Canceled due to severe weather

Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open: A Free Press for a New Century

Lee Bollinger

Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University, is one of the nation’s foremost experts on the First Amendment. In his new book, Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open: A Free Press for a New Century, Bollinger explores the troubled history of a free press in America and looks toward the challenges ahead. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press in seemingly clear terms. However, over the course of American history, Bollinger notes, the idea of freedom of the press has evolved, in response to social, political, technological, and legal changes. It was not until the twentieth century that freedom of the press came to be understood as guaranteeing an “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open” public discourse. But even during the twentieth century, the government has tried to erect barriers: the sedition laws of WWI, the use of libel law, the Pentagon Papers case, and efforts to limit press access to information. Bollinger sheds light on this history and explores the meaning of freedom of the press in our globalized, internet-dominated era.  Bill Marimow, editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, moderates.

Grand Hall Overlook 
National Constitution Center
Independence Mall
525 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA

This is a TICKETED event; admission is $9 for members, $15 for non-members, $7 for students & teachers, FREE for 1787 Society members. Reservations are required. Please call 215.409.6700, or click here