“Both around the world and here at home, free speech is under assault. From the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris to the “unexplained” deaths of critics of Russian president Vladimir Putin, people who express unpopular opinions or report the truth are in danger. Worldwide, more than 110 journalists were killed in 2015, bringing the total to 787 since 2005, according to Reporters without Borders. The threats to free speech in this country don’t rise to that level, of course. But Hillary Clinton wants to change the First Amendment to limit political speech, and Donald Trump wants to rewrite libel laws so that he can sue media critics. Meanwhile, colleges routinely punish those who take unpopular stands and reject speakers who might challenge student orthodoxy. That’s one reason why it is significant that the Cato Institute will award the eighth biennial Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty to a true champion of free speech, the Danish journalist and author Flemming Rose. Rose came to the world’s attention in 2005, when, as an editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, he published a series of twelve cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Rose did so, not because he sought to be offensive, he said, but to challenge the growing wave of “self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam.”
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Tags: Flemming Rose, Free speech, Freedom of expression, Debate, Cartoons, Milton Friedman Prize , The Cato Institute, The Tyranny of Silence

“…War is peace, freedom is slavery, and disinviting a controversial speaker is academic freedom.
South Africa’s University of Cape Town is drawing international condemnation from freedom-of-expression groups for yanking back a speaking invitation to Flemming Rose, the former editor of the Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.
In a July 12 letter to the university’s Academic Freedom Committee, which organizes its annual lecture on academic freedom, Vice Chancellor Max Price says UCT must nix Rose as the lecture speaker…”
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Tags: First Amendment , Free speech, Flemming Rose, The Tyranny of Silence, The Cato Institute, Milton Friedman Prize , Cartoons, censorship

Flemming Rose, Danish journalist and author of The Tyranny of Silence, is the recipient of the 2016 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. In 2005, Rose, then an editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, sparked worldwide controversy when he commissioned and published 12 cartoons meant to depict the prophet Muhammad. The illustrations, intended to draw attention to the issue of self-censorship and the threat that intimidation poses to free speech, provoked deadly chaos in the Islamic world and put Rose in the center of a global debate about the limits to free speech in the 21st century.

The Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, named in honor of perhaps the greatest champion of liberty in the 20th century, is presented every other year to an individual who has made a significant contribution to advance human freedom.
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Tags: Flemming Rose, Free speech, Milton Friedman Prize , Freedom of expression, The Tyranny of Silence