In 2013, 52 percent of survey respondents agreed that business owners should be required to provide services to same-sex couples even if in violation of their faith. In 2015, however, only 38 percent agree with that statement.
Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian upheld a preliminary finding that sentenced Aaron and Melissa Klein, the Christian bakers who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, to a fine of $135,000 in emotional damages to the homosexual couple they denied service, but also added a new provision forbidding them to speak about their unwillingness to serve a gay marriage.
A petition to ban “climate change denial” pages from Facebook has attracted over 3,300 signatures. The author of the petition is arguing that climate change denial must be banned on the social networking site because Facebook rules stipulate that pages
The U.S. Supreme Court took different paths in two rulings delivered Thursday on cases concerning the First Amendment’s right to freedom of speech.
Websites run by the Canadian government were attacked on Wednesday, causing widespread service interruptions. The “Anonymous” hacker collective claimed responsibility for the attack, describing it as a protest against the recent passage of a controversial anti-terrorism bill, which the hackers denounced as “a clear violation of the universal declaration of human rights.”
For the third time this year, Islamist radicals in Bangladesh hacked a secular writer to death in public.
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media watchdog group, has updated a “personal data” law to allow for the government to regulate and ban memes using the likenesses of public personalities, including President Vladimir Putin.
In the five years since the Supreme Court decided Citizens United vs. F.E.C., liberal special interests have attempted to silence independent speech and the voices of non-profit organizations. Their radical agenda has been embraced by President Obama and Democrats in
A painting on display in Trumbull, Connecticut, that depicts an image of Mother Teresa with Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, and abortion proponent Gloria Steinem has been the subject of much controversy over issues of freedom of speech and religion.
Executions are rising sharply in Iran, reaching a 12-year high in 2014, according to the United Nations’s Human Rights Council. The UN called this “deeply troubling” and further criticized Iran for not living up to promises that it would protect ethnic and religious minorities, according to a report at Voice of America News.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has vetoed plans to ban extremist preachers from university campuses citing concerns that doing so would erode free speech. He put his foot down, blocking the Tory plans, after what has been described as
The persecution of individuals speaking ill of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues, as more stories surface of people silenced or punished for disagreeing with the president. In an incident this week, a young cleaning lady in a private firm was fired after allegedly posting insults against Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Facebook.
Former film star Brigitte Bardot, France’s iconic blonde bombshell and “sex kitten” who reigned supreme from 1952 – 1973, is currently on trial for the fifth time for insulting Muslims and “inciting racial hatred.” Bardot has been fined four times and has also received suspended jail sentences.
The Guardian has been strongly criticised by its own readers for an article which suggested that freedom of speech must only be used “responsibly”, and that speech without self restraint was tantamount to “provocation”. The commentary, by columnist Hugh Muir,
Not one day after we announced the First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest, an event featuring Muhammad cartoonist Lars Vilks in Copenhagen, Denmark was attacked in the continuing war on our most basic freedoms. And that was just the first of two assaults on freedom in Copenhagen on Saturday.
Police have been accused of trying to find out the names of British people who bought the Charlie Hebdo magazine in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. The allegation came in a letter to the Guardian from a woman
Plano was not exactly living in the Dark Ages before December 8, 2014 when the City Council passed a contentious “Equal Rights Policy” ordinance that prohibited “discrimination in places of public accommodation, employment practices, housing transactions and city contracting practices.” It only passed by a vote of 5-to-4. Critics claim it infringes on First Amendment rights. Legal experts say it would stymie free speech.
The New York Times is a staunch defender of freedom of expression. At least as long as it doesn’t involve professing a biblical view of homosexual acts.
Friday on CNN, a cartoonist from Iran, who came to Paris to flee persecution, defended murdered Charlie Hebdo editor Stéphane Charbonnier (Charb), from one of the founding members of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, Henri Roussel’s criticisms that Charb
A politics professor associated with leftwing activism and anti-Semitic views at Brandeis University will no longer teach at the school following a one-year terminal sabbatical.
The human rights advocacy group the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) announced on Tuesday that it will be holding a demonstration in defense of the freedom of speech on Saturday, January 17 in Garland, Texas, outside a conference on “Islamophobia” that seeks to stifle opposition to jihad terror and restrict the freedom of speech.
A lecturer at an Irish university has said he would consider legal action if a member of the country’s media published or retweeted a cartoon of Mohammed. Dr Ali Selim, who teaches at Trinity University and is a member of
Fundamentalist Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary—who created a Twitter firestorm by responding to the massacre of staffers at Charlie Hebdo magazine with a rebuke of free speech—expands those comments in an op-ed carried by USA Today.
In Paris and in America, freedom is under assault by extremists from around the globe.
Following the bloody carnage that ensued after at least two masked gunmen opened fire on the the Paris-based offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12, supporters of ISIS (Islamic State), al Qaeda, and other extremist groups took to Twitter brandishing their praise for the killings in the name of Allah.
On Wednesday, Islamic terrorists murdered 12 people at the leftist French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo, including the editor-in-chief and three cartoonists. The motivation was clear: the terrorists shouted “Allahu Akhbar!” during the attack and screamed “We have avenged the prophet!” as they left the scene.
