CHAPEL HILL, NC- from www.newsobserver.com — Porn purveyor and free-speech advocate Larry Flynt will kick off a First Amendment symposium next month at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The Hustler magazine publisher will give the keynote speech at the Feb. 18-19 symposium, “Sexually Explicit Speech and the First Amendment.”

Tickets for his talk at 8 p.m. Feb. 18 are free starting Feb. 1 at the Student Union Box Office. Events scheduled for the next day are free for UNC-CH students, faculty and staff, $10 for other students and senior citizens and $20 for everyone else.

After his presentation, Flynt will be interviewed by two First Amendment scholars, professor Clay Calvert, Brechner Eminent Scholar in mass communication at the University of Florida, and Robert Richards, John and Ann Curley Professor of First Amendment Studies at Penn State University. Audience members will be able to ask Flynt questions.

On Feb. 19, registration begins at 9 a.m., and the symposium starts at 10 a.m. with three panels. The first will cover issues in free speech, such as text messages with sexually explicit content and the current and future implications of federal obscenity prosecutions. The second panel will discuss the tension between free speech and the censorship of sexually explicit language.

The third panel will be a more in-depth discussion of Flynt’s views on sexually explicit speech and his contributions to the free speech debate. The discussion will be led by Rodney Smolla, dean of Washington and Lee University School of Law.