Tag: free speech

Protect free speech rights for Israel’s critics Legislation likely to produce "dangerous overreach"

Emily Alma

by Emily Alma
guest commentary posted June 18

Israel’s cruel and disproportionate response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks has elicited world-wide outcry, public horror at their actions, eclipsing our horror at the cruel Hamas actions against Israelis.

On the home front, popular uprisings continue unabated, spreading from action in the streets to union halls to university campuses to government employees resigning, to elected representatives in Congress – all demanding an end to hostilities, demanding an end to Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war, demanding an end to the flow of U.S. arms to Israel, demanding divestment from companies profiting from Israel’s war, demanding a permanent ceasefire and justice for Palestine. read more

CSUC student newspaper sparks hate speech debate Critics of Chico State's The Orion call for more sensitivity

OrionSign_359_286

This is the first in a two-part series. Part 2 on Chico State’s political climate will be posted June 9.

by Leslie Layton

On a recent Wednesday, Chico State journalism professor Mark Plenke was messaged that he should check the campus newspaper racks. The student-run weekly newspaper, The Orion, had come out earlier that day, and an opinion column was already producing a stream of angry social media responses.

Plenke, the faculty adviser to The Orion, found some 600 newspapers missing from racks in Tehama and Butte halls and rescued them from nearby garbage and recycling bins. The May 10 column by student journalist Roberto Fonseca, “Debunking GSEC Myths,” had already inspired a newspaper theft and was on the verge of sparking a campus debate that would veer from angry threats to culture-wars name-calling to thoughtful discussion. read more