The Fake News about Fake News

2021 ◽  
pp. 68-81
Author(s):  
David Coady
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Public Speech ◽  
The Press ◽  
The World ◽  
Common Opinion ◽  
Fixed Function

It is widely believed that we are facing a problem, caused by something called ‘fake news’. Governments and other powerful institutions around the world have adopted a variety of measures to restrict the reporting and dissemination of claims they deem to be fake news. Many of these measures are clear breaches of fundamental rights, including freedom of speech and freedom of the press. This chapter arsgues that, contrary to common opinion, there is no new or growing problem of fake news. There is instead a new and growing problem caused by the term ‘fake news’. Although this term has no fixed meaning it does have a fixed function. It functions to restrict permissible public speech and opinion in ways that serve the interests of powerful people and institutions.

The Dominant American View of Freedoms of Press and Speech, in the Decade Leading Up to Ratification of the Federal Bill of Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 303-336
Author(s):  
Wendell Bird
Keyword(s):  
First Amendment ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Original Source ◽  
Narrow View ◽  
The Press ◽  
Freedom Of Press ◽  
The World

In the 1780s in America, the advocates of broad understandings of freedom of press and freedom of speech continued to argue, as “Junius Wilkes” did in 1782, that “[i]f a printer is liable to prosecution and restraint, for publishing pieces on public measures, conceived libellous, the liberty of the press is annihilated and ruined. . . . The danger is precisely the same to liberty, in punishing a person after the performance appears to the world, as in preventing its publication in the first instance. The doctrine of libels, is of pernicious consequence to the freedom of the press.” Many other essays in the 1780s showed the dominance of an expansive understanding of freedoms of press and speech, as did the declarations of rights of nine states. That was the context in which the First Amendment was adopted and ratified in 1789–1791. These conclusions about the prevalent and dominant understanding after the mid-1760s are flatly contrary to the narrow view of freedoms of press and speech stated by Blackstone and Mansfield, and restated by the neo-Blackstonians, who claim that the narrow understanding was not only predominant but exclusive through the ratification of the First Amendment and onward until 1798. This book’s conclusions are based on far more original source material than the neo-Blackstonians’ conclusions.

PERSECUTION AND THE ART OF FREEDOM: ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE ON THE IMPORTANCE OF FREE PRESS AND FREE SPEECH IN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-208
Author(s):  
Khalil M. Habib
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Free Society ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Constituent Element ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Right ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractAccording to Tocqueville, the freedom of the press, which he treats as an extension of the freedom of speech, is a primary constituent element of liberty. Tocqueville treats the freedom of the press in relation to and as an extension of the right to assemble and govern one’s own affairs, both of which he argues are essential to preserving liberty in a free society. Although scholars acknowledge the importance of civil associations to liberty in Tocqueville’s political thought, they routinely ignore the importance he places on the freedom of the press and speech. His reflections on the importance of the free press and speech may help to shed light on the dangers of recent attempts to censor the press and speech.

scholarly journals A day for freedom

1996 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-85
Author(s):  
Reporters Sans Frontieres
Keyword(s):  
Annual Report ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
The Press ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right

On 3 May 1996, International Press Freedom Day, Reporters Sans Frontieres published its seventh Annual report on freedom of the press throughout the world, which gave an account of infringements of the right to be informed in 149 countries.    

Is It Legal?

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
David R. Stone
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Public Speech ◽  
The Press

Libraries, schools, colleges and universities, prisons, freedom of the press, public speech, internet, social media, government speech, privacy

scholarly journals From the Bench

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
David R. Stone
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Public Speech ◽  
The Press ◽  
Us Supreme Court

US Supreme Court, Schools, Church and State, Freedom of the Press, Public Speech, Texting, Foreign

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