Freedom of Speech    

The Czech Republic vs. The United States

Chris Henry, Jennifer Lemkul, Brian Maher, Max Moldenhauer, Mike Richmond

    Introduction

        In 1996 it came to the attention of Virginia Tech officials that a

        student had a website with content that involved marijuana.

        The student's account was frozen.  In his own defense, the student

        claimed that he thought the website was appropriate since it had

        been accepted by his high school, and because other students had

        sites with similar content.  The student provided two such examples

        of sites with similar content and, as a result, the creators of those 

        sites lost their account privileges as well.  The first student lost his 

        account privileges for two months and was asked to redo the site.  

        The other two students lost their account privileges for the rest of 

        the year and their pages were archived.  Were these different

        punishments fair and appropriate for the situation?

    Instructions

        Read the full scenario as well as the responses to the dilemma given 

        by the United States and the Czech Republic.  Links to this information 

        are provided below.

    Presentation Overview

            The Scenario

            Scenario Aspects

            U.S. Response

            U.S. Reasoning

            Czech Republic Response

            Czech Republic Reasoning

           Country Comparison

           Conclusion

    References

            Bartram, Graham.  “The Czech Republic.”  http://www.flags.net/CZEC.htm. April 2002.

 Bartram, Graham.  “The United States.”  http://www.flags.net/UNST.htm.  April 2002.

         Culik, Jan.  “Censorship in Bohemia/Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic.”

                http://www.britskelisty.cz/9903/19990326r.html.  April 2002

“The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington D.C.: Political System.”

        http://www.mzv.cz/washington/general/general.htm#Government.  April 2002. 

 Interview via e-mail with Beata Olekszyk.  Response received April 18, 2002.

 Lee, J.A.N.  “Freedom of Home Page Speech ...”  http://courses.cs.vt.edu/ ~cs3604 /support/Debates/Scenarios.html#20.  April 2002.

 Mount, Steve.  “The United States Constitution Online: The Constitutional Dictionary.”  http://www.usconstitution.net/REDRESS.  April 2002.

 Parliament of the Czech Republic, Office of Chamber of Deputies.  “Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms.”  http://www.psp.cz/cgi-bin/eng/docs/laws/charter.html.  April 2002.

Tichy, Marek.  “Internet Rights Country Report.”   http://www.apc.org/english/rights/ europe/czech/czech.htm.  April 2002.

    Contact Information

               Chris Henry

            Jennifer Lemkul

           Brian Maher

           Max Moldenhauer

           Mike Richmond

    Czech Republic Contact

                Beata Olekszyk [e-mail address available upon request]

                Graduate Student, Chemistry Science

                Town: Cesky Budejovice