Historical Origins of Press/Media freedom

Press/Media Freedom, also known as "Freedom of the press", can be defined as, "the liberty to print or to otherwise disseminate information, as in print, by broadcasting, or through electronic media, without prior restraints such as licensing requirements or content review and without punishment for what is said"-factmonster

Freedom of the press has developed since the 1500’s, when the press and media were restricted from publishing certain things that may create hostility towards the authorities and censored the material they were allowed to publish.

Restriction of the information that citizens of the Christian world were allowed to publish was introduced in 1501 by Pope Alexander VI, not long after the invention of the printing press. There were two kinds of restriction; Censorship, by the government in advance of the publication, and the punishment for printed material that would cause division between communities. Penalties for bypassing or ignoring the censors included fines and excommunication (being excluded from a religious group or banished from a church).

The struggle for Freedom of the press first began in England in where the appearance of unauthorized publications resulted in a royal proclamation in 1534 requiring prepublication licensing. Censorship came to be applied shortly after that and then both the licensing and censorship laws were abolished in 1695.

Restrictions of the press continued in the form of libel laws, these allowed the government to arrest and punish any printer who published material in any way critical of the goverment. By the 18th Century, the printing of parliamentary debates had to be disguised as debates between classical figures. At this time, both true and false critisism of the goverment was considered libel.

With the development in England and following the American Revolution, the United States began to provide freedom of the press to several of their states and the first ammendment in 1791 to the US constitution declared that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech or of the press".

Wartime situations often presented challenges to the legal limits of press and media freedom. What was looked upon as irresponsible reporting during the Civil War led to attempts by civil and military authorities to impose restrictions upon the press. The War Department appealed to publishers to voluntarily suppress news that was strategic to the war and were largely ineffective.

During World War I, near panic over the possibility of sabotage led the Congress to pass the Espionage Acts in 1917 and the Sedition Act in 1918. These acts limited freedom of the press to such an extent that there was censorship exercised against pro-German publications.
In the late 1960s and early 70s, there were frequent charges and countercharges between journalists and government officials concerning the withholding of information on the Vietnam War by the government.

The First Amendment has not been extended to the gathering as well as the publication of news. The experience of the Vietnam War led the U.S. government to restrict the access of reporters in combat areas in subsequent military encounters.