Jefferson Center gives nine Jefferson Muzzle awards
Source: Cavalier Daily
NSA, two high schools among "winners"
by Sarah Pritchett | Apr 11 2014 | 11 hours ago
The Charlottesville-based Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression announced nine recipients for the 2014 Jefferson Muzzle awards. The awards, according to the group’s website, “draw national attention to abridgments of free speech and press and, at the same time, foster an appreciation for those tenets of the First Amendment.”
This year’s “winners” included the U.S. Department of Justice, the White House Press Office, the National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security, the North Carolina General Assembly Police, the Kansas Board of Regents, Modesto Junior College, the Tennessee State Legislature, Wharton High School Principal Brad Woods and Pemberton Township High School Principal Ida Smith.
Center Director John Wheeler, who took over as director in 2011 when former University President Robert O’Neil resigned from the position, said the Muzzles remind citizens to be vigilant in protecting First Amendment rights.
....
The awards are given out to those who fight against journalists and speakers who want to speak freely on adverse topics and opinions. This is why the U.S. Department of Justice tops the 2014 list, for subpoenaing journalists and individuals who have leaked classified information. ... “We send the recipients a Jefferson Muzzle’s T-shirt with an image of Jefferson with a black bar across his mouth,” Wheeler said.
Read more: http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2014/04/jefferson-center-gives-nine-jefferson-muzzle-awards
Sunday is Thomas Jefferson's 271st birthday. Please celebrate in a safe and appropriate manner.
Ooooh, much more, from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund:
Jefferson Center Calls Out Free Speech Violations With 2014 Muzzle Awards
April 10, 2014
By Maren Williams
It’s time once again for the Muzzle Awards, presented annually by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression to “recognize” individuals or organizations that have committed egregious violations against free speech in the past year. This year the undignified winners include:
• The U.S. Department of Justice, for aggressively pursuing sources of government leaks by extracting reporters’ phone records and emails from communications companies via search warrants and secret subpoenas.
....
• The National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security, for sending cease and desist letters to Zazzle.com in order to stop seller Dan McCall from using parodies of the agencies’ official seals on merchandise. The NSA and DHS did finally acknowledge that parody is protected by the First Amendment–but after three years and a lawsuit from McCall.
....
• Modesto (California) Junior College, which blocked student Robert Van Tuinen from handing out copies of the Constitution on Constitution Day because he was not within the school’s designated “free speech area.” Aided by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Van Tuinen sued and received $50,000 in damages as well as the abolition of the college’s restrictive speech policy.
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For more details on all these stories, check out the Jefferson Center’s 2014 Muzzles page over here!
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Contributing Editor Maren Williams is a reference librarian who enjoys free speech and rescue dogs.
= new reply since forum marked as read
In other countries, you could get arrested for this.
For those who feel politics used to be more civil in the good old days, here's a reminder that not everyone liked Jefferson.
It's No Laughing Matter - Analyzing Political Cartoons
The prairie dog sickened at the sting of the hornet or a diplomatic puppet exhibiting his deceptions
James Akin's earliest-known signed cartoon, "The Prairie Dog" is an anti-Jefferson satire, relating to Jefferson's covert negotiations for the purchase of West Florida from Spain in 1804. Jefferson, as a scrawny dog, is stung by a hornet with Napoleon's head into coughing up "Two Millions" in gold coins, (the secret appropriation Jefferson sought from Congress for the purchase). On the right dances a man (possibly a French diplomat) with orders from French minister Talleyrand in his pocket and maps of East Florida and West Florida in his hand. He says, "A gull for the People."
