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Freedom of the Press Essay The opinion of Americans about speech freedom is ambiguous. Ask any American, Kurtli writes, about disengagement of speech and media in the US, and you will hear a loud resentment from the irresponsibility of the media, who, without hesitation, climb into the privacy of the stars, politicians and ordinary citizens, reveal state secrets, thereby raising the ratings of TV programs and newspaper runs. Freedom Forum carried out a research on this topic. A survey carried out in 2002 showed that, in the opinion of 42% of the respondents, too much disengagement was provided to the media. The accuracy of this assessment is subjective. There is no doubt that the US legislation provides for perhaps the most extensive measures in the world to protect the rights of the media, as a result of which the guarantees of intellectual freedom in the United States are truly impressive. Freedom Forum carried out a research on this topic. A survey carried out in 2002 showed that, in the opinion of 42% of the respondents, too much disengagement was provided to the media. The accuracy of this assessment is subjective. There is no doubt that the US legislation provides for perhaps the most extensive measures in the world to protect the rights of the media, as a result of which the guarantees of intellectual freedom in the United States are truly impressive. Americans value their disengagement of speech and media. This is due to the fact that it creates an intellectual market of ideas. The US media has a wide field for expressing opinions and stand guard, which allows the people to directly monitor government decisions and take part in them, and allows a wide variety of ideas to be tested in the market of symbolic designs. Such laws are based on the main rectification to the main law. This, in turn, means that the American defense of intellectual expression is based on the norms of English common law, in accordance with the nature and principles of which the laws are subject to exegetics by the judges. Such exegetics is carried out in the form of decisions on specific court cases instituted on the basis of claims by private individuals or the state represented by its public representatives. The prime adjudicator is the US Supreme Court. Before the victory in the War, the British colonies respected many laws of the Parliament governing the basic rules and setting the total volume of freedom of expression. Media was obliged to be licensed. Legally appointed officials were responsible for the conformity of future publications unacceptable in the society of that time and qualified as the dissemination of slanderous fabrications for subversive purposes. It is not surprising that by the end of the 18th century, the inhabitants of the North American colonies began to suffer from these restrictions. Then disengagement of speech became a sign of good governance. As Franklin himself wrote, freedom of the media is the disengagement, for which every pensioner should be ready to fight and die. The opinion of Franklin was shared by the largest theorists of American constitutionalism, Jefferson, and Madison. Jefferson believed that the political consciousness of the people depends directly on the freedom of the press. A free media is the only real guarantee of security for all. In turn, Madison argued that public administration without free circulation of information is a real prolog to farce and tragedy. As for the legal precedents of defending free-thinking, we can refer to the case when, on November 17, 1734, the newspaper publisher from New York was accused of disseminating slanderous fabrications for subversive purposes for publishing anonymous criticism in the New York Weekly Journal to the British governor-general Cosby. Thanks to a lawyer, the publisher was acquitted by a jury. The lawyer managed to convince the jury that no one can be sentenced to criminal punishment for public criticism of the authorities, especially when such criticism corresponds to the real state of affairs. Thus, the legal mechanism for protecting media and delivering a true date to people in America deserves attention and is an example to follow for many countries. References Freedom of the press, William L.Chenery Greenwood Press 1977 Freedom of the press, Merrill F.Hartshorn National Education Association of the United States 1980 Freedom of the press: rights and liberties under the law, Nancy C.Cornwell ABC-CLIO 2004