Freedom of the Press | BRI’s Homework Help Series

0:00 What do you think of when you hear the words free press in the modern day, the question of what entails freedom of the press is extensive and complicated. It encompasses a variety of topics, ranging from newspaper publications to social media censorship. Free society governed by a popular rule, a free press plays an incredibly important role. It can inform the people, ensure that they have diverse views,

0:22 and hold individuals and the government accountable for their actions. However, press protections are understood to have some limitations. Since the founding, what these limits are has been the focus of numerous public debates and court cases. So how does this fundamental right protect our liberties and how has it been defined throughout American history? This is the story of the freedom of the press.

0:54 The belief in the benefits of a free press has been a foundational principle since the beginning of the United States. As a Virginia Declaration of Rights stated in 1776, the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained but by despotic governments. Stated another way, individuals have a right to publish their

1:14 opinions without being censored by the government. This right was not limited to the protection of newspapers and broadcasting companies as we understand it today, but instead referenced any and all technology used as a means of communicating opinions to the public. The founders believed this was critical because in a popular system of government, the people needed to be informed and knowledgeable to ensure their

1:36 government protected their rights and liberties. However, some reasonable limitations were recognized. Most notably, the founding generation believed publishers and editors could still be held accountable for what they printed. Moreover, truth was not yet considered a defense. In libel trials, for example, it wouldn’t have mattered if a smear piece was factually accurate.

1:57 The author could still be held accountable for the faming someone’s name. In 1791, the principle of a free press was enshrined in the First Amendment, which reads, quote congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press. This principle was soon tested in the heated political atmosphere of the early Republic. During a period of tensions with France known as the Quasi War, congress passed the Sedition Act of 1798,

2:21 making it a crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing that criticized the Congress, president or government. The law was applied in partisan fashion only against editors who were of the minority political parties. All told, 25 arrests were made and ten individuals were convicted under the law, which remained on the books despite strong objections until it expired in 1801.

2:44 Debates concerning the free press continued throughout the 19th century and reached a fever pitch during the Civil War as the country considered how to best balance individual liberty with security. In the 20th century, the Supreme Court ruled on many landmark cases, further divining the right. In the 1931 case Near v. Minnesota, the Court incorporated the free Press clause when it ruled a Minnesota state law

3:07 amounted to prior restraint and was therefore unconstitutional. The law allowed the government to prevent publication of stories by a newspaper that had been deemed to have previously engaged in the publication of obscene, malicious or scandalous materials. In 1964, the Court then took up the issue of libel and false statements in New York Times Company v.

3:27 Sullivan. Here, the Court reversed some earlier decisions and stated that the principle of free speech is more important than the problem of an occasional erroneous statement, even if it might tend to defame. Justice William Brennan wrote that the country has a, quote, profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide open,

3:48 and that it may well include vehement caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials. Not long after that case, the intense political debate over the Vietnam War led to the 1971 case of New York Times Company v. US. In this case, the New York Times defended its right to publish a classified report

4:09 produced by the government concerning the United States strategy throughout the war, an act the Nixon administration saw as a threat to national security. The Court decided that the national security concerns in the case were not enough to justify prior restraints. Then, in 1988, the Court considered the right of free press as it pertained to high school students working on school newspaper stops in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier.

4:32 Here, the Court decided that a high school could censor a newspaper as it was part of the school’s curriculum. There’s a lot that goes into our modern understanding of freedom of the press. As a general summary, you have a well protected right to use technology in whatever form to disseminate information or your opinion free of government restrictions. However, some restrictions may apply, such as malicious defamation,

4:54 obscene content, and some school sponsored expression. Today, the advent of the Internet and social media have dramatically expanded the avenues by which information is published and consumed. This has led to new questions concerning the principle of the free freedom of the press. So how do you think we will define the right of the free press into the 21st century?

5:15 This has been the story of the freedom of the press. Thanks for watching. Be sure to like and subscribe.