![]() ![]() Sullivan was a critical step in the Supreme Court’s protection for freedom of the press. Sullivan (1964), would declare, “Although the Sedition Act was never tested in this Court, the attack upon its validity has carried the day in the court of history.” Actual Malice It would be another 166 years before the Court, in New York Times v. The constitutionality of the Sedition Act of 1798 under the First Amendment was never tested in the U.S. Noteworthy in that deeply partisan struggle is that newspapers of the day identified largely with one party or the other, as did pamphlets and other writings that served as the catalyst for the prosecutions. When he assumed the presidency, Jefferson pardoned the convicted. Passed by the Federalists under President John Adams, the law was used to convict some ten Republicans loyal to Thomas Jefferson. Not long after the First Amendment was ratified, however, Congress passed the Sedition Act of 1798, which allowed for the criminal prosecution of those who brought the president or the government into disrepute and ridicule. ![]() This outcome raised consciousness in the colonies about the importance of a press that was free to criticize government. A jury acquitted Zenger after his lawyer persuaded them of what was then a novel concept - that Zenger should be allowed to demonstrate that the statements were true as a defense. In 1735, long before the creation of the United States, John Peter Zenger, printer of the New York Weekly Journal, a newspaper critical of then Governor William Cosby, was tried for seditious libel – the crime of ridiculing the government, or as practiced in England, ridiculing the king. Freedom to Criticize the GovernmentĪn essential concept in the history of freedom of the press and freedom of speech, predating the First Amendment, has been much debated: the freedom to criticize the government. Senate pared the language closer to the final result of what we now know. He wrote, “The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.” The U.S. Madison’s early draft discussed more fully the protections for the written word. abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. The language of the First Amendment relevant to this discussion, says, “Congress shall make no law. House of Representatives in 1789 and ratified by the states in 1791. What became the First Amendment was introduced by James Madison in the first U.S. To explore these questions, let us start with some background. What is the role of the news media in our society today? What rights and legal protections guard the news media against encroachment by government? To whom do protections for news media apply in an era in which the Internet and social media platforms make everyone a potential publisher? Information flows on social media and Internet sites at lightning-fast speed with no way to verify accuracy. Cable organizations are labeled as liberal or conservative instead of just news. President Donald Trump attacks the credibility of the media almost daily. In a Gallup Poll last October, only 45% of Americans had a high degree or a fair amount of trust in the news media to fairly report the news. The role of the news media in our society has become a constant battleground. More than two centuries later, is the news media still seen as a pillar of freedom, a bulwark against tyranny? “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost,” Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend in 1786.
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