Two religious organizations — one Jewish and one Muslim — are urging lawmakers to reject a bill that ostensibly aims to protect houses of worship but that would actually quell free speech rights. “The Right to Worship Act,” sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and cosponsored by Republicans and Democrats alike, seeks to “protect” religious buildings and people inside them by limiting the…
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After a locally organized pressure campaign urged residents to delete DoorDash, the food delivery company withdrew support for a bill on October 1 that would effectively end home rule (or the right to govern) in Washington, D.C. But instead of being able to celebrate, the organizers behind the win now have a new target on their backs. Rep. James Comer’s (R-Kentucky) HR 9720, the D.C.
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Shortly before announcing his own retirement, a federal immigration judge in Chicago ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration can deport Palestinian-American human rights activist Salah Sarsour under a controversial law that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has used to target activists who speak out against Israel’s genocide in Palestine. Sarsour is an award-winning human rights activist…
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Far right Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his cabinet have voted to designate the U.S.’s leading Muslim civil rights group as a “domestic terrorist organization,” threatening to shutter and impose severe penalties on the group and its state affiliate simply to serve the GOP’s political crusades, critics said. The 427-page document recommending “terrorist” designations for the Council on…
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This is a particularly important episode, coming just two weeks ahead of the 1st round of high stakes presidential elections in Brazil.
Host Michael Fox speaks with Artur Romeu. He’s a Brazilian journalist and the Latin American Director for Latin America of the international NGO Reporters Without Borders.
They spoke ahead of Episode 6 of The Battle for Free Speech, about Brazil’s fight against disinformation. He has an important analysis, which helps to deconstruct how Trump, Silicon Valley and the far-right in the United States, and around the world is “instrumentalizing the idea of free speech for their own political purpose and abandoning key dimension of freedom of expression, which is this more social and collective dimension to receive plural, reliable, diverse, and free information from others.”
This is the third bonus episode of The Battle for Free Speech. The Battle for Free Speech Podcast is a production of The Real News Network hosted by Michael Fox and Marc Steiner.
Guests:
Artur Romeu
Resources:
You can check out the full Battle for Free Speech podcast series here.
Many thanks to everyone who has supported this show.
Follow The Battle for Free Speech on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Support Michael Fox’s reporting at patreon.com/mfox. Never miss an episode — sign up for The Real News newsletter at therealnews.com.
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Michael Fox:
Hi folks. I’m your co-host, Michael Fox. This is the Battle for Free Speech, and this is the third bonus episode in this series. So this one is particularly important and timely as Brazil is heading into high stakes presidential elections this October. The race is between current leftist president Luis Ignacio
Dearborn’s mayor issued an open invitation to Macklemore to perform a concert in the majority-Muslim Michigan city on Monday after the rapper was kicked off of Ed Sheeran’s stadium tour for his speech onstage calling for a free Palestine. “Hey [Macklemore], if they don’t want you performing in their stadiums, you’re always welcome in Dearborn,” said Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud in a post on…
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