Media Law & Ethics RU COMS 400 Fall 2016 T-Th 12:30 – 1:15 Russell 033 Prof. Bill Kovarik, PhDwkovarik@radford.edu / Ph: 831 6033Office hours: before and after classOffice location: 2126 CHBS

Class web site: revolutionsincommunication.com/law Also see: www.billkovarik.com HISTORY

Section 2.1

Questions History? Why bother? How do people today use history? What are “natural rights”? How unique is the American and

European regard for individual liberty?

How can you use historical arguments to fight for your own rights?

People always seek freedom Modern concepts of political freedom

and personal liberty are not actually so modern after all. Ideas about tolerance for religious and political ideas have emerged throughout human history.

Around 2,500 years ago, great ethical systems emphasizing religious freedom flourished in China, India and Greece. Religious tolerance also emerged in the Roman Empire around 331 CD and the Islamic Empire in 622 C.E.

Ashoka & religious tolerance One of the best known converts to Buddhism was King

Ashoka (273 – 232 BCE) of India. In 256 BCE, Ashoka issued the Seven Pillar Edicts promoting

religious tolerance and Buddhist principles of compassion and justice. Good can be attained in different ways, Ashoka said, “but all of them have as their root restraint in speech, that is, not praising one’s own religion, or condemning the religion of others without good cause. If there is cause for criticism, it should be done in a mild way.”

“But it is better to honor other religions for this reason: By so doing, one’s own religion benefits, and so do other religions, while doing otherwise harms one’s own religion and the religions of others. Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion, and condemns others with the thought ‘Let me glorify my own religion,’ only harms his own religion.”

Jacques Louis – David, 1787

Socrates & political principles GREECE -- One of history’s greatest martyrs to freedom of speech

was Socrates, who was condemned for his outspoken criticism of life in Ancient Greece.

His crime was “corruption” of the youth of Athens with his free thinking. “I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live,” he is remembered for saying. He was given a choice: live in exile or die by drinking hemlock. He chose the hemlock.

Socrates lived at a time when classical Mediterranean civilizations aspired to a high degree of freedom. This was partly attained during the Golden Age of Pericles 443 – 429 BCE, in which uninhibited free speech, called parrhesia, was highly esteemed.

When citizens attended assembly, heralds asked “What man has good advise to give the polis and wishes to make known?” Near the meeting place was the Areopagus, the market in Athens where the courts also met. Ares was the Greek name for Mars, the god of war. A major center of scholarship emerged from the Greek tradition in Alexandria, Egypt in the third century BCE. Scholars from all over the ancient world are known to have worked together in a spirit of mutual respect.

Islam and religious tolerance ISLAM — Religious tolerance was explicit in the Constitution

(charter) of Medina, 622 CE. written by the Islamic prophet Muhammad to help bring together warring factions of Arabs and communities of Jews. It states that non-Muslim citizens have equal political and cultural rights as Muslims and specifically says that non-Muslims have the right of autonomy and freedom of religion.

Religious tolerance is also found in the Qur’an, which states: Whosoever will, let him believe and whosoever will, let him disbelieve. (Qur’an, 18: 29).

A United Nations project to recover and preserve manuscripts from the Mali and Songhai Empires university, based in Timbuktu, has uncovered a center of Islamic culture and learning in the 14th through 17th centuries. Among the manuscripts is one by Mirajal-Suud ila nayl Majlub al-Sudan:

The fundamental and original nature of humanity is that individuals are free.

Magna Carta – 1215 Norman invasion of England in 1066 created a

two-tiered society with many inequities. In 1215, a group of English barons forced the

Norman King John to sign the Magna Carta (Latin for great charter).

At first, rights applied only to English nobles, but over time they were extended to all.

The Magna Carta was the beginning of the end of absolute power for British monarchs, although attempts by James I and James II in the 1600s to restore absolute power resulted in two major political upheavals — the English Civil War (1642) and the Glorious Revolution (1688) .

Fundamental rights such as trial by jury and due process were included in the document, but not political or religious freedom.

Protestant Reformation From the 1400s to 1700s was an

outgrowth of the new spirit of the Renaissance.

Some rebellions against the church took place before printing, but were suppressed.

That changed with printing.Gutenberg and others developed

moveable type in Germany, and the first book printed with moveable type came off the press in the 1455. The technology essentially allowed three people to do the work of a thousand monks and nuns.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther (1483-1546) used the printing press list demands for church reform. Like Jan Hus, he was outraged at the sale of indulgences.

Nailed his 95 Theses on the door of a church in Wittenburg Oct 31, 1517

Printed and circulated locally, reprinted, sent by messenger to printing companies across Europe. When printing started, crowds surged around printing shops, grabbing for pages still wet from the press.

Before the end of 1518, everyone in Europe had heard of Luther, and people crowded around printing shops, waiting for copies of the 95 Theses.

It’s hard to overstate the power of the press in European history -- One of three things that changed the shape of the world, accd to Francis Bacon

Religious warfare 1500s – 1600s

St Bartholomew’s Day massacre of French Protestants (Hugenots) by Catholics August 24, 1572

Reformation ended with Third - half Europe dead in religious

warsPermanent breakaway churches

◦Switzerland – Calvin – Baptists ◦Germany & Scandanavia – Lutherans ◦France – Hugenots ◦England & Scotland – Anglican,

Methodist, Presbyterian, Puritan Vernacular Bibles (local languages) Eventual ideas about tolerance

What was the Enlightenment? A philosophical and cultural movement of

the 17th and 18th centuries; Challenged faith, tradition and superstition

with rationality, human rights and a new relationship between the government and the governed.

Ideas included: ◦Balance of powers ◦Social contract ◦Marketplace of ideas◦Natural rights

Enlightenment Philosophers John Milton – marketplace of ideas John Locke – social contract Voltaire – defend free speech David Hume – cool media Jean Jacques Rousseau – natural rights Baron de Montesquieu – 3-part govt Benjamin Franklin – both sides Thomas Jefferson – inalienable rights John Stuart Mill – reasons for free

speech