Despite Supreme Court Ruling, We Still Need Broadcast Regulations.

In a recent editorial, the New York Times lead readers to believe that due to technological advances, the Federal Communications Commission should lift free speech regulations on radio and television broadcasters. However, those readers are due some proper context, as that argument opens the door to some disastrous ideas about how to manage the public airspace.

Why a Communication Revolution Needs a Human Rights Revolution

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” - Article 19, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.

When people talk about human rights, freedom inevitably dominates the conversation. Freedom from being restrained and beaten is a human right. Freedom from toiling under another without just compensation is a human right. So, too, is freedom from being held arbitrarily and indefinitely.

Human empathy makes those rights concrete. Sympathy allows us to understand why it’s important to be safe from beatings and slavery. Yet, there’s another kind of human right which is not understood as well, but is just as important.