War and Press Freedom The Problem of Prerogative Power [Hardcover]

War and Press Freedom: The Problem of Prerogative Poweris a groundbreaking and provocative study of one of the most perplexing civil liberties issues in American history: What authority does or should the government have to control press coverage and commentary in wartime? First Amendment scholar Jeffery A. Smith shows convincingly that no such extraordinary power exists under the Constitution, and that officials have had to rely on claiming the existence of an autocratic higher law of survival. Smith carefully surveys the development of statutory restrictions and military regulations for the news media from the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791 through the Gulf War of 1991. He concludes that the armed forces can justify refusal to divulge a narrow range of defense secrets, but that imposing other restrictions is unwise, unnecessary, and unconstitutional. In any event, as electronic communication becomes almost impossible to constrain, soldiers and journalists must learn how to respect each other's obligations in a democratic system.

[Smith] has put together an informed, detailed, and delightful analysis of the gradual erosion of a free press...Smith's strength in this volume is his relentless use of historical example to demonstrate a pervasive erosion of constitutional principle...[Smith] has amassed a powerful argument that concessions to national security lead to a withering of freedom and the emergence of an autocratic secretive' government. --The Law and Politics Book Review

Smith, a leading scholar of the colonial press and law, uses the legal precedent and the founders' intentions as a backdrop to his thoroughly researched and eloquently argued polemic on the excesses of censorship during times of war. --American Historical Review

[Smith] has given us a significant piece of research...[T]he book is worth using in courses that examine the issues of press and givernment in wartime. --JournlÃ"