Category: Timeline Stories

(Photo: Bettmann / Getty Images)   In 1734 the poor printer John Peter Zenger is jailed and charged with printing libellous criticism of New York’s governor. His lawyer, Andrew Hamilton,…

The First Amendment of the US Bill of Rights from 1791 guarantees freedom of speech, the press and religion.   ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,…

One of four surviving exemplifications of the lost original charter   The Magna Carta or ‘Great Charter’ is signed by King John in 1215 under pressure from the aristocracy. The…

“In a free state, tongues too should be free.” – The Education of a Christian Prince (1516)

First page of the Pennsylvania Constitution (Public Domain)   Pennsylvania is the first state in America to declare freedom of speech, press and religion to constitutional rights. The Pennsylvania Constitution…

The Leviathan’s original frontispiece engraving by Abraham Bosse (Public Domain)   The political thinker Thomas Hobbes is not a proponent of free speech or freedom of the press. In his…

Portrait by Laurent Dabos, c. 1792 (Public Domain)   In early 1776, the anonymous pamphlet Common Sense takes America by storm. The author Thomas Paine makes a merciless case for…

In the second half of the 18th century, American Patriots show that freedom of the press is a potent weapon against authority. Not even the world’s most formidable empire can…

(Photo: Tetra Images/Getty Images/Tetra Images RF)   The colonies formally declare their independence on July 4th, 1776. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,…