Offering an unparalleled geographic scope on a topic that has global relevance, this book is a wide-ranging mix of formal academic analysis, interviews and speeches from an impressive array of people (who are directly and variously involved in monitoring and promoting media free speech, or are engaged in the academic and legal study of media free speech and its violations). The volume includes many different view points from many different angles and more importantly it covers all the modern media platforms and dissemination systems and their corresponding impact upon free speech. The years 1989 and 2011 are highlighted as two recent turning points in historic perspective when freedom of speech and freedom of the press emerged, or powerful efforts were made to support its emergence. The range of the topics makes this book appropriate to assign in classes in law schools and courses on gender studies, history, international relations, media, multicultural and nationalism studies, political science, philosophy, public policy, and sociology.