From the Readers

Free speech or terrorism threat?

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-05-26 13:59

Comment on "US college confirms threat from student." ( China Daily, May 26 )

Free speech

"Free" speech does protect individuals from being prosecuted as criminals for simply making statements. As this student's lawyer pointed out, in order to prosecute him, the government will need to prove that he went beyond speech and actually took action directed at carrying out his threats. Perhaps he did.

None of us knows the specifics of this case well enough to judge yet, but the charge of "terrorism" will certainly seem extreme (and perhaps discriminatory) if no one is able to produce evidence that this man did anything other than talk.

Hmm on China Daily website.

Terrorism threat

Free speech does not extend to making threats. Free speech does not allow someone to scream "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater. With freedom of speech come responsibilities. Threatening speech is NOT free speech. Start making blog posts about wanting to kill the president and see where that lands you. That's NOT free speech.

If this guy made threatening comments to the professor about harming him or causing damage to the school in the form of arson, then he certainly deserves to be locked up.

With the amount of carnage taking place in China's schools recently and the recent cases in the US of students turning violent, it's absurd anyone would condone the actions of this student. Simply dismissing this case as boiling down to cultural differences is also absurd. This student has been in the US since 2003. He's well used to the culture there. Also, if it was so bad (as bad as he says) why didn't he just leave?

If you make a threatening comment to me, it doesn't matter what your "intent" is. If I feel threatened by your words, then I have every right to report you. Obviously the professor thought enough to report it.

Stop making excuses.

Free on China Daily website