A declaration in favour of the liberty of the press is usually a prominent feature in the written constitutions of foreign States, but in England it rests upon a constitutional rather than a legal foundation. (Dicey's Introduction to the Law of the Constitu tion, 7th edition, chap. 6.) The last relic of the censorship before publication is to be found in the licensing of stage plays. (See THEATRES, LAW RELATING TO.) The last relic of the monopoly of printing formerly granted to licensees of the Crown is found in the exclusive right of the king's printer and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge to print the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, and of the king's printer to print Acts of parliament, statutory rules, and other State documents. This monopoly, so far as the Bible is concerned, extends only to the Authorized Version, and not to any accompanied by annotations or new marginal readings. In the case of re Red Letter New Testament (Authorized Version) in 1900, on the application of the queen's printers an order was made by a chancery judge expunging from the register of copy rights of the Stationers' company an entry whereby an American was registered as the owner of the copyright in that book (17 T. L.R. I). The rights of the king's printers are protected by 8 and 9 Vict. c. 113 and 45 Vict. c. 9; the rights of the printers of the journals of either house of parliament are protected by 8 and 9 Vict. c. 113.
By 32 and 33 Vict. c. 24 the printer of any paper or book for profit is required under penalties to print thereon his name and address or the name of a university press, and is to keep a copy of everything printed, with a few exceptions. Penalties must be sued for within three months, and no proceeding for penalties can be begun unless in the name of the attorney-general or solicitor general of England or the lord advocate of Scotland.
Under the Copyright Acts a newspaper is a book, and the obligation imposed by the 1842 Act still remains of delivering (without request) to the British Museum a copy of any work published within the United Kingdom, and of delivering (on request) copies for the use of the university libraries at Oxford and Cambridge, the library of the faculty of advocates at Edin burgh, the library of Trinity college, Dublin, and the national library of Wales (I and 2 Geo. V. c. 46, s. 15; see COPYRIGHT). In the High Court a request by a judge that certain details be not published is equivalent to a command. By the Judicial Proceedings (Regulations of Reports) Act 1926 there is a declara tion of the common law as to the offence of publishing indecent matter in reports of judicial proceedings and a special proviso limiting the reports of matrimonial causes. (See DrvoRcE.) By
the Children Act 1906 (8 Edw. VII. c. 67) reporters cannot be excluded from children's courts, subject to any powers that a police magistrate has of hearing proceedings in camera, but the normal practice is not to report the names and addresses of child offenders. By the Criminal Justice Act 1925 no photographs or sketches may be taken in court, or, if they are taken contrary to the law, published. Seditions, blasphemous, or obscene words in a newspaper may be punished as treason, treason felony, seditious libel, or misdemeanor. (\V. LA.) United States.—There is no body of law in America which with strict accuracy may be called "the law of the press." Except for a few statutes and peculiar rules of common law, journalists are not singled out for special legal favours or restrictions. Natur ally, however, the press comes into more direct and frequent contact with certain branches of law than with others. These branches, touching content and distribution of newspapers, may, for convenience, be grouped under the above title.
The sources of press law are found in the Federal and State Constitutions, statutes and in decisions of Federal and State courts interpreting constitutional and statutory provisions and declaring the common law. Some branches are restrictive, others protective. Nearly all are relatively modern and all are in process of development, chiefly toward enlarged freedom for ethical journalism.
The restrictive laws are those thought necessary by legis latures or courts to serve three purposes : protection of Govern ment and its processes, including judicial action, from violent disruption and unlawfully created disrespect ; protection of in dividuals in good name, business reputation and right of privacy; and protection of the morals of the public and of its right not to be defrauded or deceived.
The chief instances of restriction for governmental protection are the statutes condemning publications constituting contempt of court, sedition (e.g., the war-time Espionage Acts of Congress), criminal anarchy and syndicalism. Acts of Congress and State statutes generally deal with contempt of court and courts have repeatedly held certain publications to be contemptuous. Federal statutes prohibiting various forms of seditious publications have been common in war time, but ordinarily have been repealed on restoration of peace. Their constitutionality has been upheld with great uniformity. Many State statutes condemn criminal anarchy and syndicalism. The New York Criminal Anarchy statute (Penal Law, Sect. 160-161) is typical. These statutes are di rected against advocacy of overthrow of Government and of destruction of property (sabotage) by violence or other unlawful means.