NYU surrenders freedom of speech

PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
2121 Alton Parkway, Suite 250
Irvine, CA 92606


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 28, 2006


NYU's Surrender Underscores Need to Display Danish Cartoons

Irvine, CA--"In a seemingly mundane decision, New York University has
sacrificed the principle underlying its flourishing and the survival of
civilization--free speech," said Dr. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand
Institute. NYU is refusing to protect a student group's right to display
the Danish cartoons of Mohammad at a panel discussion on free speech on
March 29.

The group's event was to be open to the public, but at the last minute
NYU retreated.  Under the pretense of maintaining campus security, the
administration contradicted its own stated policy on free speech by
requiring that, if the cartoons are displayed, the event be limited only
to "members of the NYU community." The student group now must turn away
more than 150 members of the public who had planned to attend the panel.


"The university's shameful appeasement of Muslim and anti-free-speech
groups--which have vowed to protest the event--underscores the urgent
need to display the cartoons in defense of freedom of speech," said Dr.
Brook.

"Free speech protects the rational mind: it is the freedom to think, to
reach conclusions and express one's views without fear of coercion of
any kind. And it must include the right to express unpopular and
offensive views, including outright criticism of religion. NYU--which
like other universities grants tenure to protect intellectual
freedom--ought to recognize the crucial importance of this principle and
defend it.

"If intimidation and threats are allowed to compel writers, cartoonists,
thinkers and institutions of learning into self-censorship, the right to
free speech is lost. If Muslims are allowed to pressure critics of Islam
into silence, critics of religion will be next. And then everyone else."

Panel discussion on the Danish cartoons
A Panel Discussion on Free Speech

Panelists: Peter Schwartz, former chairman of the Board of Directors of
the Ayn Rand Institute and author of The Foreign Policy of
Self-Interest: A Moral Ideal for America; Greg Lukianoff, president of
the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education; Andrew Bostom, author
of The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims;
and Jonathan Leaf, New York Press editor who resigned over his paper's
decision not to publish the Danish cartoons.

Moderator: Dr. Harry Binswanger, professor of philosophy and member of
the Board of Directors of the Ayn Rand Institute.

What is planned: (1) A display of the controversial Danish cartoons
depicting Mohammad. (2) A panel discussion and Q & A on the meaning of
the worldwide reaction to the cartoons.

Where: New York University, 60 Washington Square South at NYU Kimmel
Center, Eisner and Lubin Auditorium (4th Floor), NY, NY 10012

When: March 29, 2006, 7 to 10 PM

Summary: ARI's Peter Schwartz will participate in a panel discussion on
the Mohammad cartoon controversy. He will explain: Why the eruption of
violence and the issuance of death threats make completely irrelevant
the question of whether the cartoons are in bad taste. Why the idea that
freedom of the press must be "coupled with press responsibility" means
that free speech is not a right, but a fleeting permission. Why every
Western newspaper and media outlet should have immediately re-published
or shown the cartoons in solidarity with the cartoonists. Why the
cowardly and appeasing response of many Western governments--including
our own--will only invite further aggression. Other panelists will
present their own views.

###  ### ###

Dr. Yaron Brook and Peter Schwartz are available for interviews now and
after this event.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: media@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550 ext. 213