Professor Mark Grabowski helped promote Free Speech Week by writing about the importance of free speech in his monthly, nationally syndicated newspaper column. In addition, CubReporters.org, a popular journalism website founded and maintained by Grabowski, was an official partner of the 12th annual national event, which aims to "to raise public awareness of the importance of free speech in our democracy." 

As a journalism & media law professor who's also worked as a First Amendment lawyer and as a political journalist, Grabowski is a staunch supporter of free speech -- even when it involves protecting unpopular speech he doesn't personally agree with. 

"Free speech exists only when we're willing to defend the rights of people whose views we profoundly disagree with," Grabowski wrote in his column, which was published is more than 50 newspapers from New York to California. "Fostering an environment that's accepting of a wide range of contrarian, unconventional and sometimes offensive viewpoints is essential to actual liberty – especially as the United States grows more pluralistic." 

Watch Grabowski's video lecture on freedom of speech online below:
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Mark Grabowski was quoted this week in the USA Today, Fox News and other media outlets on the U.S.'s controversial plan for the internet, an issue he lectured on in July at the University of Hong Kong's Asia Institute for Political Economy. He also addressed the issue in his latest syndicated column, which was published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Detroit News, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Washington Examiner and more than 50 other newspapers.