As citizens committed to the full and free use of all communications media and as professional persons responsible for making the content of those media accessible to all without prejudice, we, the undersigned, wish to assert the public interest in the preservation of freedom of expression. Through continuing judicial interpretations of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, freedom of expression has been guaranteed. Such Americans can be expected to fulfill the responsibilities implicit in those rights. We will make available to everyone who needs or desires them the widest possible diversity of views and modes of expression, including those which are strange, unorthodox or unpopular. Creative thought is, by its nature, new.
New ideas are always different and, to some people, distressing and even threatening.
The characteristic ability of our governmental system to adapt to necessary change is vastly strengthened by the option of the people to choose freely from among conflicting opinions. To stifle nonconformist ideas at their inception would be to end the democratic process. Only through continuous weighing and selection from among opposing views can free individuals obtain the strength needed for intelligent, constructive decisions and actions. In short, we need to understand not only what we believe, but why we believe as we do. We need not endorse every idea contained in the materials we produce and make available.