WHEN FREE SPEECH IS UNDER FIRE

I would like to comment on the deterioration of our free speech rights here in America and throughout the world.

Reporters throughout the world are under attack and being murdered for simply reporting and expressing their opinions in their communities. An American reporter working for Al Jazeera television was murdered in broad daylight in front of her colleagues. On that same day in Mexico, three reporters from three different states were murdered. Of course, we have seen many Ukrainian reporters being murdered by Russian soldiers. Two reporters have filed suit in federal court in Los Angeles alleging the LAPD violated their civil rights for reporting on the cleanup of a homeless encampment.

Freedom of speech is a right to express opinions without government restraint, this idea date’s back to ancient Greece. If we, as a society, fail to protect our freedom of speech, not only here in America but throughout the world, then our democracy will surely fail. — William Guerrero, Bakersfield