Press Room

Washington, DC  -  Although freedom of speech has been a  Constitutional right since our country’s founding, Americans today continually face challenges for expressing their beliefs through various forms of communication, whether in art, conversation, on social media, or in politics. Legal and Communication scholars perpetually debate how we define and interpret free speech relative to the books we read and the television programs we watch, what we say to or about our neighbors, what we proclaim as moral or unjust, and how we display patriotism and protest.

On the occasion of Free Speech Week (October 17-23), the National Communication Association (NCA) calls upon its membership of thousands of Communication scholars and teachers to help their students and the larger citizenry make sense of the pressing issues of the day through open debate, dialogue, and discussion. NCA’s free speech-related principles are articulated in its three ethical credos that support free and responsible communication in a democratic society; free and responsible use of electronic communication networks; and ethical communication that endorses diversity of perspective, tolerance of dissent, and condemnation of violence and hatred.   

Examples of recent research and publications by Communication scholars on free speech issues can be found in the October issue of NCA’s online research digest, Communication Currents. The issue covers such topics as a case on student speech that went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, community response to the Westboro Baptist Church’s hate speech, the boundaries of free speech on social media, and the relationship between violence and free speech.

NCA reaffirms its commitment to the teaching, research, and other professional activities that fuel best communication practices and that support ongoing interpretations of free speech, whether legal, historic, artistic, or political.