Amid U.N. debate, different models on free speech

UNITED STATES: In the United States, today a land of no-holds-barred talk radio, the Constitution's First Amendment says Congress "shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech." But in an unanimous opinion on the government's ability to regulate speech during the World War I draft, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. argued that Congress can bar use of words in some circumstances that "are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger" — such as "a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic." Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, President Barack Obama said free speech is sacrosanct in the United States. "The strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression," he said, "it is more speech — the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy."

Associated Press writers Juergen Baetz in Berlin, Jesse Holland in Washington D.C., Gregory Katz in London and Kristen Gelineau in Sydney contributed to this report.