Re: [Leica] Freedom of the press? WAS (something else)

[Bryan Caldwell <bcaldwell51@earthlink.net>]

B.D,

"For what now seems like the 99th time - "freedom of the press" has to 
do
with what the press can and can't publish. And in this country the press
can publish any news it can find."

This is not entirely true - and we've discussed much of this here 
before. In the quagmire of the U.S. Supreme Court's "Pentagon Papers" 
case (1971), in which the nine justices wrote nine separate opinions, a 
majority of the justices held that a prior restraint of the press would 
not always be unconstitutional- although they differed somewhat in what 
would allow such restraint. The essential question seems to be whether 
there was a virtual certainty that grave danger to the country would 
result if the publication were not enjoined from publication (not an 
unheard of notion given today's climate). This rationale was applied by 
the federal courts eight years later in U.S. v. The Progressive, Inc., 
where the magazine "The Progressive" was successfully enjoined from 
printing an article that contained technical information about the 
H-bomb. It is also thought by many constitutional scholars that 
justification for prior restraint of the press might exist if the press 
entity itself was a receiver of stolen goods in obtaining the material 
it sought to publish. If you remember, in the Pentagon Papers case, it 
could not be shown that the New York Times was aware of the nature of 
the material provided to them by Daniel Ellsberg. Prior restraints of 
the press are heavily disfavored by the courts, but not impossible. 
Other types of prior restraint are also heavily disfavored, but not 
unconstitutional per se.

Bryan



On Nov 12, 2003, at 1:09 PM, B. D. Colen wrote:

> I have no idea what the specific conditions are in those other
> countries. But even given my total ignorance, I'll put the best of the
> U.S. media - and the freedom of the press in this country, up against
> that in, oh, say Latvia, any day of the week.
>
> I know it's fun to bash the U.S. - God knows there's a great deal of
> legitimate basis for bashing us. But this one is waaaaay of the mark.
> For what now seems like the 99th time - "freedom of the press" has to 
> do
> with what the press can and can't publish. And in this country the 
> press
> can publish any news it can find. Does the government try to hide
> things? Of course - this Administration in particular. But that isn't a
> legitimate measure of press freedom. The legitimate measure is what
> happens when the media gets a hold of those things the government
> doesn't want to know - at that point can it be stopped from making them
> public? And in the U.S., the answer is NO - unless the government can 
> go
> to court and convince a judge that publication of the material in
> question poses an immanent threat to national security. And that is
> sooooo hard to do, that the government has only attempted - and failed 
> -
> to do it in a tiny handful of cases in recent history.
>
> Now - is the U.S. Army of Occupation in Iraq interfering with
> Al-Jazeera's doing its legitimate work? I'm sure it is. But that is NOT
> a measure of U.S. freedom of the press; it is a measure of this
> Administration's perversion of what America has always wanted to stand
> for. ;-)
>
> B. D.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Jacques
> Bilinski & Barbara Bradbury
> Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 3:46 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Freedom of the press? WAS (something else)
>
>
>> I would argue that the U.S. does have the most 'free' press in the
>> sense that there is NO government imposed prior censorship.
>
> Oh, I get it now. There is a large group of countries all tied for 
> first
> place:  USA, Timor, Iceland, Costa Rica.... Latvia, etc (but not
> France).
> :)
>
>
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