Departments
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Week of 24 October 1997 |
Vol. I, No. 9 |
Feature
Article
COM's fourth Great Debate will confront Internettlesome issues
Tangled Web
by Eric McHenry
In Schenck v. United States, Supreme Court Justice Oliver W. Holmes famously held that no interpretation of the First Amend-ment's free speech clause would have its protection extended to a person who falsely shouted "Fire!" in a crowded theater. Such speech, he reasoned, posed a "clear and present danger."
On October 29, the School of Communication's fourth Great Debate will address a question of public expression that is not so easily resolved: "The Internet: A Clear and Present Danger?"
Cathy Cleaver, director of legal policy for the Family Research Council, will lead the affirmative charge against Chris Hansen, senior staff counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. With the help of four students representing COM and CAS, all of whom happen to be freshmen, they will debate the merits of government regulation of a medium that has no obvious historical analogue.
"As each new communications medium develops," says Hansen, "the Supreme Court has to decide whether it's going to give it the full First Amendment protection, like books and magazines and newspapers, or whether it's going to give it a more limited protection, like television and radio."
"Some people say that the Internet is the most democratic form of communication we've yet found," says Ranald Macdonald, chairman of COM's department of journalism, who will moderate the event. "It's not controlled by editors or gatekeepers. It's not owned by Rupert Murdoch or Ted Turner, and it crosses international boundaries. It poses some special First Amendment questions that other media -- radio, television -- have not."
Macdonald says he expects the debate to touch upon issues such as government restriction of Internet access to pornography, pedophilia, and terrorist propaganda. He says he invited the lead debaters because of their familiarity with the Internet's First Amendment implications.
Hansen was lead counsel in the important 1997 case ACLU v. Reno, in which the Supreme Court found that the language of the Communications Decency Act, Title V of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, was un-constitutionally overbroad.
"There was a real danger that because the Internet appears on a screen, as television does, it would be given limited protection," says Hansen. "ACLU v. Reno was, I think, a ringing decision. The Court found that the Internet is entitled to the same free speech protection as books and magazines, and for that matter, conversation, which is a large part of the Internet."
Hansen's opponent, Cleaver, is an expert on First Amendment issues including pornography law and free exercise of religion. She has filed amicus curiae, or friend of the court, briefs in cases before the Supreme Court and has appeared on every major television network as a legal authority.
"They're both very interested in the subject," says Macdonald. "We don't pay for speakers to come to this. It is an outlet for discussion on really important social issues and social questions."
Morse Auditorium, he predicts, will be jammed for the occasion, as it has been for the other Great Debates. And barring unforeseen major national news events, he says, C-SPAN will again record and broadcast the event, which will run from 6:30 to 9 p.m.
Joining Cleaver on the affirmative will be Christopher Macchiaroli (CAS'01), a political science major and president of BU's debating society, and Pamela Prickett (COM'01), a journalism major. Replying on the negative,