NY Times: Columbia University to Open a First Amendment War Room

[proverbialwisdom]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/business/media/knight-first-amendment-institute-columbia-university.html

Columbia University to Open a First Amendment War Room

By MIKE McPHATE
MAY 17, 2016

The fight to preserve freedom of the press is getting a $60 million war room.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Columbia University announced on Tuesday that they would team up to create an institute at the university’s Manhattan campus dedicated to expanding in the digital age the freedoms of speech and the press outlined in the First Amendment.

The Knight First Amendment Institute would take on legal battles that newsrooms have found increasingly too costly to pursue on their own, the groups said in a statement.

“While the digital age has opened up new opportunities for accountability journalism, we need to fill the void and continue to champion free expression through litigation, research and education,” said Lee C. Bollinger, a First Amendment scholar and Columbia’s president.

The institute would also seek to influence legal debates over First Amendment protections that have faced new scrutiny through the lens of an Internet-connected society. Among the issues of concern: online privacy rights, free expression on college campuses and whistle-blower protections, an issue that has gained urgency with the prolific filing of criminal charges by the Obama administration.

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[pmorlan1]

1. I hope they find

a strong executive director.