Yesterday, CNN aired a brief portion of a long interview of Kathy Sierra and Chris Locke. The two bloggers met with a CNN crew in Boulder last week to discuss the situation surrounding threats made to Sierra. Locke and Sierra came together on national television to discuss the fine line that runs between free speech and crossing boundaries with threatening remarks.

In a phone interview with WebProNews, Chris Locke said he believes the aired interview didn’t fully portray the points he wanted to get across.
“It seemed worth doing, but it didn’t really convey very deeply at all what our sense was in coming together to try to communicate those larger issues.”

The two bloggers released statements expressing their concerns regarding the importance of free speech on the web. Many people in the world of blogging have an opinion about the Sierra situation. Some believe more control should be exerted to protect individuals from harmful or threatening speech, and that a code of ethics should be implemented. Others believe that this kind of immature speech is just something that goes along with the territory for a public figure like Sierra, and that free speech should be protected at all costs.

“We both see the potential for the First Amendment being eroded, very, very, important protections that are afforded to speech that some people find odious. I mean you can find any number of neo-Nazi sites on the web whose content I find despicable, but if we start saying, well this is outside the bounds of what’s acceptable, we really move away from the notion of democracy, which is already under serious fire in the larger culture.”

Sierra also issued a statement regarding preservation of free speech.
“This could be a very important moment if we stop, think, and talk about the kind of future we really want online, and make certain we don’t give up something more important in the process.”

Both Sierra and Locke hope that the issue can be resolved to provide a safe environment for bloggers on the web, as well as an environment where First Amendment protections can flourish.

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