Government and the Press
Since the founding of the United States of America, citizens have shown fear over the ability of the government to limit the freedom of speech protected in the nation’s laws. This fear increased with the passing of the gag laws in 1931 by the state of Minnesota. The growth of the press has, however, enabled further outreach of information (Kansas City Law School, 2013). However, there are times when the government has genuine concerns and must limit the freedom of the press or free speech to protect the safety of the nation.
In 1979, Howard Morland Published an article for the Progressive. However, the Department of Energy implored after the government deemed the probability of the release of state nuclear secrets a threat to national security. The US filed for an injunction against the newspaper before the publishing of the article, citing some provisions of the 1954 Atomic Energy Act (the United States v. The Progressive et al., 1979)). Therefore, the Progressive was forced to hold the publication until the hearing of the case. There were several hearings, both public and private, before the government officially withdrew the case.
The case drew a lot of media attention due to the freedom of speech nature. However, researchers agree that the injunction was necessary to protect the US atomic weapon secrets. The Progressive published the article six months with some modifications. However, at the time of publication, the government had produced a comprehensive nuclear coverage and defense system that was unavailable six months before. In this instance, the injunction protected the government’s nuclear power plan by ensuring that the author could not release the article before the plan was complete. At times, the right to security and life supersedes freedom of speech.
References
Kansas City Law School (2013). “Preliminary injunction ruling against The Progressive” University of Missouri. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20101203110750/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/progressive.html
The United States of America v. Progressive, Inc., Erwin Knoll, Samuel Day, Jr., and Howard Morland (1979). 467 F. Supp. 990 (W.D. Wis. 1979)