Rights protected under the First Amendment:
- Freedom of religion.
- Freedom of speech.
- Freedom of the press.
- The freedom to peacefully assemble.
- The freedom to petition the Government for a redress of grieviences.
Freedom of speech is one of the most important aspects not only in this presidential election, but in the everyday lives of Americans.
Forty-one percent of participants found the First Amendment to be the most important amendment in the Bill of Rights, according to a survey conducted by YouGov.
To highlight the importance of the First Amendment and how it impacts our society, Free Speech week is hosted in hopes of educating students on one of their innate rights: freedom of speech.
The 12th annual national event from Oct. 17-23 aims “to raise public awareness of the importance of free speech in our democracy,” according to organizers, which include school, media and law organizations.
Dom Christi, a telecommunications professor, said that there are four values of free expression.
The first value is based on functionality in a democracy, he said. Without free expression, "voters can't really make educated decisions."
The marketplace of ideas is another component of free expression, something Christi said has been proven to be essential throughout history.
"That truth will come out if all the sides are able to argue," Christi said. "It has happened throughout history. The majoritarian view has been proven wrong and if you suppress the ideas that are not popular, you'll never really know if you're suppressing a true idea."
The 'safety-valve function' is identified by Christi as, "The idea that people can let off steam through protests and having their free expression is really the idea of maintaining stability."
Christi said the fourth belief encompasses humanity through innate rights.
"It's a basic human right for people to be able to speak their mind," he said.
While Americans have the right to freedom of speech, all freedoms have limits, Christi said. There is often confusion when clarifying what is and is not protected under this freedom.
"Speech is protected, actions are not, but what makes it difficult is that sometimes, something that is words is action. For example, sexual harassment," Christi said. "That's not speech, that's action. It's making somebody else uncomfortable in the workplace."
However, sometimes silent speech expressions can be confused for actions.
"On the other hand, there are things that are actions that are considered expression, like burning a flag in protest," Christi said. "Sometimes words can be actions and sometimes actions are expression."
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education partners with Free Speech Week to help students understand free speech on their campus by distributing a speech code rating. Ball State currently is rated with a yellow light, due to "at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse."
Michele Owen, Student Government Association secretary for social justice has looked into the speech codes at Ball State and found ambiguity to be the biggest issue.
"I went over some of the speech codes that we have and the biggest problem that I see is there are a lot of very vague phrases in our speech codes," Owen said.
In order to begin fostering a change within the speech codes, SGA and Owen will be hosting a dialogue on free speech Nov. 10, something Owen sees as the first step in any change.
"We’re getting some professors in from the religion, philosophy departments, criminal justice, political science, et cetera to kind of share their viewpoints and just start as a dialogue," Owen said. "So at least students can start getting involved and hearing about what’s going on."
Christi had an encounter with FIRE beginning in Feb. 2013 after he was asked to remove an Italian flag from his office window — something he saw as an infringement on his freedom of expression.
After Christi brought his concerns to FIRE, the organization wrote a letter to Ball State defending Christi's freedom to display the flag. In May 2013, Christi was able to return the flag to his window.
"I actually think there's a lesson for students, in that, rules exist, and the way our system works, the rules are the rules until somebody challenges them," Christi said.
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