Freedom of speech and the press are considered among the most important characteristics of a democratic society. In most democratic societies, the press has undergone a long journey to reach the status that it has today. Throughout history, there have been several limitations and constraints in the way of free speech and free press. “In the US, England, France, and Sweden, it took several centuries to move from an authoritarian model of the free press to one that embraced libertarianism.” The freedom of speech and the press is not an absolute freedom there are certain limitations to it, for instance, speech that involves defamation, libel, incitement to imminent lawless action, or true threats could be punished and there are several Supreme Court opinions explaining why obscenity, conspiracy, nude dancing, and threats are not protected under the First Amendment. Even though the freedom of speech and the press has significantly advanced throughout the years, yet First Amendment scholars believe that there is still room for improvement to further the freedom of expression especially when it comes to that of the press. Several legal scholars argue that the First Amendment has already drawn a distinction between the speech and the press by explicitly mentioning each of them separately. Therefore, the press as an institution should be given some extra advantage and privilege to easily access and freely disseminate information as compared to the general public. Otherwise, the Press Clause would be a constitutional redundancy if the press is not treated differently. Read more...

One of the arguably most significant markers of group identity is language, because language may signify a person’s race, nationality, ethnicity and social status. Some scholars even argue that linguistic competencies of an individual may impact how strongly he or she identifies with the relevant group and how other in-group members perceive his/her membership and loyalty to the group (Gaudet & Clément, 2009). Thus, arguing that in order for someone to affiliate to a group s/he must be knowledgeable about the group’s culture and able to speak its language. Global immigration has put immigrants in a difficult place where they face the dilemma of choosing between their native language and the language of their host nations. Preserving native language may be perceived essential to an individual’s ethnic identification but some immigrants are afraid that it might hinder their children’s academic success in the educational system where the language of the host nation is dominant (Park, 2019). While adopting the dominant language may reduce intergroup distance, promote acculturation and convergence towards the dominant group, but it may create a generation gap within the immigrant’s ingroup (Nguyen & Hamid, 2019). Read More...

Ever since the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the independent media and freedom of the press emerged. The quality and quantity of free media escalated during the past two decades. One of the major achievements of the post-Taliban Afghanistan is believed to be the press freedom (Popal, 2021). However, doing journalism in Afghanistan has never been an easy task. Afghan journalists are regularly threatened, intimidated, and attacked for the work they do. There are multiple sources of threats to the free press in Afghanistan including but not limited to insurgency, legal issues, political pressure, economic challenges, security problems and extreme cultural norms of the Afghan society (Khalvatgar, 2014). Within a period of four months between December 2020 and March 2021, twelve journalists were killed in Afghanistan (Popal, 2021). Afghan journalists are forced to flee their country and seek refuge in other countries because of critical reporting on the insurgent groups such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda or going against the strict but vaguely defined religious values (MacKenzie, 2014; Mitra et al., 2019; Popal, 2021). Read More...

On March 8, 2021, the U.S. Department of State wept crocodile tears by honoring seven courageous Afghan women who were recently assassinated in Afghanistan. This is a flat contradiction because the U.S. has also been trying to legitimize and empower those assassins.

In February 2020, the United State signed a peace deal with the Taliban and forced the Afghan President to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners. The prisoner release was a part of the U.S.-Taliban accord. As a result, the Taliban are now stronger than ever, both politically and militarily.

By abandoning Afghanistan and legitimizing the Taliban, the U.S. is letting those “courageous” Afghan women and journalists to be slaughtered by the insurgents. Read More...

In a blunt letter, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has urged the Afghan President to “accelerate peace talks” with the Taliban. The letter, along with a proposed draft plan for Afghan peace, was delivered by the U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad. The special envoy, Khalilzad, has been leading the U.S. negotiations with the Taliban since 2018. After two years of dialogs, Khalilzad was able to sign a U.S.-Taliban peace agreement in February 2020.

Under the accord, the United States committed to withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan by May 2021. In return, the Taliban pledged to cut its ties with al-Qaida – the militant group behind 9/11 attacks – and refrain from attacking American and coalition forces. Read More...

In Fall 2020, I was granted admission to the graduate program in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent State University. After receiving the acceptance letter, I wanted to learn more about the school, its history and culture. One of my initial findings about Kent State University was the May 4 shooting. It totally shocked me.

It is a tragic event that happened on May 4, 1970, on Kent State campus when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on students protesting the Vietnam war. The shooting left four students dead and nine others wounded. Read More...

In November 2020, Amazon opened a new distribution facility at the former Rolling Acres mall site in Akron. This is not the first former shopping mall in Northeast Ohio to turn into an Amazon facility. Randall Park mall in North Randall and Euclid Square mall in Euclid have also undergone this transition.

Amazon’s acquisition of these shopping malls in Northeast Ohio is part of a bigger trend across the country. The former shopping malls are strategically important for Amazon as they are located near large population centers, thus giving Amazon the potential to fulfill the promise of its “Prime one-day delivery”. Read More...