Access Denied: A History of the Right to Information and Freedom of Speech in the United States of America

Yashasvi Sharma Senior Individual Website

This year, for the topic Rights and Responsibilities, I chose to research on the Right to Information and Freedom of Speech. Over the years, these topics have been gaining increased headlines, first ith !"## and the passage of the $S% &%TRIOT

%ct, then various incidences of high level lea's providing classified information that sho ed various gaffes in %merican free speech policy, hile increasing the already

strenuous relationship bet een the press and the government. (eing a member of my school)s debate team, I have long faced this sub*ect. Thus, I thought about e+amining the history of free speech and government accountability, and $nited States do have such a right to information. -y preliminary research began hile at school. There, I learned about the hether citi,ens of the

history of this topic. from /ohn -ilton)s %eropagita to /ohn Stuart -ill)s 0ibertarianism, then dove headlong into 12 th century %merican policy ith -c3arthy

and the Red Scare, the 3ounterculture of the #!42s, and the 5ietnam War, the &entagon &apers, and Watergate. From there, e utili,ed various ne s articles from

both spectrums of the political scale, in order to gain an e6ual vie of the issue of the right to information. In order to gain more information, e both researched the $nited States 7epartment of State, the Federal 8e s Service, the Freedom of Information %ssociation, the %merican 3ivil 0iberties $nion, Supreme 3ourt rulings, and various ne s organi,ations. I chose to e+ploit the ebsite category due to the fact that it appeared to be the best medium to provide our information. %s the topics the cyber orld as e discussed often pertain to

ell as reality, I thought of it to be appropriate to describe these

arguments using the internet. %lso, as I used various images, live intervie s, and

interactive timelines, such a multimedia e+perience could only be found through utili,ing the ebsite category. The Right to Information and Freedom of Speech is a principal e+ample of rights and responsibilities. In encompasses of t o strong sides. 0ibertarians believe that the government has a right to maintain freedom of speech, as right to information9 and (ig :overnment advocates, ho

ell as the

ho believe that at times,

liberty has to ta'e a bac' seat for the sa'e of national security. %fter the September ##, 122# Terrorist %ttac's, this debate gained even more importance as the $nited States government tries to find a middle ay to allo for the ma+imum amount of

national security ith the least amount of civil liberties lost.