What does the First Ammendment mean?

[Redleg]

A question for the USA members of the forum.

Following the charging of Wang Wenyi for heckling the Chinese president, what rights does the first ammendment protect?

From BBC news:
"Her lawyer argued she was entitled to free speech under the First Amendment.

Prosecutors said the amendment did not allow her to break the law."

So why does the First Ammendement allow laws that restrict free speech, or am I missing something here?

BBC website for the full story

The charge she is facing is

Wang Wenyi, 47, was charged with harassing, intimidating and threatening a foreign official.

Free Speech means that the state can not prosecute you for your speech unless you are advocating violence against others or calling for the overthrow of the government through violence.

So one must review what did the individual state to the Chinese offical.

Now if her statements from the news article are correct

She shouted in Chinese: "Stop oppressing the Falun Gong" and "Your time is running out".

She also shouted in English: "President Bush, stop him from killing."

I don't see where the state has a case against her - unless there is more compiling evidence, it would seem to me that the government conducted the arrest at the time because of the embrassment to the Chinese Official being heckled at the White House.

What I don't know is if there is a law about heckling officals from foreign nations on the White House grounds. The government has in the past passed laws that limit some free speech within the confines of the place of business of the government. Remember several individuals were removed from the State of the Union Speech because they violated one of the rules of the house by wearing political statements on their shirts.