A US case in which a man was arrested for wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan “Give Peace a Chance” has attracted a fair bit of attention. To be more precise, the man in question went to a T-shirt shop in a mall, had the shirt made to order and put it on. He was then approached by mall security guards who asked him to leave. On refusing, he was arrested for trespass. There’s a news story here. This kind of incident reinforces one of my main reasons for opposing privatisation of public spaces, including universities. In a piece entitledFree speech sits ill with a free market, I observed

Freedom of speech, in universities, public spaces and elsewhere, is ultimately incompatible with privatisation and unfettered freedom of action for corporations.

The piece was motivated by an article by CIS board member Steven Schwartz, attacking academic freedom.

Kevin Drum has more on this, noting that in California, shopping malls are required to allow reasonable exercise of free speech. I’m more and more inclined to the view that Australia needs an equivalent to the First Amendment.