Imagine being punished for using your freedom of speech against a public speaker because that interrupts their freedom of expression. As confusing as that may sound, that’s what a new proposal from Lt. Governor Dan Forest aims to do 17 university campuses around North Carolina, according to the Associated Press.
At the core of it, the goal of the proposal is to punish “hecklers,” or protesters who disrupt public speakers. In the past months, protestors have been very vocal about their feelings towards North Carolina’s university governing board, the AP reports. Government board meetings and public events have been interrupted, and students have protested terminations and hiring of officials.
“If a speaker has been invited by a student group, another in the university community does not have the right to interrupt that speech, shout over the speaker, or otherwise prevent others from listening to the speech,” Forest’s office said in a statement reported by the AP.
Opponents of the bill are worried that this is the first step towards censorship. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of detail about what is considered enough “heckling” to be punishable. Unless there is a clear and defined amount of acceptable protesting, any small gesture could be considered punishable. Is a group shouting swear words at a speaker going to be treated in the same regard as a single person holding a protest sign during a speech? That has not yet been clearly defined.
This is a tricky situation where one person’s freedom of speech is prioritized over the other, but it’s just a proposal right now. Only time will tell if it will grow from there.