NEW YORK—Last night, hours after the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, threatened to take action against the ABC television network because of remarks made by Jimmy Kimmel on his late-night show, the network announced it was “indefinitely” suspending the program. In his opening monologue on Monday, Kimmel had commented on the murder of Charlie Kirk.

The following can be attributed to Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

“The Trump administration is becoming increasingly brazen in its abuse of government power to silence its critics—in part because too many of the powerful institutions that could stand up to this thuggery are capitulating instead. Collectively, we need to do more to assert and defend the freedoms that are essential to our democracy, including the freedom to criticize the powerful. Americans may be deeply divided about many political questions, but surely none of us wants to live in a society in which the president decides which subjects professors are permitted to teach, what news the media are allowed to publish, and what comedians are allowed to say on TV.”

For more information, contact: Adriana Lamirande, [email protected].