Knight Institute at Columbia Works to Protect Free Speech
The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which was established in 2016 with a $60 million operating endowment from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Columbia University, is not only a vital and much-needed support for news organizations across the country, but also a fundamental service to all citizens concerned about threats facing freedom of speech, a core pillar of American democracy.
The Institute will tackle the areas of litigation, research, and public education. It aims to be a vibrant community, a generator of new ideas, a distinctive voice for these fundamental freedoms in public discourse, and an effective defender of these freedoms in the courts. “The Knight Institute’s mandate seemed important six months ago, but today it could hardly be more urgent. At a moment when the freedoms of speech and the press seem both unsettlingly fragile and absolutely crucial, I’m excited to have the chance to work with such a talented team,” said Jameel Jaffer, the founding director of the Knight First Amendment Institute.
According to a Knight Foundation report published last year—that derived its findings from the responses of 66 top editors from a diverse range of print and online publications, large and small—an astounding 88 percent agreed with the statement that “In the digital age, there are many unsettled legal questions about the scope of free expression.”
“In the past, news organizations pursued and won key court cases defining free expression. But such cases can be enormously expensive and many media—both established and new—are increasingly hard-pressed in the current economic environment to support First Amendment legal action. 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, president of Columbia University said in a statement last year.
The Institute has already initiated and taken part in five court cases that offer an opportunity to define First Amendment law in the digital age. The last case, filed this summer—and the most publicized one to date—is The Knight Institute’s lawsuit challenging President Trump’s blocking of his critics on Twitter.
A big part of the Institute’s activities is public education; its research, fellowships, publications, lectures, and other events are open both to the University and the community.
The first essays the Institute is commissioning about the looming threats to the First Amendment will be a series of papers that will tackle topics including “fake news,” free speech on social media, and the chilling effect of government surveillance. They will be published and available to the public in the fall. The Institute has also launched a database that tracks violations of press freedom inside the United States. Its key priorities for 2017 include surveillance and the First Amendment, the rights of protesters and dissenters, free speech on social media, and government transparency.
The Institute has already hosted events open to the University and the community, most notably the inaugural symposium held at Columbia University with The Tow Center for Digital Journalism that gathered leading thinkers to talk about free speech and the free press in accordance with democracy in the digital age. More talks related to freedom of speech are expected to be held this year, and the Institute highly encourages the public, and the local community in particular, to attend and get involved with what is shaping up to be one of the most crucial discussions of our time.