Balanced Reporting in Divisive Times: "Setting Fire to Reason"

Why the First Amendment Protects Hate Speech
Jane Kirtley Small

Should hate speech be protected by the U.S. Constitution? Should the government decide which ideas are acceptable and which are not? What are the risks if laws prohibit or punish ideas that many consider repugnant? Hubbard School Professor and Silha Center Director Jane Kirtley speaks on free speech, hate speech and the First Amendment. 

Keynote and Q&A.
Pizza lunch following the event. 

Jane E. Kirtley is the Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the Hubbard School, and directs the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law. She is an affiliated faculty member at the University of Minnesota Law School, and was a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School in 2004 and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School’s London Law Programme in 2012. Professor Kirtley speaks frequently on media law and ethics in the United States and abroad, most recently in Brazil, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan and Thailand. Her many publications include the Media Law Handbook, published by the U.S. State Department and translated into nine languages. She was Executive Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for 14 years. Before that, she practiced law in New York and Washington, D.C., and was a reporter for newspapers in Indiana and Tennessee.

Event Location

130 Murphy Hall

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