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Any student who sat even briefly in a high
school history class knows the problems facing the thirteen colonies
when they joined to form the United States of America.
Each colony was autonomous, with its own independent government.
They hesitantly joined together into one entity, but not without
a lot of limitations on the power of a central government. First was the Constitution. It was so written to limit the power of the government, not
to take away the rights of the individual as many try to interpret.
Then came an additional safeguard with the ten first amendments
called the Bill of Rights. Many patriots, such as Patrick Henry, still weren’t
satisfied. They foresaw the
surrender of the individual state’s rights to a powerful central
government. They feared the
liberty they had fought to wrest from England through the Revolutionary
War would be eroded. An important part of the guarantee of liberty in
the Constitution was freedom of speech.
The press was called the Fourth Estate to monitor and give
safeguards against the three branches of the American government. Freedom of speech was not a new idea in America.
A German immigrant, John Peter Zenger came to America at the age
of 13 as an indentured servant to a printer.
In 1734, he published in the New York Weekly Journal a series of
attacks on the British puppet state governor, William Cosby.
After waiting in prison for ten months on charges of libel, he
was brilliantly defended by Andrew Hamilton with setting of the
precedent that truth is a defense against libel.
It was the first important case in America establishing freedom
of the press and speech. That freedom is still being tested and is in
danger. Syndicated columnist Robert Novak in July wrote
an article on the wife of former foreign service officer Joseph C.
Wilson IV. He said
Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent.
Wilson had written critically of the Bush administration’s
false claim of an African link to Iraq nuclear weapons.
It was said to be retaliation for the article.
But it’s against the law to reveal the name of a CIA agent, for
obvious reasons. After hearing cries of foul, the government began an investigation. No one in the government admitted revealing the name. To make up for their incompetent investigation, the government turned to the reporters who had access to the information. The government chose Judy Miller, a reporter for
the New York Times, as the scapegoat.
A federal judge threatened her with prison if she did not reveal
all her information, including the names of her sources. There is no free speech without freedom of the
press, those who publish information without fear of torture by an
unfriendly government. Torture
comes in many ways. Torquemada
may have used the thumb screw and the rack to get information during the
Spanish Inquisition. Sophisticated
modern government uses the threat of being locked up in prison. The effect is the same, muzzling a free press. The media is not perfect, because it is
represented by people with all the flaws that go with mankind. But they are the guardians of liberty. Without them a government can conduct in secrecy any act it
chooses. Individuals can be
deprived of their liberty in the middle of the night and disappear.
It has happened in other governments.
We don’t want it to happen here.
First step is to protect our freedoms beginning with freedom of
the press. Today America is too strong to really fear any
outside threat. The danger
to fear is that within our borders.
The attack against our liberty is as real today as it was in 1734
for Peter Zenger. And we
must be just as aggressive in its defense.
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