Freedom Of The Press, Plainly Explained

Do you want to know what “freedom of the press” protects when you hit publish, post a video, or record a public official? We sit down with Professor Eugene Volokh, a leading First Amendment scholar, to draw a clear map through press rights, speech doctrine, and the practical rules that shape what you can say—and how you can gather the facts to say it.

We start with a plain-English definition: press freedom, not just credentialed journalists, belongs to everyone. That means the right to use mass communication tools—from the printing press to social platforms—without prior licensing or punishment. We break down where the law draws rigid boundaries, focusing on defamation: the difference between opinion and false factual claims, how libel and slander work, and why public figures face the “actual malice” standard. Then we turn to news gathering, highlighting the widely recognized right to record police and other officials performing their duties in public, and why that right is essential to any meaningful freedom to publish.

As the conversation moves online, we connect historical principles to modern technology. The same rules that governed pamphlets and newspapers now apply to tweets, blogs, livestreams, and uploads: you can’t publish actual threats or defamatory lies, but you can share opinions, criticism, and truthful reporting. We also show how courts often treat speech and press as one broader freedom of communication, and we point listeners to accessible resources that summarize what courts actually hold. By the end, you’ll know how to avoid legal pitfalls, assert your right to record and report, and understand why a vibrant press—professional and citizen—keeps democratic life honest.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
Today we're joined by Eugene Vulcan, Senior Fellow
at the Hoover Institution atStanford University, and
distinguished professor emeritusat UCLA School of Law.
He's taught the First Amendment,free speech, firearms
regulations, and more.
Before that, he clerked forJustice Sandra Davor at the U.S.
Supreme Court and Alex Kaczynskion the Ninth Circuit.

(00:25):
He is the author of textbookslike The First Amendment and
Related Statutes and AcademicLegal Writing, and the founder
of the legal blog, the VumblerConspiracy, shaping the national
debate on free speech and civiclife.
You might also know his YouTubeseries, Free Speech Rules, where
he dives deep into how freeexpression works in today's

(00:46):
world.
Professor Vumlik bringsgrounded, thoughtful perspective
on what free speech really meansin our constitutional democracy
and why it still matters somuch.
Professor Venlock, thank you somuch for being here today.
Today we're talking about thepart of the First Amendment that
deals with freedom of the press.
So, for our listeners, what isfreedom of the press?

SPEAKER_01 (01:08):
So, freedom of the press is the freedom of people
to speak out using masscommunication technology.
It was originally the pressmeant printing press.
It was the freedom of people,whether they are professional
journalists or just ordinarycitizens, to use the printing
press without the governmentdemanding a license or the

(01:30):
government punishing them for itand the like.
Now it's of course been extendedto the modern airs, the printing
press, such as the Internet, forexample.
There are, of course, uhexceptions to the freedom of the
press, as with the freedom ofspeech.
So, for example, there's anexception for defamation, for
libel, false statements,especially knowingly false

(01:50):
statements about particularpeople or organizations that
damage their reputation.
There's an exception if youpublish true threats of
violence, if you uh put outleaflets that threaten someone's
life.
Also, the freedom of the pressincludes some amount of freedom
to gather the news and not justto report it, although the exact
boundaries of the freedom ofnews gathering are less well

(02:13):
settled.

SPEAKER_00 (02:16):
Can you, for our listeners, you talked about
libel and defamation?
What what are those words mean?

SPEAKER_01 (02:24):
So defamation means basically, I oversimplify here,
but basically statements thatare false, the factual
assertions that are false anddamaging to the reputation of a
person or a company or anonprofit organization, um often
it requires that the statementsbe knowingly false or at least

(02:45):
negligently false.
Uh defamation is dividedbasically into two sorts.
There's libel, which is written,and slander, which is oral.
So that's an exception to theFirst Amendment, defamation,
that even though speech aboutpeople is generally protected,
opinions about people aregenerally protected, true
statements about them aregenerally protected, false

(03:07):
statements to damage thereputation will, under many
circumstances, be not protectedby the First Amendment.

SPEAKER_00 (03:15):
And then when you talk about gathering
information, can you give us anexample of how that is freedom
of the press?
Because I think of press as Iread something in my newspaper
or maybe online, but how do youmean by gathering information?

SPEAKER_01 (03:29):
Well, so if you're if you're in if you want to read
something or see somethingonline in the newspaper, on
television, someone's got to putit out, right?
And especially if it is, forexample, a recording, someone
has to record it.
So for example, there have beenuh uh many cases recently, none
from the U.S.
Supreme Court, but from lowercourts, and pretty unanimous on

(03:51):
this, that say that people havethe right to record public
officials, especially say policeofficers, but not only, in
public places, performing theirpublic duties.
So if uh if a uh city or statehas some ordinance or statute
that limits people's ability tovideo and audio record, then

(04:12):
that may very well violate theFirst Amendment rights of news
gathering.
And why?
Why are such rights recognized?
Because in order to havesomething to say, you have to be
able to compose it.
And if that thing that you'retrying to say is here is the
here is the actual actual sceneas we've captured it or the

(04:33):
actual uh statement as we'verecorded it, you need to be able
to record it.

SPEAKER_00 (04:40):
So you talked about too, like, you know, when this
first started, it was reallyabout utilization of a printing
press.
But now that we live in thisreally online world, what does
freedom of the press mean for anonline world?

SPEAKER_01 (04:52):
Well, it means the freedom to use new mass
communications technology.
It's a very close cousin of thefreedom of speech.
The framers understood thefreedom of speech as this
traditional, long-standing,basic natural right to express
your views.
Uh and of course, before theinvention of the printing press,

(05:13):
in order to do that, you had totalk to people.
Maybe freedom of the press mighthave included writing things
down by hand, but it wasn't atremendously efficient way of
communicating to large groups ofpeople.
Once the printing press wasinvented, over the centuries,
the English, and then eventuallythe Americans and many other
countries as well, but our legalsystem descends to America from

(05:36):
England, recognized that thefreedom of speech ought to also
include the freedom to use thisnew technology of the printing
press, which is an especiallyeffective way of communicating
one's ideas and communicatingfacts.
So so that's how how it emerged.
Unsurprisingly, the exceptions,for example, for First Amendment

(05:56):
protection are pretty similarfor freedom of speech and
freedom of the press.
You can't say things that damagepeople's reputation and are
false state factual assertions.
Generally speaking, again, Ioversimplify here.
Likewise, you can't write them.
You can't write threats ofillegal violence against people.
You can't print them, you can'ttweet them out, likewise you

(06:20):
can't say them.
So the freedom of speech andfreedom of the press are both
facets of the freedom ofcommunication, the freedom to
express your views, to conveyideas, to convey facts.

SPEAKER_00 (06:32):
Are there any, you know, for people who are
interested in freedom of thepress, are there any Supreme
Court cases that really stickout to you that you think, you
know, for just somebody who'slike, this sounds really
interesting.
I'd like to know more maybeabout what the Supreme Court has
said.

SPEAKER_01 (06:47):
You know, I think there are lots of books out
there about freedom of thepress.
Uh, and there certainly are lotsof cases, but there's not one
particular case that really uhcaptures well this very
complicated subject.

SPEAKER_00 (07:01):
What books would you suggest that maybe somebody
start with?

SPEAKER_01 (07:05):
Well, I mean, there there are very many different
books that uh that have been umthat have been written on
various aspects of freedom ofthe press.
Um I I particularly like uh uhbooks that are that kind of
convey, convey basically thefacts.
Um there is, for example, let ussay the facts being what the

(07:28):
court has actually decided.
There are interesting books thattalk a lot about stories, there
are interesting books that talka lot about theory, but uh but
I'm particularly interested inuh uh in books that basically
say here are the rules.
And let me just find one.
There is a book uh in theunderstanding series, which is
basically aimed at uh at uhlawyer at law students, but I

(07:51):
think is uh accessible toeverybody, called Understanding
the First Amendment.
It's it's an attempt to justkind of summarize what the legal
rules are.
And if you're interested inthose legal rules, I think if
you if you start with that book,that that'll be a good place to
start.

SPEAKER_00 (08:09):
And I kind of heard you say that, you know, the
freedom of speech is that closedcushion we're talking about,
like the freedom ofcommunication, the freedom of
expression.
So would it be fair to say likesometimes it's hard to just look
at freedom of the press becauseit's so intertwined within the
First Amendment and the abilityto express yourself?

unknown (08:28):
Sure.

SPEAKER_01 (08:28):
There are many court cases that even aren't really
completely clear on whetherthey're applying the freedom of
speech or freedom of the press.
There are cases that talk aboutfreedom of speech as just a
stand-in for freedom of speech,press, assembly, petition, all
four are protected by the FirstAmendment.
So, yes, if you want tounderstand the law of freedom of

(08:49):
the press, you should alsounderstand the law of the
freedom of speech.

SPEAKER_00 (08:52):
Professor Vollock, thank you so much for giving us
just a quick overview of freedomof the press.
We really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 (09:00):
Very much my pleasure.