Portside

Rumeysa Ozturk and John Peter Zenger are book ends to the history of the First Amendment — the one that guarantees freedom of speech, association, religion, the right to petition for redress of grievances and freedom of the press.

Newspaper condemned for ‘chicken-shit’ decision on White House race as staffers say they are ‘deeply concerned’

There have been assurances that Assange does not face the death penalty, but no clear answer as to whether the US first amendment will apply to him; regardless, he should be released and returned to Australia.

British law prohibits extradition to a country that may impose capital punishment. The indictment would punish conduct that national security journalists routinely engage in; no publisher has ever been prosecuted for disclosing government secrets....

How the Espionage Act of 1917 is the most important yet least understood law threatening freedom of the press in modern American history.

The Onion has filed a brief in defense of parody in the Supreme Court. "Americans can be put in jail for poking fun at the government? This was a surprise to America's Finest News Source and an uncomfortable learning experience for its editorial team," the brief opens.

When WikiLeaks first released its hoard of documents, extracts were published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and El País. None of these has campaigned for Assange’s freedom, though if he did anything wrong, so did they.

In a country where journalists are regularly arrested and detained for little or no reason, publicly signing a letter opposing the government’s action is a brave thing to do, especially for those who have already been detained for their journalism.

Without facts, you can't have truth. Without truth, you can't have trust. Without trust, we have no shared reality, no democracy, and it becomes impossible to deal with the existential problems of our times.