Freedom of the press 2003 : a global survey of media independence / Edited by Karin Deutsch Karlekar with essays by Brian Katulis, Jeremy Druker and Dean Cox, and Ronald Koven.

Freedom House's annual press freedom survey has tracked trends in media freedom worldwide since 1980. Covering 194 countries and territories, Freedom of the Press 2006 provides comparative rankings and examines the legal environment for the media, political pressures that influence reporting, and economic factors that affect access to information. The survey is the most authoritative assessment of media freedom around the world. Its findings are widely utilized by policymakers, scholars, press freedom advocates, journalists, and international institutions.

The rights protecting journalists and the press in the United States are a defining aspect of the nation's democratic nature. What tends to be discussed less frequently is how today's media environment enables or hinders a free press. Has the internet made the press freer or restricted it in new ways? How do issues like funding, the role of media conglomerates, and legal actions against journalists and publications fit into a free media landscape? These questions will be explored from varying perspectives in this timely volume.

Freedom in the World contains both comparative ratings and written narratives and is now the standard reference work for measuring the progress and decline in political rights and civil liberties on a global basis.

An authoritative yet accessible analysis of the historical development and contemporary scope of press freedoms in America. Freedom of the Press: Rights and Liberties under the Law examines the evolution of press freedom in America, a particularly relevant topic given the controversy over the role of the press in the war in Iraq, as well as the growing concentration of ownership of the press, and the impact of the Internet on traditional journalism. An opening analysis of challenges from recent developments like Internet journalist Matt Drudge's "Drudge Report" illustrates the opportunities and implications of a press operating without the traditional gate-keeping process. A historical overview of philosophical ideas and English traditions precedes an exploration into the judicial, regulatory, social, political, and economic developments that have shaped press freedoms, addressing such issues as libel, free press versus fair trial, and access to courtrooms. A chapter is devoted to the impact of new communication and transmission technology such as videophones and satellites.

Does America have a free press? Many who answer yes appeal to First Amendment protections that shield the press from government censorship. But in this comprehensive history of American press freedom as it has existed in theory, law, and practice, Sam Lebovic shows that, on its own, the right of free speech has been insufficient to guarantee a free press. Lebovic recovers a vision of press freedom, prevalent in the mid-twentieth century, based on the idea of unfettered public access to accurate information. This “right to the news” responded to persistent worries about the quality and diversity of the information circulating in the nation’s news. Yet as the meaning of press freedom was contested in various arenas—Supreme Court cases on government censorship, efforts to regulate the corporate newspaper industry, the drafting of state secrecy and freedom of information laws, the unionization of journalists, and the rise of the New Journalism—Americans chose to define freedom of the press as nothing more than the right to publish without government censorship. The idea of a public right to all the news and information was abandoned, and is today largely forgotten. Free Speech and Unfree News compels us to reexamine assumptions about what freedom of the press means in a democratic society—and helps us make better sense of the crises that beset the press in an age of aggressive corporate consolidation in media industries, an increasingly secretive national security state, and the daily newspaper’s continued decline.

In 1964 the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in New York Times v. Sullivan guaranteeing constitutional protection for caustic criticism of public officials, thus forging the modern law of freedom of the press. Since then, the Court has decided case after case affecting the rights and restrictions of the press, yet little has ben written about these developments as they pertain to the Fourth Estate. Lucas Powe's essential book now fills this gap. Lucas A. Powe, Jr., a legal scholar specializing in media and the law, goes back to the framing of the First Amendment and chronicles the two main traditions of interpreting freedom of the press to illuminate the issues that today ignite controversy: How can a balance be achieved among reputation, uninhibited discussion, and media power? Under what circumstance can the government seek to protect national security by enjoining the press rather than attempting the difficult task of convincing a jury that publication was a criminal offense? What rights can the press properly claim to protect confidential sources or to demand access to information otherwise barred to the public? And, as the media grow larger and larger, can the government attempt to limit their power by limiting their size? Writing for the concerned layperson and student of both journalism and jurisprudence, Powe synthesizes law, history, and theory to explain and justify full protection of the editorial choices of the press. The Fourth Estate and the Constitution not only captures the sweep of history of Supreme Court decisions on the press, but also provides a timely restatement of the traditional view of freedom of the press at a time when liberty is increasingly called into question.

A riveting introduction to the crucial role of First Amendment rights and the media Guardians of Liberty explores the essential and basic American ideal of freedom of the press. Allowing the American press to publish—even if what they’re reporting is contentious— without previous censure or interference by the federal government was so important to the Founding Fathers that they placed a guarantee in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Citing numerous examples from America’s past, from the American Revolution to the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement to Obama’s and Trump’s presidencies, Linda Barrett Osborne shows how freedom of the press has played an essential role in the growth of this nation, allowing democracy to flourish. She further discusses how the freedoms of press and speech often work side by side, reveals the diversity of American news, and explores why freedom of the press is still imperative to uphold today. Includes endnotes, bibliography, and index