Attempts to undermine the free press ... make it more difficult to hold repressive governments accountable. For decades, dissidents and human rights advocates have relied on independent investigations into government corruption to further their fight for freedom. But constant cries of 'fake news' undercut this type of reporting and strip activists of one of their most powerful tools of dissent.
"This assault on journalism and free speech proceeds apace in places such as Russia, Turkey, China, Egypt, Venezuela and many others. Yet even more troubling is the growing number of attacks on press freedom in traditionally free and open societies, where censorship in the name of national security is becoming more common. Britain passed a surveillance law that experts warn chills free speech, and countries from France to Germany are looking to do the same. Senator John McCain, writing an op-ed for The Washington Post in January 16, 2018, six months before his death.
As we observe National Newspaper Week, this week, we must reflect on the rights and responsibilities of First Amendment protection for both free speech and free press. These days, threats to a free press and journalists spreads across the spectrum of society from the classroom where the citizenship lessons must be taught to foreign lands where power hungry leaders abhor the concept of a free press to our own backyard where too often lies are viewed as truth.
Education
Our children definitely need instruction in First Amendment rights and responsibilities. This first statement in the Bill of Rights does not guarantee anyone’s right to say anything false about another.
Writing for the organization’s Agenda magazine, National Federation of Press Women Gwen Larson says, “The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is in grave danger today.” She refers to The Knight Foundation’s released 15-year study report on “High School Students Views on the First Amendment: Trends in the 21st century."
According to this report, “average support for the First Amendment among students has slightly increased, there are significant differences across all years and gender starting in 2011…Education is important. Students who had studied the First Amendment were more supportive…”
Let me repeat one line in this report. “Education is important.” Anonymous bullying or slander at the expense of others is not protected by the First Amendment. Unless one lives under oppressive rule as in some of the nations that McClain names or steps forward as a whistleblower at home, one has the responsibility to sign his/her name to one’s stance. Hiding behind anonymity to make fun of or insult another is mere cowardice, not free speech.
Report for America
But, the best news in support of First Amendment rights comes in the form of a non-profit, nonpartisan organization, Report for America (RFA), founded by Steve Walman and Charles Sennott five years ago. In partnership with The GroundTruth Project and Google News Lab, RFA placed some 300 young journalists in underserved communities across the country this past year. The program is funded by the Knight Foundation, Galloway Family Foundation, Center for Investigative Reporting, Solutions Journalism Network, The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the MacArthur Foundation and numerous other foundations plus local communities hosting fund raisers.
Today, RFA reports that nearly 1,800 communities across the United States do not have basic news coverage. The MacArthur Foundation says, “Without local reporters to hold individuals in power accountable, communities experience greater polarization, more pollution, lower voter turnout, less government accountability and less trust. Residents no longer get the information they need to understand the critical issues facing their community, to make good decisions for their family and to hold elected officials accountable.”
The GroundTruth Project/RFA works to restore journalism from the ground up by supporting the next generation of journalists through field reporting. This next generation of journalists are getting hands on experience in learning the basics of journalism - the difference between facts and opinions, the dangers of assumptions, the importance of Sunshine laws, ways to ask the right questions, lessons in listening intently to formulate the new questions to ask.
I repeat - “education is important,” not only for today’s school children, but also for the novice journalists and for all consumers of news. We must be an educated citizenry whose responsibility to the First Amendment is the ability to recognize the difference between fact, opinion and falsehood.
2021
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