Value: Knowledge-Safety 1. "The general diffusion of knowledge and learning through the community is essential to the preservation of free government." --Carl Becker 2. "EFF Quotes Collection 16.3" http://www.mcs.net/~benson/html/EFFquote.htm "The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty." --James Madison, 4th U.S. President 3. "We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still." --J.S. Mill, On Liberty 4. "The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it." --John Locke Criteria: Pragmatism 5.Jefferson on Politics & Government: Freedom of the Press, http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations /jeff 1600.htm "Considering [the] great importance to the public liberty [of the freedom of the press], and the difficulty of submitting it to very precise rules, the laws have thought it less mishievous to give greater scope to its freedom than to the restraint of it." --Thomas Jefferson 6. Jefferson on Politics & Government: Freedom of the Press, http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1600.htm "It is so difficult to draw a clear line of separation between the abuse and the wholesome use of the press, that as yet we have found it better to trust the public judgement, rather than the magistrate, with the discrimination between turth and falsehood. And hitherto the public judgement has performed that office with wonderful correctness." Contention 1: The Press 7. "Court says no to conditional First Amendment privilege" http://www.hspa.com/court.html "The reporter's constitutional right to a confidential relationship with his source stems from the broad societal interest in a full and free flow of information to the public. It is this basic concern that underlies the Constitution's protection of a free press, because the guarantee is 'not for the benefit of the press so much as for the benefit of all of us." -Justice Potter Stewart 8.Robert J. Wagman, The First Amendment Book, cc. 1991, pg. 24 "Both the history and the language of the First Amendment support the view that the press must be left free to publish news, whatever the source, without censorship, injunctions, or prior restraints." --Justice Hugo Black 9.Bradley S. Miller, University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, Fall 96 pp.613 "To continue to provide coverage of newsworthy issues, the press should be free of governmental restrictions." --Bradley S. Miller- U of Michigan, U of M journal of law reform 10. "Court says no to conditional First Amendment privilege" http://www.hspa.com/court.html "A reporter shall not be compelled to disclose in any legal proceedings or elsewhere the source of any information." --Indiana's reporter's shield law (IC 34-3-5-1) 11. Robert J. Wagman, The First Amendment Book, cc. 1991, pg. 81 "The phrase "Congress shall make no law" is composed on plain words, easily understood." --Justice Hugo Black (1972) 12. "A journalist's confidential relationship with sources are indispensible to their work of gathering, analyzing, and publishing news." --Justice Douglas 13. Folio the Magazine fro magazine management, jan 98, on the missouri case "If the magazine were forced to reveal the names of truckers and others who contact them in confidence upon an assurance of confidentiality, their credibility would be seriously harmed and their sources of information would be irreparably damaged." --court of Appeals (in favor of aff) 14. INFOTRAK, may 4, 1996, pp. 5-6 "Conversely, a reporter who somehow identifies the source, even inadvertently faces not only a loss of credibility but a possible breach of contract or privacy suit by the source. In 1991, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment does not prevent reporters from being legally bound to the agreements they make with sources." --David A. Schultz, Editor and Publisher, INFOTRAK 15. St. John's Journal of Legal Commentary, Fall, 93, pp. 163 "Furthermore, the absence of a reporter's privilege will have a chilling effect on newsgathering and undermine the press's role as a public watchdog. Without assurances that their identities will be kept confidential, potential informants will be deterred form coming forward. As sources dry up, the effectiveness of reporters will undoubtedly be impared." --Yolanda L. Ayalya Contention 2: The Confidential Sources 16. University of Miami Law Review, Nov. 92 "A more recent study indicates that approximately 52% of natioal newspaper wire service stories include informaton obtained from confidential sources." 17. University of Miami Law Review, Nov, 1992, 501 "The reporter-source relationship furthers the goal of informing the public of political, social, and economic developments in the community. This relationship also creates a facilitative scheme, enabling confidential sources to reveal facts they would not disclose otherwise for fear of retaliation." --Olga C. Puerto, University of Miami Law Review 18. St. John's Law Review, winter 93, pg 125 "A primary concern, however, is that information of public interest would cease to flow if sources feared exposure. This concern is very real, since confidential sources provide the media with many of their news stories. Particularly in recent years, reliance on confidential sources for the gathering of news has greatly increased, due in part to the rise in investigative journalism." --Joseph W. Ragusa Contention 3: The Public 19. Dr. Laurence J. Peter, Peter's Quotations: Ideas for our Time, cc. 1977, pg. 210 "The loss of liberty in general would soon follow the suppression of the liberty of the press; for it is an essential branch of liberty, so perhaps it is the best preservative of the whole." --John Peter Zenger 20. Jefferson on Politics & Government: Freedom of the Press, http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1600.htm "Our citizens may be deceived for awhile, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light." --Thomas Jefferson (1799) 21. Robert J. Wagman, The First Amendment Book, cc. 1991, back cover "Our liberty depends on freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost." --Thomas Jefferson 22. Dr. Laurence J. Peter, Peter's Quotations: Ideas for our Time, cc. 1977, pg. 323 "Along with responsible newspapers we must have responsible readers." --Arthur Hays Sulzberger 23. Robert J. Wagman, The First Amendment Book, cc. 1991, pg. 28 "The liberty of the press is indeed essential. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech." --Benjamin Franklin 24. St. Louis Journalism Review, May 1998 "Journalistic confidentiality is often misunderstood as a protection only for reporters. At root, it is a protection for the public; it protects an essential tool that reporters use as they gather news and conduct investigation, which ultimately benefit the public. Hence, the court took a big and important step by recongnizing that public benefit." OTHER 25. The Home Book of Quotations pg. 1602 "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." --Thomas Jefferson 26. "The department of Justice does not consider the press an "investigative arm of the government." --Branzburg v. Hayes 27. Jefferson on Politics & Government: Freedom of the Press, http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1600.htm "A declartion that the Federal Government will never restrain the presses from printing anything they please will not take away the liability of the printers for false facts printed." --Thomas Jefferson 28. University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, winter 1996, pg.613 "As one journalist quipped, "A lot of big news stories might never come to light without information form people who don't want to reveal themselves publicly. So reporters promise to keep their identities secret, and the next thing you know you're reading Deep Throat's revelations about Watergate. It's a very good bargain." 29. Robert J. Wagman, The First Amendment Book, cc. 1991, pg. 24 "the security of a nation is not at the ramparts alone. Security also lies in the value of our free institutions." --District Court Judge Murry Gurfien 30. http://www.finance-commerce.com/court/opinions/011797/96-1694.htm "In order to protect the publice interest and the free flow of information, the news media should have the benefit of a substantial privilege not to reveal sources of information or to disclose unpublished information." --Minnesota Free Flow of Information Act 73 31. http://www.finance-commerce.com/court/opinions/011797/96-1694.htm "To this end, the freedom of the press requires protection of the confidential relationship between the news gatherer and the source of information." --Minnesota Free Flow of Information Act 73