Causes to Celebrate: Press Freedom Defense Fund

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

That is the first amendment to the United States Constitution, part of a group of amendments known as the Bill of Rights.  It is from this first amendment that we are granted what the framers of our country believed to be the most important of freedoms--religion, speech, press, and peaceful petition to redress grievances.

This week I wanted to highlight those causes and organizations that continue to ensure that we are able to have a free press here in our country, and today I wanted to speak first and foremost about those people seeking to defend journalists and photographers who, every day, put their lives on the line to bring us information that is vital to our remaining informed citizens, able to think critically about the decisions that effect all of us.  And so I want to begin with an organization with one simple aim: to defend the freedom of the press--the Press Freedom Defense Fund.

Much of the freedom that our press currently enjoys stems from a group of papers circulated in England during the early 1700's known as the Cato Papers.  These ideas influenced the framers of the Constitution, with Virginia being the first state to formally protect press freedoms in their 1776 Declaration of Rights which states, "The freedom of the Press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic Governments."

And that is what the Press Freedom Defense Fund seeks to protect--those rights which our founders believed were so important they named them in the very first amendment to our Constitution.  Rather than try to express the fund's ideas in words, however, I'll let their press video speak for itself.

Those who founded our country believed that a free press was vital to protecting the integrity of our government.  They also knew that it was one of the few ways that people could get information that was necessary to making good, sound decisions for not only their own future, but that of our country as well.  And while there may be those who view the press as an enemy of "truth," I believe that it is only because of the press that we are able to view the many differences that make up our own individual truths.  I also believe that the press is one of the ways that people can hold those in power accountable for their actions--by recording what is said and what is done and making that information available to people.  Because let's face it; many of us forget what we ate just a week ago, much less remember what politicians, businessmen, and our fellow people have said.  And having that information available--having those records in a public forum, is so important for enabling us to make decisions about who our leaders are, and what we believe they should be--among so many other things.  And while the press may not always get it right (after all, they're people who make mistakes just like you and me,) they help us put into perspective those things which we hold to be most important.

And that is why today I am grateful that the Press Freedom Defense Fund exists--to ensure that one of our most basic constitutional rights is being protected and defended.  And that is why I am sharing their organization as a cause worth celebrating.