RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Hecklers who shout down speakers on North Carolina's college campuses could be punished under a proposal being floated before lawmakers that would make this state the newest battleground over free speech at U.S. universities. Three people were charged with disorderly conduct and other offenses in January after disrupting a governing board meeting to protest Spellings' selection. "If a speaker has been invited by a student group, another in the university community does not have the right to interrupt that speech, shout over the speaker, or otherwise prevent others from listening to the speech," Forest's office said in a statement. Six states have taken up campus speech legislation, but Forest's proposal would make North Carolina the first to address the so-called "heckler's veto" versus someone else's right to speak, said Joe Cohn, policy director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. At the University of Missouri, a since-fired assistant professor was criticized for calling for "some muscle" to remove a student photographer from covering a public demonstration. [...] officials with the University of North Carolina system have been shut out of shaping Forest's proposal, which he also has said should include requiring public universities to remain officially neutral on controversial issues.