The U.S. Constitution:
Amendment I
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.
I stand corrected: Thank you, Reba.
But, I would just like to point out the following:
While personal freedom of speech is usually respected,
freedom of press and mass publishing meet with some restrictions. Some of the recent issues include:
See also
Roth v. United States
As of 2002, the United States was ranked 17th of 167 countries in annual
Worldwide Press Freedom Index by
Reporters Without Borders. "The poor ranking of the United States (17th) is mainly because of the number of journalists arrested or imprisoned there. Arrests are often because they refuse to reveal their sources in court. Also, since the
September 11 attacks, several journalists have been arrested for crossing security lines at some official buildings." In the 2006 index the United States fell further to 53rd of 168 countries; indeed, "relations between the media and the
Bush administration sharply deteriorated" as it became suspicious of journalists who questioned the "
War on Terrorism". The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 U.S. states, refuse to recognize the media's right
not to reveal its sources, even threatened journalists whose investigations did not pertain to terrorism. The United States improved, moving up to 48th place in 2007, however, and to 20th in 2010. "Barack Obama's election as president and the fact that he has a less hawkish approach than his predecessor have had a lot to do with this."
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