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Nothing more vividly illustrates the threat this moment poses to democratic freedoms than the violence that has been leveled against peaceful protesters and the assaults and arrests of members of the media covering the demonstrations. On Monday, citing the events of the past week, we at the Knight First Amendment Institutecalledon public officials at all levels to reaffirm their commitment to these freedoms of speech and the press, and to take responsibility for safeguarding and promoting those freedoms. History will judge the president harshly, we wrote, but it will also judge every elected and law enforcement official around the country for the actions they takeor refuse to takeat this critical moment.

But the right tofree expression was being tested even before the police killing of George Floyd. The pandemic exposed not only serious weaknesses in the country'spublic health and social welfare systems, but it also revealed deep problems in thelaws and norms that shapethe public'scapacity to gather and access information, distinguish facts, think creatively, participate in debates and collective decision making, evaluate resultsand navigate novel questions surrounding data collection and sharing, surveillanceand privacy.

Over the last few months, the Knight Institute has challenged rules that restrict public health officials from speaking out, in their private capacities, about the pandemic and the governments response to it. We have called attention to the implications of some contact-tracing proposals for privacy and freedom of association, and we have explored proposals that would give the public greater access to public health data in private hands.

The dangerous assaults on First Amendment freedoms that we are seeing in the street need to end immediately. But once the countrypulls back from the precipice, all of us who are committed to a First Amendment that serves democracy will still have a great deal of work to do.

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Protest, the Press and the First Amendment Imperiled | Columbia News - Columbia University