University of Phoenix Material • Communication Law Worksheet Short Essay IN AT LEAST 150 TO 350-WORDS, WRITE AN ESSAY RESPONDING TO THE DETAILS OF THE FOLLOWING THREE QUESTIONS AND STATEMENTS: 1. Communication Law is primarily about the First Amendment. What different types of speech can you identify that may have different protection under the first amendment? Under the First Amendment many types of speech receive the most stringent levels of protection while others receive little to no protection at all. Political or religious speech are two of the biggest and most important areas of speech that receive the most protection and seem to be at the core of the First Amendment rights. These two types of speech receive a …show more content…
Freedom of expression was and is used today as having no prior censorship. It also protects people from punishment after publication. Freedom of expression is quite different today, and today there can be nine different definitions of freedom of expression and are usually based on Supreme Court justices. Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 “forbade false, scandalous, and malicious publications against the U.S. government, congress, and the President” (Pembert & Calvert, 2011, p. 48). The law was used to punish those who sought to cause problems and urged resistance to the government. There were 15 prosecutions under this law, many of which belonged to leading papers in the nation at that time. This law was overturned in 1801 and President Jefferson pardoned all those convicted under this law. Today people are allowed to criticize the government and publicly hold views that do not go along with the government or the current administration with little to no prosecution. Taxation of the presses is another area und the First Amendment that has come under scrutiny. Taxing of newspapers and other press outlets was deemed unconstitutional. Government could not tax some members of certain branches over others, and taxing against the content of a publication was also found to be unconstitutional. It is unconstitutional also to “rule that selective taxation of the press through the narrow targeting of
Amendment which gives us the right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press,
The First Amendment of The Constitution which supports freedom of speech and the Fifth Amendment of the constitution.
Unfortunately people were not aware of how much censorship there was in those days. The following years however, would witness many trial cases that question the boundaries of what freedom of speech really means. For instance, in a case of Brandenburg v. Ohio the court came to the conclusion that “symbolic speech….were subject to the same protections as written and spoken communication” (122). One of the most controversial cases of this was a man that burned the American flag “In 1984, as part of a protest….. set fire to a U.S. flag...He was arrested, charged with ‘desecration of a venerated object’ and eventually convicted of that offense.” (123). After that incident many people were upset this brought up the question of the freedom that freedom of speech really granted us. Some key restrictions that limit our ability to speak are: incitement of criminal acts, obscenity (extremely offensive
The First Amendment in the Constitution of the United States of America sates that we have the right to freedom of speech and to freedom of press; which in simpler
1) Discuss the freedom of the press issues versus the security concerns of the prison. Which Constitutional Amendment (specifically by name) is involved in this case?
The government can censor certain types of speech such as defamation, true threats, “fighting words,” profuse obscenities, child pornography, and commercial advertising. Bigotry, blasphemy, and violence are still protected by the First Amendment. Another way the government can restrict speech is if the speaker is in a certain relationship with the government, such as government employees or teachers in public schools. The government can also restrict content-neutral speech if it gets
Exceptions to freedom of speech under the First Amendment should extend beyond political and artistic speech. Courts have held that potentially misleading commercial speech should be monitored through government regulation. Courts have found that there is diminished protection for
Q1. What is the relationship between the (a) first amendment and (b) the media/press? Should (c) digital media and citizen journalism be protected under the first amendment and as such enter the (d) Marketplace of Ideas to compete with traditional media, why or why not?
First Amendment protecting the freedom of speech is just some of the laws that have been
First Amendment protection of free speech has long been recognized to be essential to democratic governance, in part because social progress would stagnate without the free exchange of ideas between citizens. However, there are practical limits to what constitutes protected free speech and these limits have been codified into law by Congress and enforced by the federal courts. This essay will argue that the First Amendment is important to protecting the democratic process, but also that the limits placed on those protections are just as important.
However, the first amendment is what protects the right to freedom of expression. The first amendment
Freedom of press protects the citizens’ rights to circulate opinions in print without censorship by the government. This right is mentioned in the first amendment in the Constitution. It protects the press from interference from the federal government. The Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law… abridging (limiting) the freedom of speech or of the press.” Any statements could be made but those who make statements critical of the government were punished (Censorship). They can be sent to prison for up to two years and fined 2000 dollars. Some Supreme Court cases that deal with this issue: Rex v. Zenger (1735), Near v. Minnesota (1931), and New York Times v. United States.
R: The Freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment such as, freedom of press, association, assembly, and petition. It is the foundation of a vibrant democracy, and without it, other fundamental rights, like the right to vote, would not exist. It does not include for example the right to incite actions that would harm others and to make or distribute obscene materials.
The founders of the United States government tried to protect our liberty by assuring a free press, to gather and publish information without being under control or power of another, in the First Amendment to the Constitution. We are not very protected by this guarantee, so we concern ourselves on account of special interest groups that are fighting to change the freedom of expression, the right to freely represent individual thoughts, feeling and views, in order to protect their families as well as others. These groups, religious or otherwise, believe that publishing unorthodox material is an abuse of free expression under the First Amendment. As we know, the Supreme Court plays an important role in the subject of free speech and
The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech so that the press can remain fully free, and the public can be fully informed. “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. Sometimes corporate pressures and government control may sometimes hinder this freedom.” (Schubert) In countries without freedom of the press, messages are censored and/or filtered through the government, which alow only what is considered acceptable information to be released to the public. Although the Constitution/Bill of Rights have been adopted since the late 1700’s, the ability of the government to infringe our freedom has decreased over the last 70 years. In December of 1942, Robert Maynard Hutchins launched the Freedom of the Press Commission. Shortly after the commission being launched, a report that dealt with the social responsibilities of the owners/operators of the media was issued. The commission believed that the freedom of the press was in danger, so through this report