Thread View: atl.olympics
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Started by Jack Rooney
Sat, 21 Aug 2004 19:16
Free Speech Ban at Olympics
Author: Jack Rooney
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2004 19:16
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2004 19:16
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2426 bytes
The ban against Olympic athletes writing or talking about their experience is a violation of the athlete's free speech rights and can not be enforced against those who choose to ignore it. Even if the athlete agrees to it as a condition of participating, the rule of the Olympic committee is a proscriptive sanction standing contrary to the public policy of free societies and international law and would never be upheld by the courts. The committee may prohibit the use of steroids to stop an athlete from gaining unfair advantage over another, to prohibit cheating, to proscribe the rules of order on the field. However, mere words spoken or written before, during, or after the events have no influence over whether or not an athlete can run a four-minute mile. The Olympic committee may have the right, under certain conditions, to regulate communication by its officers and employees, but Olympic athletes are not the employees or indentured servants of the Olympic committee, nor are they any longer the slaves of their sponsors. They are free men and women participating in an open competitive event as a matter of personal choice. The committee has no legitimate right to censure them. Regardless of any monetary concern of the Olympic committee, the right of the individual to speak and communicate freely supercedes any commercial interest of the games or its promoters. Let the ban stop, and let the games begin. -- Jack Rooney http://home.att.net/~JackRooney ###
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