As a journalism major at MSU, I have learned a lot about censorship, more specifically when and why it has been used. In my three years here, I have learned that journalists have an obligation to the truth. After all, it’s only what the Society of Professional Journalists says. Journalists have an obligation to “seek truth and report it” which cannot be done if we get censored.
What has censorship looked like over the past centuries?
What a journalist can and cannot do has been an issue even before the First Amendment established the freedom of the press. In 1735, publisher John Peter Zenger was sued for seditious libel when he criticized the New York governor. After going to trial, Zenger was acquitted, and it was deemed that the truth could not be libel, given that his criticisms were facts and he wasn’t purposely being vitriolic toward the governor. A few decades later, the First Amendment confirmed the freedom of the press.
The freedom of the press was a contentious topic, with constant attempts to silence journalists. In 1798, the new government was fearful that they would go to war with France, and that the American public would not be behind it. This led to the Alien and Sedition Acts, which in addition to tightening citizenship laws, forbade any journalists or printers from publishing anything that criticized or pushed back against the government. Interestingly, the laws targeted more publications siding with the opposing political party, not the one that John Adams belonged to.
Fast forward to 1873, the Comstock Act is put in place. While it didn’t so much target journalists as it did printers in general, it still stifled people’s– more specifically, women’s– access to information. The Comstock Act prohibited any distribution of pamphlets or mail that was “lewd” or “immoral.” Information about birth control or contraception was banned for being indecent. The First Amendment Encyclopedia notes that feminist literature was also subject to the ban. People could be arrested for publishing these materials, even doctors. Thousands petitioned to have the act repealed, citing that it went against freedom of the press.
Though not government sponsored like the previous examples, one way that media was censored in the 20th century was through the Hays Code, which mostly focused on movies. When motion pictures were beginning to gain more popularity in the 1920’s and 1930’s, critics noted that there was too much violence, too much sex and skin. Adopted by movie studios and producers, the recommended-turned-mandatory code banned nudity, talk of sex, homosexuality, overuse of drugs or alcohol, criticism of religion, mixed-race relationships, and “scenes of passion.” The Hays code slowly lost popularity, and stopped being used in 1968.
Whatever kind of media we are creating, censoring us makes the job impossible. It is a journalist’s job to seek the truth. Our history shows that this will always be criticized, that someone will always want to put a stop to it. As a journalism student, it does not make sense that my work could be censored, I have been trained to do nothing but be truthful and knowledgeable on the subjects I choose to cover. Though all this was in the past, it doesn’t mean that journalists will not face these hurdles in the future.