FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: press@milo-inc.com

UC BERKELEY GOES TO WAR ON

FREE SPEECH WEEK, THREATENING
TO CANCEL INDOOR VENUES
MILO FIRES BACK: FREE SPEECH WEEK WILL GO
AHEAD, COME HELL OR HIGH WATER
Though access to two venues is in jeopardy thanks to bureaucratic stonewalling
by the University, the event will carry on, in the halls, in plazas and on the steps

MILO AND BERKELEY STUDENTS SPEAK OUT: WATCH THE VIDEO

https://youtu.be/rn5Xgak1zzA

WASHINGTON, D.C. 18 SEP 2017. Berkeley Free Speech Week, an event organized
by student group the Berkeley Patriot and underwritten by MILO Inc., will occur as
scheduled, running from September 24 to September 27 on the campus of UC
Berkeley, despite attempts by the university to use bureaucratic maneuvers and
strategic media leaks to disrupt the event and dissuade headline speakers from
attending.

The Berkeley Patriot student group has worked for months to secure all necessary
permits, permissions, and venue reservations for the event -- a celebration of
conservative and libertarian voices on campus -- including securing space for four days
on Upper Sproul, Lower Sproul, Anna Head Hall, Wheeler Hall, and the Zellerbach
auditorium.

The paperwork was filed on deadline, and MILO, Inc. transferred the required
$65,758.76 to UC Berkeley to arrive at 8 AM ET Monday. Nevertheless, the University
has not yet indicated it will grant access to Wheeler and Zellerbach. This move
represents the latest in a stream of administrative efforts by UC Berkeley officials to
shut down or damage Free Speech Week.

In a press release issued over the weekend by Steve Sutton, the Universitys Interim
Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, UC Berkeley sought to justify its actions, first by
congratulating itself for allowing so much free speech on campus, then by blaming the
student group for being unable to provide the necessary paperwork on time. Both
statements are misleading.

In truth, a paper trail of dozens of emails (available to journalists upon request) shows
that questions about security, refunds, and insurance policies from the student
group were ignored by the administration of UC Berkeley for more than three
weeks.

On the advice of our attorney, we had asked the University to amend the contracts for
Wheeler and Zellerbach to provide for a partial refund if the University cancelled the
event, said a member of the Berkeley Patriot familiar with the situation. Given the
Universitys history of cancelling conservative events, this was an entirely reasonable
request, but they evaded our question for weeks.

When the Universitys Interim Vice Chancellor finally did email us a contract at 3:30PM
ET last Friday, the contract lacked the refund provision entirely. Instead it came with a
90-minute deadline that we had to sign and pay $65,000 that day. We signed and
returned it immediately, but the Interim Vice Chancellor refused to accept it
anyway.

The events underwriter, MILO Inc., based in Miami, FL, was not able to send a
same-day payment as the request did not reach the company until after the close of
bank hours on Friday, a situation UC Berkeley deliberately engineered, say students.

MILO AND BERKELEY STUDENTS SPEAK OUT: WATCH THE VIDEO

https://youtu.be/rn5Xgak1zzA

Its quite simple: The University didnt want the event to happen, but they couldnt
cancel outright, so they needed to make it look like it was our own fault, said Pranav
Jandhyala, News Editor for the Berkeley Patriot. What weve experienced throughout
this entire four months has been bureaucratic stonewalling.
At every step of the way theyve been uncommunicative - not responding to emails,
unable to meet, rescheduling meetings, everything they could try to do to throw sticks in
the spokes. Weve been doing everything possible, and the University has, of
course, only thrown obstacles at us in a strategic, bureaucratic, and methodical
way, he continued.

While the administrators were ignoring over 20 calls and emails from the student
group between Wednesday and Friday of last week, they were making calls to
journalists, attempting to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt about whether Free Speech
Week would proceed. UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof told the Los Angeles
Times that the Berkeley Patriots had not filed the appropriate paperwork and maliciously
hinted that the entire event might be cancelled, in a story published hours before the
universitys abrupt and arbitrary deadline.

The Universitys attempt to deny the Berkeley Patriot access to Wheeler and Zellerbach
is not the only bureaucratic obstacle the University has thrown in front of the event.
Earlier this month, UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof leaked a preliminary
speaker list, which included author Ann Coulter and former chief strategist to the
President Stephen K Bannon, to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The most
charitable explanation is that UC Berkeley was trying to drum up opposition to the
event. Actually, the university deliberately gave a heads-up to domestic terrorist
organizations like Antifa, which got a month-long head start on Berkeley police, said
MILO.

According to students, the Interim Vice Chancellor earlier rescinded at the last minute
an agreement with the Berkeley Patriot regarding the number of security
applications required for the event. When it first booked Free Speech Week, the
Berkeley Patriot had been told that only one security application was required, but
Sutton altered the deal, informing the students they needed to file 12 separate security
applications and criticizing them for not having done so already.

The University also waited until the last possible moment before informing the
Berkeley Patriot that its insurance would not cover the event, forcing the student
group to get a certificate of insurance from the events underwriter on short notice.

Since it got sued last year for restricting its students free speech rights, Berkeley has
been trying to virtue signal its support for free speech by hosting establishment-friendly
conservatives like Ben Shapiro, even giving them massive discounts on fees, said Milo
Yiannopoulos, founder and Chief Creative Officer of MILO Inc. But we represent the
true frontier of free speech, and when it comes to genuine free expression UC Berkeley
is terrified of leftist violence that the university has either quietly ignored or actively
cultivated for years. Antifa thugs cannot be allowed to censor free expression, so we are
going to Berkeley, and Free Speech Week is happening, whether they like it or not.

If necessary, in the true tradition of Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement,
we will take our audience and our speakers out into the streets. Assuming
Berkeley doesnt revoke our permits for that, too. We will not yield.

MILO AND BERKELEY STUDENTS SPEAK OUT: WATCH THE VIDEO

https://youtu.be/rn5Xgak1zzA

***

FREE SPEECH WEEK, SPONSORED BY THE BERKELEY PATRIOTS AND

UNDERWRITTEN BY MILO INC., IS SEPTEMBER 24-27 IN BERKELEY,
CALIFORNIA AND WILL FEATURE TALKS AND PERFORMANCES FROM THE
MOST PROVOCATIVE, INTRIGUING, CONTROVERSIAL AND CORRECT VOICES
OF OUR TIME INCLUDING STEPHEN K. BANNON, ANN COULTER, DAVID
HOROWITZ, PAMELA GELLER, MILO YIANNOPOULOS, AND MANY OTHERS.

FOR THE LATEST SPEAKER LINE-UP AND INFORMATION VISIT

WWW.FREESPEECHWEEK.COM OR FOLLOW @BerkeleyFSW ON TWITTER OR
MILO YIANNOPOULOS ON FACEBOOK. TICKETS FOR INDOOR PORTIONS OF
THE EVENT WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON.

***
ABOUT MILO
The New York Times bestselling author of DANGEROUS and former Breitbart editors
provocative opinions on feminism, Black Lives Matter, Islam, and progressive politics
have got him banned from DePaul University, UC Berkeley, the University of Miami,
NYU, North Dakota State University, and Twitter. MILO is an award-winning journalist
whose foul mouth and spectacular hair continue to attract millions of fans across the
globe.

ABOUT MILO, INC.

MILO, Inc. is a 360 media company conceived of and founded by Milo Yiannopoulos.
Inspired by Andrew Breitbarts dictum that politics is downstream from culture, MILO,
Inc. is dedicated to defending free speech, destroying political correctness, and
upholding the values of Western Civilization by harnessing MILOs unique blend of
laughter and war.