Back to 441 Main Page
Back to C.S. Home Page
Germany
1456 Gutenberg prints a Bible in Mainz, Germany using movable type. Local officials, fearing the spread of dissent and heresy, impose restrictions.
1458 Charles VII of France sends Nicholas Jensen to Mainz to find out what new press can do.
1485 Archbishop Bethold von Henneberg asks town council of Frankfurt to censor all "dangerous publications."
1486 Frankfurt and Mainz establish secular censorship boards to supplement the church board.
1579 Frankfurt book market, one of the largest in Europe, is put under Imperial Censorship Commission which complements the Ecclesiastical Commission run by the Jesuits. They regularly contribute to Cardinal Caraffa's Catholic Index, which was created in 1559.
1750 The book fair at Frankfurt fails. The catalogue lists only 42 German, 23 Latin, and 7 French titles, while 1,350 titles are published in the Germanic provinces alone.
1819 Metternich proposes centralization of the book trade under government control to "prevent the unlimited power of the book sellers who direct German public opinion." Carlsburg, Bohemia begins policy of "preventive censor-ship" of political pamphlets.
1933 Goebbels uses fairness doctrine for printed press to solidy media into monolith supporting the Third Reich.
England
1476 The new printing press arrives in England in the reign of Edward IV.
1485 Henry VII imposes prior restraint in order to prevent "forged tydings and tales."
1538 Henry VIII extends censorship to all published works.
1585 The Stationer's Company is granted a monopoly on publishing by Royal Degree.
1630 Only 23 master printers and 55 press are certified in the Kingdom.
1642 "Act preventing abuses in printing seditious, unreasonable, and unlicensed pamphlets and for regulating printing and presses."
1644 John Milton publishes the Aeropagitica three years after the demise of the Star Chamber and in reaction to act of 1642.
1911 Parliament passes Official Secrets Act. It is in force today.
America
1539 First printing press is shipped to new world by Juan Cramberger of Seville.
1733 John Peter Zenger is charged with libel in the publication of his New York Weekly Journal. Alexander Hamilton, Zenger's lawyer, argues that truth is a defense against libel charges. Zenger is acquitted.
1765 Patrick Henry's Stamp Act Speech is distributed throughout the colonies by underground press.
1770 News of the Boston Massacre is spread through the colonies by underground press.
1776 The Declaration of Independence is widely reported in newspapers throughout the colonies.
1787 The newly proposed Constitution is published in most American newspapers. Federalist Papers and responders carry on lively debate over ratification through 1788.
1789 Congress convenes and receives over 200 proposals for amendments to the new Constitution by May. A House Committee led by Madison and a Senate Committee led by Hamilton begin consolidating the amendments. At each juncture, the language concerning freedom of expression is strengthened and amendments that would restrict freedom expression to prior restraint or political speech are defeated. The Congress submits 13 amendments to the states for ratification in September.
1791 The first two amendments are defeated. Ten are ratified on December 15.
1798 The Alien and Sedition Acts are passed as France threatens the United States with war. Madison and Jefferson write the Virginia and Kentucky Resolves in protest.
1801 The Alien and Sedition Acts lapse upon Jefferson's accession to the Presidency in March.
1830 President Jackson forbids the distribution of abolitionist tracts in the South.
1862 President Lincoln suspends Habeas Corpus and jails "copperhead" editors opposing his war policy.
1917 Trading with the Enemy Act authorizes censorship of all communications moving in or out of the U.S. and provides that translations of newspaper or magazine articles published in foreign languages can be demanded by the Post Office.
1918 Borrowing language from the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Sedition Act amends and broadens the Espionage Act of 1917 by making it a crime to obstruct the recruiting service or to write or publish disloyal or profane language which is intended to cause contempt of, or scorn for, the federal government, the Constitution, the flag, or the uniform of the armed forces.
1919 U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer begins raids and mass arrests of Americans for sedition. In Schenck v. U.S., Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes advances what becomes known as the "clear and present danger" doctrine to determine how far free expression can go. He modifies his position in Abrams v. U.S. writing that the best test of truth is by "free trade in ideas" and the "power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the marketplace."
1925 In Gitlow v. New York, the Court states that it is proper for to apply the protections of the First Amendment to the states under the Fourteenth Amendment.
1927 In order to prevent frequency overlap, the Congress, at the behest of Secretary of Commerce Hoover, passes the Federal Radio Act. It creates the FRC and requires broadcast licensees to operate "in the public interest."
1929 The FRC denies the Chicago Federation of Labor's petition to expand programming, arguing that their programming was not in the public interest.
1931 The FRC denies a license renewal on the basis of program content. In Near v. Minnesota, the Court states the bedrock doctrine of freedom of press -- under American law prior restraint is permitted only in very unusual circumstances.
1934 The Federal Radio Act is rewritten as the Communications Act. The FCC is created; equal access and equal opportunities provisions are strengthened.
1937 In Associated Press v. NLRB, the Supreme Court rules that "the publisher of a newspaper has no special immunity from the application of general laws."
1940 Congress adopts the Smith Act, which penalizes sedition.
1941 The FCC hands down its Mayflower decision in which a licensee was granted renewal contingent upon its agreement not to editorialize. "The broadcaster cannot be an advocate."
1942 In Valentine v. Chrestensen, the Supreme Court ruled that commercial speech need not be accorded the same protection as political speech if was "purely commercial advertising." (See 1976 below.)
1943 In National Broadcasting Co. v. U.S., the Court ruled that content rules over broadcasters were constitutional.
1949 In order to correct the Mayflower decision and provide guidelines for serving the public interest, the FCC promulgates the Fairness Doctrine. It requires broadcasters to cover important controversial issues and to provide an opportunity for contrasting views on those issues.
1950 Congress passes the Subversive Activities Control Act, which called for the utilization of various loyalty tests for government employees. Senator Joseph McCarthy alleges that the State Department is riddled with Communist subversives.
1951 Hollywood begins "blacklisting" writers and performers, and campuses dismiss professors who either take the Fifth Amendment or can be shown to have been members of the Communist Party. The McCarthyist movement peaks with the Army-McCarthy Hearings, April to June, l954.
1959 Senator Proxmire attempts to codify the Fairness Doctrine. He is believed successful by most experts until 1986. (See below.)
1963 The FCC establishes the Cullman Doctrine which holds that a station broadcasting a sponsored advertisement or program on one side of a controversial issue thereafter may not refuse to present the opposing viewpoint merely because the station could not obtain paid sponsorship for the opposition presentation.
1964 In New York Times v. Sullivan the Supreme Court rules that a public official may win a libel lawsuit only by proving that the story was false and that it was published with "actual malice."
1969 In Red Lion Broadcasting v. the FCC, the Court rules that the Fairness Doctrine and its personal attack rule are constitutional basically because the electromagnetic spectrum is a scarce resource.
1971 The U.S. government attempts to prevent the publication of the Pentagon Papers by the New York Times by invoking national security. The Supreme Court vacated its stay and earlier court orders 15 days later.
1972 In Branzburg v. Hayes, the Court rules that the First Amendment does not shield reporters from an obligation to reveal their sources when demanded for use in a criminal case.
1973 In CBS v. Democratic National Committee, the Court ruled that broadcasters may refuse to sell television advertising time for discussion of controversial political issues.
1974 In Gertz v. Welch, Inc., the Supreme Court narrows the Sullivan decision so that it provides full protection only for stories dealing with public officials. In Miami Herald v. Tornillo the Court rules unanimously that equal space and mandatory response laws are a clear violation of the First Amendment when applied to the print media.
1975 In Bigelow v. Virginia, the Court overturned the conviction of a Virginia newspaper editor who was found guilty of running advertisements for a New York abortion referral service.
1976 In Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, the Court extended First Amendment protection to commercial speech.
1978 In FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, the Court upheld a law requiring that no broadcast speech be "obscene, indecent, or profane." Known also as the "seven dirty words" case.
1979 The U.S. government obtains a restraining order, stopping Progressive magazine from publishing an article on how to build a hydrogren bomb. The magazine says that it obtained it material from public sources and appeals to the courts. The government withdraws its case when another magazine publishes nearly identical information to Progressive's.
1980 In Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia, the Court rules that the First Amendment gives a right to gather news about government unless said government can provide an "overriding reason" to bar the press.
1981 In CBS v. FCC, the Court ruled that the FCC may require broadcasters to sell air time to presidential and congressional candidates.
1984 In The League of Women Voters of California v. FCC, the Court in two footnotes questions the scarcity rationale for the Fairness Doctrine and whether it is meeting its policy goal or chilling speech. The Senate Commerce Committee conducts three days of hearings from 56 witnesses and concludes that scarcity no longer exits and that the Doctrine does have a chilling effect.
1985 The FCC concludes an inquiry into the Fairness Doctrine by arguing that the Doctrine is constitutionally suspect and unjustified by the scarcity rationale. The U.S. Court of Appeals strikes down the "must carry" rules as a violation of cable owners First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court refused to review the case, so the lower ruling in Quincy stood.
1986 The U.S. Court of Appeals in Telecommunication Research and Action Center v. FCC ruled that the Fairness Doctrine was not codified and that the FCC has primary jurisdiction over its imposition. The Supreme Court did not grant cert. In Preferred Communication v. Los Angeles, the Court ruled that if access was available, cities could not prevent competition between cable companies in the same cities. The case was remanded for discovery.
1987 The FCC repeals the Fairness Doctrine in the Meredith case, which is now under appeal. Senator Hollings and Congressman Dingell lead attempts to codify the Doctrine.