Voices of IH: In honor of Constitution Day pt. 2

Should the American press be restricted by the government? Why or why not?

“No, I don’t think the American press should be restricted by the government as I believe freedom of speech is extremely important because every person regardless of skin color, gender, or race should be heard and should have their ideas and opinions valued.”

— Diana Castro ’22

“I personally feel that the government should not restrict the press, because the press is responsible for providing accurate, precise, and unbiased information on current events. If the government limits the press, one, that would be violating freedom of speech, and two, it would diminish the credibility of the press as a whole, leaving people confused as to what to believe and what not to believe.”

— Madeline Bogdjalian ’21

“Freedom of speech and the press is important to me because it represents free will and autonomy. Being able to speak freely is so important for change within both local communities and larger populations.”

— Lily Factora ’21

“The American press should not be restricted by the government as it is a vital means of information about a variety of topics, sometimes including the corruption of the American government. If the American press was restricted by the government, its ability to tell the truth about American society would be severely limited. Therefore, the American public would be misinformed or unaware of any topic the government wanted to restrict. Finally, this potential restriction of the press would undermine American democracy, which is built on the idea of the rule of the people and the people cannot truly rule when they’re being censored and misled.”

— Maddie Garcia ’23

“The American press should absolutely not be restricted by the government. It is more important now than ever that the general public has access to news that comes from multiple perspectives in order to keep informed.”

— Stella Genis ’21

“No, the American press should not be restricted by the government. The spreading of knowledge is absolutely essential to society and knowledge on a large scale. Though not everyone will like what the press has to say, it is still so important to our freedom.”

— Sophia Glanney ’23 

“I don’t think that the government should restrict American press. Not only will we get less information and points of views, but all news and information we get can be manipulated by the government. If it’s manipulated and changed, we may never get the real news story.”

— Korina Hernandez ’21

“I strongly believe that the American press should not be regulated by the government. The Constitution clearly says that there should be no laws conflicting with the press.  The people of the press should be able to print, type, write whatever they feel is just without having to worry about being controlled.”

— Abigail Hunter ’23 

“The American press should not be restricted by the government because without it we would not see different perspectives, and we would not be able to form our own opinions and find the faults of our society. It is important that we are exposed to new ideas through the press so we can continue to grow as a society.”

— Kellyn Lanza ’23

“No, I don’t the American press should be restricted by the government because we have the right to know what’s going on in the world. We have freedom of speech to know the news and how it is going to affect us. Our ideals, values, and beliefs should all be heard and be seen by everyone.”

— Sharina Mirano ’22

“The government should not restrict the American press since the nation relies on accountability to grow and strengthen democracy. While it may be tempting for officials to restrict any attempts to criticize their actions, ultimately the accountability provided by the American press supports the credibility of the office. It is in officials’ best interest to let the American press operate as freely as possible, since the press sheds light on issues voters should understand to elect the best suited officials.” 

— Maanasi Narayan ’21 

“The government should not be restricting the press. Yes, a lot of ‘news’ can be trashy, but if it doesn’t directly cause harm to someone there’s no big issue. Although government restriction of the press wouldn’t surprise me at this point, doing it hinders our ability to fully understand what’s happening. In order to form smart opinions, we need multiple sources and when the government restricts the press just so the news fits its narrative, we’ve already gone too far.”

— Maisy Paaswell ’22

“I believe the government shouldn’t restrict the American Press. Doing so would be taking away the people’s First Amendment rights. The news would become untrustworthy. The government would be able to promote and construct any narrative they choose. If the government restricted the news, then it would make the news bias and not objective. Then it would make the rest of the world believe the US was like a Utopian society. Having a restricted press would create a false narrative of our society and would affect everything in America. For example, the government could take away coverage of marches and rallies which would take away the voice of the people. There is an important reason we have freedom of press in the First Amendment and we should keep it the way it is.”

— Kinaya Smith ’23 

“I think the American press shouldn’t be restricted by the government because what if there is information that needs to be spread to the people and there could be things that the government could hide from us that is crucial information? But I also think that there should be a level of common ground where the press doesn’t release top secret information (military plans during war, etc.) Overall, the government shouldn’t take away our freedom of speech and press because both are vital to how we communicate throughout the country and get important information across the country.”

— Kaylene Zepeda ’21

“Voices of IH” Reporters: Kya Adams, Ashlye Arrue, Adeline Bunje, Canela Castro, Madison Felix, Meiyah Go, Quinn Lanza, Veronica Mason, Meredith Maxwell, Sophia Movsisian, Isabelle Newson, Jonna Riley, Ava Tourgeman, Mari Vitangcol

Featured image from Getty Images