Monday, September 20, 2010

Freedom of the press(:

John Peter Zenger began publishing news papers in the big apple to show his position to the newly appointed colonial governor William Cosby.When he arrived he started having fights with the Council of the Colony over his salary.Since he couldn't control the council he removed Chief Justice Lewis Morris, replacing him with James Delancey of the royal party and Zenger started publishing weekly journals. The Governor saw him as a threat and got mad and arrested Zenger for seditious libel. Eight months later he was sent to trial.The jury decided he wasn't guilty.
Even though we have had freedom of press for more than 260 years , we still don't have complete freedom. For example the deaths across the line. When the deaths started to accured they were all over the news and when the deaths started getting gruesomer and more often the journalist started covering it up because they didn't want to get in trouble.

5 comments:

  1. hey melissa! i like the way you summarized what JPZ went through. we all know that we "supposedly" we have freedom of speech but do we really have it?
    its the same thing with the press
    good job i liked it

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  2. Hi Melissa - good post here. However, I would avoid using "gruesomer" - it seems grammatically correct, but it stands out. Instead say "more gruesome" as that sounds and reads better. Nevertheless I agree with you and others that have pointed out the issues with freedom of the press in Mexico. Not all journalists have censored themselves, but many newspapers that have covered the violence have been threatened by angry gangsters if they publish news that might be inconvenient for them.

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  3. Hey Erik - to respond to you, what makes you say that "'supposedly' we have freedom of speech"? Is there something specific that you think contradicts that?

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  4. well mr.parra on ericks behalf i learned last year that we do not have freedom of speech in some cases like if you threaten the government or any law enforcement you can be sent to jail.

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  5. Very nice Karissa!

    But threatening speech comes under a different position than most speech. One still has the right to say nasty, and even threatening comments (just go to extremist right-wing websites that talk about how much they hate Pres. Obama and how they want to hurt him ,etc) so long as its not followed by a specific threat.

    In many ways its like screaming that there's a fire when you're inside a crowded movie theater. People might get scared and they might stampede outside, stomping and killing each other in the process just because someone wanted to make a joke. That is still using your freedom of speech, although its misusing it. In that case - the movie theater incident - the offender would be in deep trouble for not using his/her freedom responsibly (which is the same with your right to bear arms; if you commit violent crimes your ability to purchase guns legally after that is restricted).

    In short, while there are limits to your freedom of speech, you do still have that fundamental right. Great rebuttal though Karissa! Right on!

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