Opinions from around the country

“Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press....” — Amendment I, The Constitution of the United States of America.

Newspapers are a vital source for disseminating information in this country. Since the dawn of the printing press newspapers have been respected bearers of news, and their protection under the Bill of Rights was thought to be of the utmost priority for the Constitution to be ratified by the states. This was in December of 1791.

Even the earliest attempts at censorship, such as the Sedition Act of 1798, opened the government to ridicule and galvanized the people of the young United States to continue to fight for what they had won from a tyrannical imperial power just a short time ago in the Revolution.

How far we have come. Now we take for granted these simple freedoms, of speech and press, until they are threatened. In its quest to achieve a measure of dominance over The Daily Campus’ yearly budget, the University of Connecticut is perpetrating its own subtle act of censorship.

A newspaper must retain complete sovereignty over its finances for its content to be effective, to be seen as unbiased and honest. At the greatest risk is the paper’s editorial content. The paper must have the option to criticize or to support the administration and the university as a whole without the possibility of losing valuable funding.

Free speech and free press are two of our most cherished freedoms, the foundations on which our society rests. They are simple concepts, but difficult to take away. And that is the way it should be, for a powerful government as well as a university administration looking to exert undue control over its campus voice. Fear is not respect. The small scale of this university in comparison to the country is not an excuse for the administration to ignore the values of this nation and infringe upon our right to report the facts. The truth is still the truth, regardless of the effort to hide it.

Only with the ability to anger, to offend, to inspire their government and all those in power without the fear of retribution can a people truly be considered free. Freedom is the strength to say what people do not wish to hear, not out of spite but in defense of truth, and freedom on paper and freedom in practice are two entirely different things.

This editorial comes from The Daily Campus at the University of Connecticut.
This column was distributed by U-Wire.

credits

TCU Daily Skiff © 2002