In France, freedom of speech is guaranteed by the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen—how does the French definition of free speech differ from the right guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? Join a discussion exploring the American and French approaches to blasphemous speech, including Charlie Hebdo cartoons, cultural responses to offensive speech, and more with experts from both countries. Marc-Olivier Bherer, staff editor and reporter for the French daily Le Monde and Nieman Fellow at Harvard in the 2021 class; Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America and author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All; Geoffrey Stone of the University of Chicago Law School; and Hélène Tigroudja, law professor at Aix-Marseille University in France and a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, explore the similarities and differences. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.
This program is presented in partnership with The Cultural Services of the French Embassy as part of a series on freedom of religion and speech in France and the United States.
Participants
Marc-Olivier Bherer is a staff editor and reporter for the Ideas-Debates section of the French daily Le Monde. Working primarily for the op-ed pages, he commissions and edits articles on diverse topics, both national and international. He regularly contributes to the paper’s weekly literary supplement, Le Monde des Livres, and was a 2021 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. His work has also appeared in outlets such as the Courrier International, Harper’s magazine, and L’Express.
Suzanne Nossel is Chief Executive Officer at PEN America and author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All. Prior to joining PEN America, she served as the Chief Operating Officer of Human Rights Watch and as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. She has served in the Obama Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International
Organizations and in the Clinton Administration as Deputy to the US Ambassador for UN Management and Reform. She is also a featured columnist for Foreign Policy magazine.
Geoffrey Stone is the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. He is the author of many books on constitutional law, including most recently National Security, Leaks, and Freedom of the Press: The Pentagon Papers Fifty Years On (with Lee Bollinger). He has also written amicus briefs for constitutional scholars in a number of Supreme Court cases and co-authored the Interactive Constitution's explainer on the First Amendment's Freedom of Speech and Press Clause.
Hélène Tigroudja is a Law Professor at Aix-Marseille University in France, Co-Director of the Law School’s Master Program of International Law, Director of the Summer School on Practice of Human Rights, and Expert on reparations before the International Criminal Court. She is also a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee and has been a visiting professional at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Since 2002 she has acted regularly as an expert for the Council of Europe, the United Nations, and the European Union.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- National Constitution Center, Interactive Constitution, "Freedom of Speech and Press Clause"
- Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)
- French Government, "Everything You Need to Know About Freedom of Expression in France"
- Suzanne Nossel, Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All
- The United Nations, "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights" (1976)
- Ed. Geoffrey Stone and Lee Bollinger, The Free Speech Century
- Tom Cotton, The New York Times, "Send in the Troops"
- Beauharnais v. Illinois (1952)
- James Whitman, Yale Law Journal, “The Two Western Cultures of Privacy: Dignity Versus Liberty”
- Anjem Choudary, USA Today, “People know the consequences: Opposing view” (2015)
- Emanuel Macron, “Fight against separatism – the Republic in action” (2020)
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