Americans have very few restrictions on what they can publish. With copyright laws as an exception, we are guaranteed that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”
It appears, however, that Michigan legislators may need a refresher course on our constitutional rights.
State Representative Ellen Lipton introduced HB-4770 in hopes of preventing “ambulance chasing.” In other words, it will keep law firms from stalking accident records to pounce on any opportunity they see to pursue a lawsuit.
On September 12, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would delay access to accident reports for 30 days before releasing them to the public, excluding those involved, family members, lawyers, insurance providers, a select few in the government, and “an employee of a radio or television station licensed by the Federal Communications Commission” or “an employee of a newspaper” printed weekly.
Though the cause is well-intentioned—preventing lawyers from preying on people who probably don’t have the time or energy to ward them off—the execution is poor.
At its very core, this bill defines the term “journalist,” identifying them as those employed by a radio, television station, or newspaper publishing at least weekly. This lackluster definition is exclusive, insufficient (though no definition could be sufficient in a society grounded in freedom), and revives the question of freedom of the press.
The history of publishing licenses and government controlled media began after the printing of Gutenberg’s Bible in 1455 when the concept of mass printing became a reality. Governments decided it was their duty to handle the new reality to prevent dissemination of inappropriate, false, or anti-government material.
This control generally took the form of licensing laws, which allowed governments to choose winners and losers in the printing game. In other words, the government defined who could and could not publish writings, determining by default who could and could not be a journalist.
In one of the most passionate pleas for press freedom, “Paradise Lost” author John Milton wrote “Areopagitica” in 1644. In it, he explained the fallacies of government licensing.
“And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength,” Milton said in the piece. “Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?”
Defining “journalist” only acts as government ordination of who can publish and distribute information.
The Michigan House Bill 4770 is a modern-day continuation of the ongoing battle between a free press and a government-controlled propaganda machine.
Today’s free press includes citizen journalists whose work pervades the new, easily-accessible media: Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and so on. This bill denies these reporters access to vital information and creates a divide between those the government considers worthy of reporting and those it does not.
Should this bill become law, it would set a precedent in America that would forever change the freedom to which we’ve become accustomed.
“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties,” Milton said.
The moment a government decides who constitutes a journalist is the moment a country decides its fate: a nation that seeks the truth or follows propaganda.
