Legal Developments Affecting the Press
| Published date | 01 January 1942 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271624221900115 |
| Author | Fredrick S. Siebert |
| Date | 01 January 1942 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
93
Legal
Developments
Affecting
the
Press
By
FREDRICK
S.
SIEBERT
TWO
distinct
trends
in
recent
legal
developments
affecting
the
press
as
a
social
institution
are
clearly
discern-
ible.
One
is
a
tendency
on
the
part
of
both
legislatures
and
courts
to
grant
to
the
press
an
ever
increasing
freedom
to
print
and
publish.
This
extension
of
freedom
has
taken
place
not
in
one
iso-
lated
field,
but
in
areas
involving
the
privacy
of
individuals,
of
social
institu-
tions,
and
of
governmental
bodies.
The
press
today
has
more
freedom
than
ever
before
to
present
to
the
public
the
life
(including
pictures)
of
private
persons,
to
explore
the
workings
of
social
insti-
tutions,
and
to
report
and
criticize
gov-
ernmental
units.
The
second
discernible
development
is
a
continuing
expansion
of
control
through
governmental
agencies
over
the
economic
aspects
of
the
publishing
busi-
ness.
Not
that
the
publishing
business
has
been
singled
out
for
special
atten-
tion,
but
the
effect
of
such
regulations
in
this
field
can
possibly
tend
to
curtail
the
exercise
of
those
freedoms
which
are
popularly
described
as
&dquo;liberty
of
the
press.&dquo;
In
the
first
place,
there
is
little
doubt
that
the
recent
recognition
of
extensions
of
freedom
of
the
press
has
resulted
in
a
wider
coverage
of
news
and
a
more
fearless
comment
on
private
and
govern-
mental
affairs.
On
the
other
hand,
the
second
tendency,
by
increasing
the
eco-
nomic
hazards
of
the
publisher,
not
only
has
reduced
the
number
of
competing
units
or
publishing
outlets,
but
at
the
same
time
has
made
the
individual
pub-
lisher
more
wary,
more
interested
in
the
financial
welfare
of
his
business,
and
consequently
less
aggressive
in
attacking,
exposing,
or
alienating
any
considerable
body
of readers.
The
result
has
been
more
freedom
to
publish,
with
fewer
units
available
to
take
advantage
of
this
freedom,
and
these
survivors
more
cir-
cumspect
as
their
economic
stability
is
threatened.
These
trends
should
not
be
construed
to
mean
that
the
great
contemporary
metropolitan
newspapers
are
groveling
economic
units
afraid
to
speak
their
minds.
On
the
contrary,
these
stable
financial
institutions
are
able
today
to
exercise
a
freedom
unknown
to
the
eight-
eenth-
and
nineteenth-century
publisher.
Financial
independence
which
followed
the
development
of
advertising
made
the
press
of
America
free.
But
the
fact
still
remains
that
as
economic
regulations
in-
stituted
for social
improvement
upset
or
render
shaky
the
financial
basis
of
the
American
newspaper,
the
ability
to
take
advantage
of
the
constitutional
freedom
of
the
press
declines.
WILL
ECONOMIC
REGULATIONS
CURTAIL
FREE
PRESS?
A
financially
independent
press,
then,
is
necessary
for
the
exercise
of
the
legal
freedom
to
publish.
A
financially
weak
press
is
at
a
decided
disadvantage
in
the
exercise
of
its
responsibility
to
the
pub-
lic.
It
is
open
to
all
sorts
of
inhibitions
and
pressures.
The
important
question
today
is
whether
these
social-welfare
and
financial
restrictions
which
have been
placed
on
publishing
as
a
business
have
so
affected
the
economic
stability
of
the
press
as
to
render
it
less
able
to
assert
the
freedoms
guaranteed
to
it
by
our
constitutions.
How
much
economic
regulation
can
the
press
stand
before
it
becomes
more
interested
in
its
own
financial
continu-
ance
than
in
exercising
the
freedoms
which
courts
and
legislatures
have
granted
to
it?
President
Roosevelt
de-
cries
the
fact
that
many
newspapers
are
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