our First Amendment freedoms."

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