Freedom of Expression and Communication Ethics

Dr. Lee McGaan  

  Office:  WH 308  (ph. 457-2155);  email:  lee@monm.edu
  Home:  418 North Sunny Lane (ph. 734-5431)

Fall 2009 Office Hours:  MWF: 9-10am & 11am-1pm; TTh: 10:30am-noon; & by apt.  |       copyright (c) by Lee McGaan, 2006-9

last updated 1/13/2008
 Freedom of Expression Resources

Freedom of Speech in the United States - The Tedford textbook web site.  Resources include court decisions, case updates, historic documents on free speech, legal research reference sites, links to government web sites and to organizations concerned with free speech issues. Some specific resources pages are linked below.

  • Historic Documents (including Milton's "Areopagitica," Mill's "On Liberty," the "Federalist Papers," The Alien and Sedition Act of 1798, Eugene Debs "Canton, Ohio Speech,"  etc.

  • Government Sites  (including all three federal branches plus agencies such as the FCC, FTC, Copyright office, Library of Congress, etc.)

  • Free Speech Sites  (including sites by the ACLU, EFF, Copley First Amendment Center, Internet Freedom Resources, First Amendment Cyber-Tribune, NEA, Freedom Forum, etc.)

  • Legal Research Sites  (including sites at many academic centers including Northwestern, the Medill School, Cornell University as well as FindLaw, 'Lectric Law Library, etc.)

First Amendment Center  A good source of information, news and issues related to the first amendment.  You should check out this site's resources  (esp. their Library) for each and every assignment in CATA 491!

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press  A site dedicated to providing free legal help to reporters and news organizations.

Creative Commons  An organization developing systems for authors and other creative people to license their work to make "intellectual property" more available to the public.

The First Amendment and Freedom of the Press  An essay by James Goodale on court cases in which First Amendment rights have been upheld, on behalf of the press. Goodale served as general counsel to The New York Times.

The Bible & Public Schools - A First Amendment Guide 01  Published by the National Bible Association and First Amendment Center.

Student Web Sites and First Amendment Issues  - an article that deals with student web expression both in school and out of school.

Do Bans on Fraternities Violate the First Amendment?  An article by Ben Gose in The Chronicle of Higher Education describing the fight against the ban on fraternities at private liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States. The right of free association the cornerstone of the fraternities' arguments.

Religious Liberty in America- Crossroads or Crisis  A 1993 conference, sponsored by the First Amendment Center, featured panel discussions on four topics: Religious Liberty Principles, Religion and Politics in the Culture Wars, Religion and the Public Schools, and Minority Religious Practices. The conference report provides a good overview of the variety of opinion on these topics.

Copyright Basics  The U.S. Copyright office's page providing an introduction to copyright law.

Making the World Safe for Incumbents  The Cato Institute's critique of the McCain-Feingold campaign reform act.

References on Campaign Finance Reform  from the National Center for Policy Analysis.

McCain-Feingold Goes to Court  A review of the issues that have gone before federal district court from the National Review

Rosen and Hart Debate the Role of Pornography and Obscenity Law in Modern, Secular Society in light of recent USSC decisions concerning child pornography.

Communication Ethics Resources

National Communication Association Policy Statements.  A set of statements reflecting the views of the National Communication Association on a number of issues, many with ethics or free expression implications.

NCA Credo for Ethical Communication

Credo for a Free and Responsible Communication in a Democratic Society

International Association of Business Communicators Code of Ethics

The Public Relations Society of America Code of Ethics

American Advertising Federation - "Advertising Principles of American Business"

Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics   The SPJ Code of Ethics is voluntarily embraced by thousands of writers, editors and other news professionals.

Poynter Online.  Ethics.  A center with excellent resources for approaching ethical issues in journalism.

What is Ethics? (article by Dean Bottorff)  A management and culture based approach to the topic. 

Campaign Ethics.  The Ethics Foundation of Santa Cara California has some statements on the ethics of political campaigning.

Ethical Edge.com  A site concerned with advising "ethical leadership."

The Ethics Resource Center - A site for business and other organizational leaders seeking ethics related resources.

The International Communications Forum  An organization dedicated to upholding high standards of ethics in the media.

Communicating Your Ethics Philosophy  It's not easy to keep customers, business partners and employees aware that ethics is important to your business philosophy. Here how three companies do it. An Inc.com article.

 E-Center for Business Ethics  The Colorado State Business School Ethics sites.  Links to other sites and cases.

Institute for Global Ethics - A good location for resources on ethics

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics - A site dedicated to resources for applying ethics to the real world supported by Santa Clara University.