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Humanitarian Organizations and the Role of Media

The Independent International Commission on Kosovo

in The Kosovo Report: Conflict, International Response, Lessons Learned

Part 1 argues that when there are large numbers of internally displaced people, humanitarian groups should anticipate and prepare for the risks of a large outflow of refugees. The chapter argues that ... More

Part 1 argues that when there are large numbers of internally displaced people, humanitarian groups should anticipate and prepare for the risks of a large outflow of refugees. The chapter argues that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was unprepared to deal with the refugee crisis in Kosovo, and that its ability to coordinate the humanitarian response was hampered by lack of funding and coordination, proliferation of NGOs in the field funded directly by their governments and complex relations with the military. Part 2 of the chapter analyses the relationship between the media on one side and NATO, Yugoslav government, and NGOs on the other side. The second part of the chapter concludes by encouraging development of free press and mass media in post‐war Kosovo.Less

Hanseatic Journalism and Its Networks

Volker R. Berghahn

in Journalists between Hitler and Adenauer

This chapter analyzes the broader context of the three journalists' work in Hamburg as one of several media centers in West Germany. It also explores the question of press freedom during the Cold War ... More

This chapter analyzes the broader context of the three journalists' work in Hamburg as one of several media centers in West Germany. It also explores the question of press freedom during the Cold War and of how far journalists were able to enjoy it. After all, the West German Basic Law guaranteed the freedom to write and speak, within the limits of the law, without fear of being arrested and imprisoned. The Nazi era, when these freedoms had been suppressed, was over. Yet there was another constraint: after the war the Federal Republic, having abolished Nazi regimentation of the press, adopted a capitalist economy. This meant that the ultimate freedom to publish rested with the publishers and owners of a particular paper. This is the legal background of the emergence of a free press in West Germany. Many journalists who had experienced “un-freedom” and brutal censorship during the Nazi period now found themselves in the era of the Cold War, with its new conformist pressures, which were personified by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, for he in many ways embodied the autocratic style that continued to pervade post-1945 West German political culture.Less

A Free and Independent Press

Timothy Zick

in The First Amendment in the Trump Era

This chapter discusses the fragility and necessity of a free and independent press. It places the Press Clause of the First Amendment in a historical and constitutional perspective, and considers ... More

This chapter discusses the fragility and necessity of a free and independent press. It places the Press Clause of the First Amendment in a historical and constitutional perspective, and considers both the core functions and the occasional excesses of the institutional press. President Trump is not the first chief executive to attack and challenge the institutional press. However, his attacks have been uniquely pervasive and public. The president’s “war” on the press has raised serious questions about the prospect for preserving a free and independent press. The chapter argues that despite its excesses, the institutional press is both necessary to a functioning democracy and, for a number of reasons, precariously positioned to fail.Less

“Manzanar, the Eyes of the World Are upon You”: Internee Performance and Archival Ambivalence

Emily Roxworthy

in The Spectacle of Japanese American Trauma: Racial Performativity and World War II

This chapter explores the self-conscious construction of Japanese American identities and the internment experience in the internee-run Manzanar Free Press, which epitomized the camp newspapers ... More

This chapter explores the self-conscious construction of Japanese American identities and the internment experience in the internee-run Manzanar Free Press, which epitomized the camp newspapers independently published in each of the ten relocation centers. In the face of political spectacularization and racist media slander, internee journalists drew attention to a “spectacle-archive,” recording the ambivalent scrutiny imposed upon them from all sides. At the same time, internees staged intercultural performing arts festivals that defied the U.S. government’s mono-Americanist assimilation policy, which pitted second-generation Nisei against their “Japanesey” Issei parents and criminalized displays of Japanese culture. For internee audiences these intercultural performances made visible the contradictions of American racial performativity. Unfortunately, the fact that this performed resistance lives on mainly through embodied memory has meant that progressive narratives of America’s triumph over adversity—epitomized by the U.S. National Park Service’s celebration of internees’ festivity at Manzanar National Historic Site—have appropriated only the “model minority” interpretation of camp performing arts as rehearsals for assimilation and accommodationist endorsements of U.S. policy.Less

Blackstone’s and Mansfield’s Narrow Liberties of Press and Speech, and Broad Crimes of Seditious Libel and Seditious Words: Summaries or Misdescriptions of an Ancient Common Law?

Wendell Bird

in The Revolution in Freedoms of Press and Speech: From Blackstone to the First Amendment and Fox's Libel Act

The narrow understanding of freedoms of press and speech, adopted by Sir William Blackstone and Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, defined those freedoms as no more than liberty from a government-issued ... More

The narrow understanding of freedoms of press and speech, adopted by Sir William Blackstone and Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, defined those freedoms as no more than liberty from a government-issued license or other prior restraint, with no liberty from punishment of sentiments once printed or spoken. In doing that, the last volume of Blackstone’s Commentaries in 1769 summarized a narrow common law definition of freedoms of press and speech that did not exist in common law. Mansfield’s decisions introduced a similar definition into the common law for the first time the year after that. Besides describing a new definition as ancient, both Blackstone and Mansfield described the related framework for prosecuting sedition as being ancient and universally accepted, when in fact it was a collection of unique rules adopted and manufactured seventy years before and recently revised. Blackstone and Mansfield were not declaring ancient law but were creating new law.Less

The Watchdog Still Barks

Beth Knobel

in The Watchdog Still Barks: How Accountability Reporting Evolved for the Digital Age

This chapter discusses the erosion of the newspaper business and presents arguments as to why the free press is important, even in the Internet age. It also details the research behind this volume, ... More

This chapter discusses the erosion of the newspaper business and presents arguments as to why the free press is important, even in the Internet age. It also details the research behind this volume, and argues that no other function of a free press is as important as its ability to monitor the work of the government. The presence of a vibrant press to monitor government is not just important on the micro level but is essential to the proper functioning of our democracy. In fact, the work of the news media is valued because it helps empower the “public sphere,” meaning a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Here, the public sphere is not just a virtual or imagined place to discuss public affairs, but it is also a mechanism to enable citizens to influence social action.Less

Internet Freedom from the Outside In

Craig Aaron and Timothy Karr

in Strategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives

Since its inception Free Press has strived to create a world where people have the information and opportunities they need to tell their own stories, hold leaders accountable, and actively ... More

Since its inception Free Press has strived to create a world where people have the information and opportunities they need to tell their own stories, hold leaders accountable, and actively participate in policymaking. Progress on any important issue will be impossible without changes to the policies, laws and politics that created the media we have now. The only way to make such changes is by creating a broad, popular movement for media reform. To mobilize this movement Free Press uses an outside-in approach. For its Net Neutrality campaign Free Press relied upon the expertise and credibility of its “inside” experts, lawyers, researchers and advocates, while simultaneously mobilizing hundreds of organizational allies and millions of “outside” activists to sign petitions, call Congress and attend FCC hearings and local rallies. Though vastly outnumbered on Capitol Hill—and absent at industry cocktail parties at campaign fundraisers—Free Press has worked to connect with key congressional staffers, educate “grasstops” leaders, and conducted independent research and analysis. Whether working for Internet freedom in the U.S. or abroad, advocates won’t be able to enact the right policies unless we can motivate and mobilize millions of people to take up the larger cause.Less

Democracy and Free Expressions

in Free Expression and Democracy in America: A History

This chapter begins by briefly addressing the question of whether democracy requires the protection of free expression. It then discusses the dimensions of free expression. Most American colonists ... More

This chapter begins by briefly addressing the question of whether democracy requires the protection of free expression. It then discusses the dimensions of free expression. Most American colonists considered themselves Englishmen, and as such, believed they had inherited the rights and liberties of all Englishmen. The chapter also considers the extent to which free expression, including speech and press, was protected in England. It argues that the American colonists inherited from the English the legal restrictions on expression, commensurate with a form of (English) republican government, as well as the traditions of dissent and suppression. Not only did the English law punishing speech apply in the colonies, but many colonies adopted additional laws to restrict expression.Less

Constitutional Absolutes in a Holmesian World

in No Law: Intellectual Property in the Image of an Absolute First Amendment

This chapter proposes that the First Amendment should be uncoupled from the early-twentieth-century mindset that conditions its current interpretation, and that constitutional law should return to ... More

This chapter proposes that the First Amendment should be uncoupled from the early-twentieth-century mindset that conditions its current interpretation, and that constitutional law should return to the founding era's predominant understanding of the amendment as a ban on the exercise of a certain power rather than as a guarantee of individual liberty. It argues that the First Amendment would make more sense in relation to constitutional law if the amendment were thought of as a structural provision defining the scope of federal power and not, or not primarily, as a provision protecting individual liberty. It proposes to read the free speech and free press clauses as denials of power to Congress, and to give that denial its full textual force.Less

Intellectual Property in the Image of an Absolute First Amendment

in No Law: Intellectual Property in the Image of an Absolute First Amendment

This chapter proposes that the First Amendment be read absolutely, in keeping with its first and most obvious meaning: that Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech or of the press by ... More

This chapter proposes that the First Amendment be read absolutely, in keeping with its first and most obvious meaning: that Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech or of the press by conferring monopolies in expression that otherwise would belong to the universe of discourses in which all are free to share and share alike. In at least this sense, “no law” should mean no law. It discusses the shape that intellectual property doctrines assume when reassessed against the constraints imposed by an absolute First Amendment.Less

The Reputation of the American Left

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones

in The American Left: Its Impact on Politics and Society since 1900

Explaining the reputation of the left for failure helps make credible the idea of its success. The relative absence of a free press in America meant little credit was given to the left for its ... More

Explaining the reputation of the left for failure helps make credible the idea of its success. The relative absence of a free press in America meant little credit was given to the left for its successes. The tendency of conservatives to exaggerate the potency of the left helped to balance this. But the left’s tendency to minimize its own achievements had an impact on its reputation both at home and abroad.Less

The War of Words: Winning Hearts and Minds

Jose V. Fuentecilla

in Fighting from a Distance: How Filipino Exiles Helped Topple a Dictator

This chapter details the continuous lobbying and organizing efforts of political exiles as well as their efforts to draw attention to their anti-Marcos and anti-martial law rhetoric. Reflecting their ... More

This chapter details the continuous lobbying and organizing efforts of political exiles as well as their efforts to draw attention to their anti-Marcos and anti-martial law rhetoric. Reflecting their bias for a free press and scorn for the controlled press in the Philippines, the major U.S. media consistently gave the exiles favorable coverage. By and large, the exiles had won the media war in the United States against the regime. The generally critical attitude of the U.S. media acutely troubled Mrs. Marcos. She summoned the American ambassador, Michael Armacost, to express her husband's “anxieties about his upcoming [1982] visit to the USA.” The regime countered as best as it could. During the first year of martial law, it ran colorful multipage spreads in influential U.S. business magazines such as Fortune and Business Week. The message: there was a new, much better investment climate in the country, and it was a safe tourist destination.Less

Sedition

Timothy Zick

in The First Amendment in the Trump Era

This chapter examines the concept of “sedition” and efforts to suppress dissent and disloyalty. President Adams used the Sedition Act of 1798 to prosecute and jail his critics and political ... More

This chapter examines the concept of “sedition” and efforts to suppress dissent and disloyalty. President Adams used the Sedition Act of 1798 to prosecute and jail his critics and political opponents. That episode ultimately revealed the “central meaning of the First Amendment”—that Americans must be free to criticize their public officials, even if that criticism is often caustic and unpleasant. Federal and state officials have not proposed reviving the crime of seditious libel. However, several critics of the Trump administration have come under fire and suffered tangible consequences for openly criticizing the president and the Trump administration. As in prior eras, recent efforts to punish sedition and disloyalty pose serious threats to democratic self-government and political discourse.Less

Remembering Larry and A Miracle of Catfish, 2004–2007

Jean W. Cash

in Larry Brown: A Writer's Life

This chapter discusses Larry Brown’s death and his novel A Miracle of Catfish. Mary Annie Brown, in the wake of Larry’s death, sent the unfinished manuscript of the novel to the Free Press via her ... More

This chapter discusses Larry Brown’s death and his novel A Miracle of Catfish. Mary Annie Brown, in the wake of Larry’s death, sent the unfinished manuscript of the novel to the Free Press via her late husband’s agent, Liz Darhansoff. With the author unable to promote the book, the press was not enthusiastic about publishing the novel, and Mary Annie asked to have the manuscript returned. She thought of submitting it to Shannon Ravenel; she “just felt like with this book, Larry needed to go back home to Algonquin.” Ravenel liked the novel but hated the “silliness” of the chapter titles. She felt that Brown had created them just to have fun as he wrote, but “what’s not silly is the novel’s overriding insistence on the importance of fatherhood.”Less

We Didn’t Exactly Live in a Democracy

Lindsey A. Freeman

in Longing for the Bomb: Oak Ridge and Atomic Nostalgia

This chapter describes a particular form of democracy at play in Oak Ridge. Workers who arrived in Oak Ridge had been recruited in the name of freedom and democracy, yet paradoxically they found ... More

This chapter describes a particular form of democracy at play in Oak Ridge. Workers who arrived in Oak Ridge had been recruited in the name of freedom and democracy, yet paradoxically they found themselves inside a restrictive federal reservation surrounded by barbed wire, armed guards, and monitored gates. There were also no local elections, no free press, and no freedom of assembly. Workers were even forbidden to keep a journal that mentioned anything about Oak Ridge. Moreover, the workers were not supposed to share any information about their job with their co-workers or even their spouses. Thus, letters were heavily censored, and lie-detector tests were commonly employed.Less

Writing and Building, 2004

Jean W. Cash

in Larry Brown: A Writer's Life

This chapter discusses the time when Larry Brown signed a new two-book contract with the Free Press that included a 1 October 2004 deadline for submitting the first book. Brown spent most of the ... More

This chapter discusses the time when Larry Brown signed a new two-book contract with the Free Press that included a 1 October 2004 deadline for submitting the first book. Brown spent most of the following year at home in Lafayette County, writing the novel he planned to call A Miracle of Catfish and finishing his cabin. Later in August, Silas House came to Oxford for a book signing and took the opportunity to visit with Brown. In early October, Brown took another major break from writing when his daughter, LeAnne, married James Bradley Bonds. Mary Annie went to great lengths to plan the wedding, and the affair plunged the Brown household into chaos. After the wedding, Brown immediately returned to his writing and construction projects.Less