October 16 – 22, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available at here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.
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Tibetans Protest China’s Plan to Curb Language
Edward Wong, The New York Times, 10/22
Jailed Iranian Scholar Denies Charges in Court
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 10/21
Is affirmative action for men the answer to enrollment woes?
Carolyn Abraham and Kate Hammer, The Globe and Mail, 10/21
Appeals Court Hears Arguments in Ward Churchill’s Bid to Get His University Job Back
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/21
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Category Archives: Journalism and Media
Academic Freedom Media Review, September 25-October 1, 2010
Compiled by the Scholars at Risk Network
The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.
Scholars at Risk calls for letters on behalf of detained Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh
Scholars at Risk, 10/01
Forskerkonkurranse i videregående skole (in Norwegian)
University of Oslo (UiO), Rector’s Blog, 10/1
University Transparency Bill Vetoed in California
Inside Higher Ed, 10/1
Vietnam Putting Professor on Trial for Online Dissent
Patrick Goodenough, CNS News, 9/30
Low grades for the party: The Communist Party’s grip is holding back the country’s best and brightest
The Economist, 9/30
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Gay Teens and Suicide
Tyler Clementi, Freshman, Rutgers University
Authorities have found the body of Tyler Clementi floating in the Hudson River. Clementi is the 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman who jumped of the George Washington Bridge after his roommate allegedly posted to the internet a video of him being intimate with another man. In the fall semester of his first year in college, a time that is supposed to be full of possibility, this young man felt humiliated to the point that he gave up hope. I wonder at the mentality of those who would play such a prank, but my mind is incapable to wrapping itself around the possibility such cruelty could have been deliberate. I can only believe that the two students who posted the video did not think through the consequences.
Also shocking, it has emerged that Clementi had once reported a similar incident. He
reportedly notified his resident adviser and other university officials about an incident earlier this month in which his roommate, Dharun Ravi, allegedly live streamed video of Clementi having a sexual encounter with a male classmate.
According to the ABC News report on that, his complaint was not ignored, but I’m not sure it was handled properly. Had it been, perhaps the death could have been averted.
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FactChecking ‘The Pledge to America'
Get a load of that title! Click for text, with pictures.
FactCheck.org is the website of a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics for voters
by monitoring the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.
They are a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania and not related to any political party. They simply check facts. In these midterm elections, they are a good place to turn for the truth behind the spin in any given campaign. This post, for example, shows that both the Republican and Democratic candidates for Senator in Nevada are making false claims about each other.
So what about the Pledge to America that Republican Party leaders recently made?
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Academic Freedom Media Review, August 14-20
Speak, by R. Baxter © All Rights Reserved
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
— from the Friends of Voltaire
When Laura Schlessinger quit her job this week, she made claims about violations of free speech and her first amendment rights. This is absurd. Her show is on commercial radio network. The First Amendment applies to the government infringing on free speech; a commercial network needs to think about the listeners or viewers, as well as the advertisers. Laura Schlessinger is free to use the “N-word” as much as she wants in the privacy of her own home, and speeches for organizations that share her views, or just out on the street if she’s prepared to deal with the consequences.
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Putting the Call for Energy Independence in Context
Jon Stewart talks about Nixon and an energy-independent future
The second most informative hour is, arguably, the hour occupied by The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. People shake their heads with a “tsk, tsk” when they are told that many in the younger generation get most of their news from The Daily Show, and it is a problem if this is the only source, but I daresay that an analysis of the content in the flagship news broadcasts on any network and that on The Daily Show would reveal that on many nights as much or more of the Daily Show is devoted to serious, important, timely topics than is the network news, particularly on those days when the guest is not an entertainer. Certainly the Daily show often provides more context, albeit through humor.
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Academic Freedom Media Review, June 5-11
Academic Freedom Media Review
June 5 – 11, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
China defends internet censorship
Michael Bristow, BBC News, 6/10
Marquette Settles With Woman Whose Job Offer Was Revoked /
Inside Higher Ed, 6/10
Paper on Psychopaths, Delayed by Legal Threat, Finally Published /
John Travis, Science, 6/10
Faith and Freedom
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 6/9
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Academic Freedom Media Review, May 29 – June 4
May 29 – June 4, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Public conversation on universities is welcome
W. Salters Sterling, The Irish Times, 6/3
Catholic University of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine
Philip J. Crowley, Press Release Bureau of Public Affairs, 6/2
Union challenges new visa system
The UK Press Association, 6/1
Jefferson v. Cuccinelli: Does the constitution really protect a right to “academic freedom”?
Dahlia Lithwick and Richard Schragger, Slate Magazine, 6/1
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Stop this Dangerous Rhetoric
A drive for signatures on a petition from Credo says that in his new book FOX News contributor Newt Gingrich compared President Obama’s administration to Nazi Germany saying that his “secular-socialist machine represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.”
If anyone has read this book, I’d be interested in knowing how Gingrich defines socialism. It is an oft repeated charge, and I don’t understand it, because this country has a long way to go before it even become a “mixed” economy. Even the health care reform measures that passed recently will work through private insurance! Essentially the new policies of the administration check the excesses of capitalism, no more and no less. It has been acknowledged since the first recession of the Modern era that this is necessary.
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Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Media Review, April 24-30
Academic Freedom Media Review
April 24 – 30, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Scholar wages FoI battle for bank collapse data
Melanie Newman, The Times Higher Education, 4/29
Studying global universities
Glenn C. Altschuler, The Boston Globe, 4/29
Pakistan university mourns murdered woman professor
BBC News, 4/28
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