Dan Rather anchored the ‘CBS Evening News’ for over 20 years, starting on March 9, 1981. But he always seemed more in his element as a reporter, and now as a news analyst on social media.
Articles on Freedom of the press
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Donald Trump’s claim that some satire could be ‘illegal’ harks back to an age when criticising a monarch could see the offender drawn and quartered.
John Adams signed the Sedition Act in an attempt to silence dissent. Some other Founding Fathers thought that muzzling the press would mean the end of the republic.
In a time when media companies are more cash-strapped than ever, the threat of defamation action has a chilling effect on the stories that get told.
Many people define ‘bias’ as ‘anything that doesn’t agree with me.’ But are the news media really biased?
Russia’s bravest and most significant independent media have now been forced to close.
Under the Sullivan standard, a public official has to prove that there was ‘actual malice’ in defamation cases. That could be challenged in the Supreme Court.
It’s gospel for First Amendment advocates that lawsuits against news organizations chill freedom of the press. But in an era of rampant misinformation, such legal actions may be more accepted.
Charges of media bias are nothing new, though they’ve gotten louder since 2016, led by President Trump. But a press free to take a variety of viewpoints was the founders’ intention.
The freedom of the press is important, and of course it must be protected. But the freedom of everybody else and of ordinary citizens is also important.
Julian Assange’s indictment under the Espionage Act, a sweeping law with heavy penalties for unauthorized receiving or disclosing of classified information, poses a threat to press freedom.
Americans are overwhelmingly committed to a free press and hostile to government restrictions, a new poll finds. But the country is divided on the meaning of President Trump’s attacks on the press.
The Trump administration’s hostility toward journalists is raising new questions about what rights journalists have to access government officials and events.
While some African countries have shown an improvement in press freedom and freedom of expression ratings, others, including South Africa, are seeing worrying trends and a drop in rankings.
Top contributors
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Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Indiana University
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Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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Research Fellow, University of Antwerp (Belgium) and University of the Free State (South Africa), University of the Free State
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Survey Director, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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Professor, University of South Africa
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Professor of Communication, Radford University
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Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Oregon
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Lecturer in Journalism and Digital Media, Department of Journalism Studies, University of Sheffield
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Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Michigan State University
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Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Policy, Aston University
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Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne
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Professor of History, Kennesaw State University
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Senior Lecturer in History, University of Waikato
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Director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, University of Florida
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Adjunct Lecturer in Communication, University of Illinois Chicago