Unit 2 Lesson 9
Writing your Informative Article
We, the people, have the right to seek, to receive and impart information or ideas from any media. Without freedom of the press, we would not have access to important information that we have the right to know. This right was established in the Bill of Rights during the year 1789. The Bill of Rights was created to further protect the rights of the Constitution. However, over the years the government has been attempting to place restrictions on what the media can and cannot publish.
According to the Bill of Rights, Amendment 1, “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” (1). Over the years, these rights have been …show more content…
vs. United States. This case was argued on June 26, 1971 and decided on June 30, 1971. The case later became known as the Pentagon Papers Case. This was because the Nixon administration attempted to prevent the New York Times and Washington Post from publishing classified information. The classified information belonged to the Defense Department. It was a study regarding the history of United States activities in Vietnam. President Nixon wanted to prevent it from being published in order to protect national security (3). According to Justice Black, the First Amendment gave freedom of the press protection to fulfill its role of sharing the “secrets of the government” with the people. He also said that the press is to “serve the governed” not the government (4). It was later argued that the word security was vague and should not have been used to prevent the newspaper company from publishing the information. In the end, the decision was voted 6-3 in favor of the New York Times