The Importance Of Freedom Of The Press

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“When the public’s right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered.” quoted Christopher Dodd. For many, many years, freedom of the press has been a notably controversial topic to be discussed. Some believe that the public has a right to know, while others waver that journalists should be limited on what they can write about. The real question is, should journalists be allowed the right of freedom of the press or should their writing be able to be censored if the topic is viewed as unacceptable? Although governments might have national security concerns or politicians might prefer to not listen to dissenting viewpoints, the assault on the freedom…show more content…
For example, in India there was an era known as the “Emergency” in the 1970’s. Freedom of the Press is a right that is guaranteed to the public in India’s constitution, but during this era Prime Minister Indira was censoring and imprisoning journalists that wrote unfavorable articles about him and the government. The abuse of Freedom of the Press is still under attack to this day in India. Loyalists to the country’s Hindu Prime Minister have verbally attacked journalists into taking down articles that expose the country’s true faults. Also, some of these loyalists file criminal complaints that can result in jail time for journalists in India (Gowen). Governments all over the world are worried about censoring what is written about by journalists, but they are only concerned about how the government looks in the public’s eyes. Conversely, some governments might have some strong arguments against freedom of the press, they are still hiding information from the…show more content…
Constitution as a right that cannot be taken away. According to the U.S. Constitution, it states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” (Madison). In school districts, the administrators are treating high school journalists differently than professional journalists. “High schools often nurture the mentality that students have a "civic duty" to say only favorable things about the education they're receiving. "Be true to your school" is a nice enough idea -- but you won't find it in the Constitution,” stated LoMonte in his article about how freedom of the press shouldn’t stop at the schoolyard. Even though schools don’t want to talk about topics that are “too controversial” or topics that can “take students focus off of learning,” it is taking away school news papers right to freedom of the press. In a suburb of Chicago in 2016, a high school principal shut down the school newspaper due to one of the journalists writing about her opinions on changing the start time of school on her personal, off-campus blog after he prohibited her from writing about the topic. A private organization in the community now sponsor the school newspaper fully in order for
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