Freedom of the Press: Licensing to Liberty

After the printing press spread in the late 1400s, governments tried to control what was published, often by requiring printers to obtain licences and submit texts to censors. In 1644 John Milton's Areopagitica protested England's licensing system, arguing that truth is strengthened, not weakened, by open debate. England let its Licensing Act lapse in 1695, ending pre-publication censorship, though writers could still be prosecuted afterwards for seditious libel.

In colonial New York, printer John Peter Zenger was tried in 1735 for criticizing the governor; his lawyer argued that truth should be a defence, and the jury acquitted him. Sweden's Freedom of the Press Act of 1766 abolished political censorship and opened government records to the public. These developments show a gradual move from controlling speech in advance toward allowing publication and judging consequences later, a distinction still central to debates about free expression.