The first blogs for the Fall Com Law class are in….and the results are fascinating. The question folks addressed was whether they subscribed to an INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS approach to free speech (free speech is something each individual deserves and should be able to assert against whatever majority they find themselves within) or whether they upheld a system where group values tended to prevail against the individual (i.e. no individual “right” per se).
In other words, do they really believe in the opening preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, laden with its rhetoric about “inherent dignity” and the “equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family”?
Not surprisingly for a group made up mostly of majors in Communication, just about everyone strongly supported an “individual rights” approach. But things got squishy when it came to confronting a conflicting value that most of them also subscribe to: multicultural sensitivity and tolerance. For example, those commenting upon cartoons and photos that satirized Islamic or Christian symbols quickly protected them…so long as the satire was published in a European country.
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