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The Arguments In Protecting Freedom Of Expression, By Derek Bok

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The Arguments In Protecting Freedom Of Expression, By Derek Bok
“One reason why the power of censorship is so dangerous is that it is extremely difficult to decide when a particular communication is offensive enough to warrant prohibition or to weigh the degree of offensiveness against the potential value of the communication” (Para10, Bok)

In this article, “Protecting Freedom of Expression on the Campus, by Derek Bok I read about a situation that happened at Harvard University. At the campus there was two students who hung Confederate flags in public view. The article describes the amazing effect that it had on the college as a whole. A remarkable majority of the article includes a discussion by Derek Bok. Bok discusses the argument on whether students genuinely have free of speech at Harvard. Derek …show more content…
One of the arguments made by Box is the amount of “freedom” that students at the university have. The two students that hung the Confederate flags in their dorms, received an ill response. People were appalled at what the students did. From this event came the argument on how much “freedom” of speech the students actually had. The majority of the university was conflicted with the event; this brought a massive argument to the community. The university challenged the amount of “freedom” given to the students. Both faculty and students debated on whether something offensive to most would be deemed prohibited on campus. Bok argues that while students do have the “freedom of speech”, certain things are off putting and should not be presented. The author expects the audience to have an understanding of what “freedom of speech” is to the general public and to them specifically. The audience needs to have a relation to the topic in order to fully understand what the author is arguing. In order for the readers to agree with the argument being made by the author, they need to have an open mind to what “freedom of speech” really is. If readers believe
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