Alexander Smith’s PowerPoint presentation doesn’t appear designed to court controversy. The slides, focused on declining maternal health in Gaza, cite public health data from the United Nations and World Health Organization. His employer, the U.S. Agency for International Development, had selected him to share it at the government agency’s Global Gender Equality Conference.
But just before the conference, an issue of contention emerged.
A single slide mentioned international humanitarian law in context of the health crisis in Gaza. USAID staff cited the slide and discussion of international law as potential fodder for leaks, documents and emails Smith shared with The Intercept show. Despite Smith’s willingness to make revisions, his presentation was eventually canceled. On the last day of the conference, he found himself out of a job.
“I thought it is really obscene that misinformation can go out freely out into the world [about Gaza], but I can’t talk about the reality of starving pregnant women,” said Smith, who worked as a contracted senior adviser at USAID on gender and material health. “We can’t even whisper about that in a conference on that topic.”
He didn’t even make the speech. Nothing he did could be considered misconduct or insubordination.
A government employee will be censored for the speech that that employee puts out, full stop.
Same way as if that employee put out a hate filled speech about gay people.
True, but in this case he hadn’t even put it out at all yet.
Did you even read my comment?
Aside from the correctness of the ruling or this situation. I’m guessing if Citizens United ruled ‘money equals speech’, then making/distributing a powerpoint probably also will be categorized as ‘speech’.