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.
Will lawsuits against misinformation hurt freedom of speech?
syahrir maulana/ iStock / Getty Images Plus
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.
People see bias in the stories that favor the other party, but they tend not to see bias in stories favoring their own party.
Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
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.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves Southwark Crown Court in London, May 1, 2019.
REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
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.
Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Donald Trump.
Wikipedia for Jefferson official portrait/REUTERS/Leah Millis for Trump photo
Jill Darling, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and Robert Shrum, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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.
CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins in front of the White House.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
The Trump administration’s hostility toward journalists is raising new questions about what rights journalists have to access government officials and events.
Media freedom activists protest against the draconian Protection of Information Bill in Cape Town, South Africa.
Sumaya Hisham/Reuters
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.