Americans favor restrictions on press, according to poll

WASHINGTON — Most Americans say they favor a free press but believe the government should be able to restrict reporting about military secrets, terrorist activities, violence and explicit sex, a new poll shows.

The opinions of U.S. residents were largely in line with those of residents of Mexico, Canada and five European nations, who were also surveyed by The Times Mirror Center For The People & The Press.

First Amendment specialists said the results did not surprise them because journalists do a poor job educating the public about the value of a free press.

A solid majority of Americans, 65 percent, said they generally oppose restricting what newspapers and television stations can report; 29 percent said they favored such restrictions. The findings were similar in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom.

But when asked about specifics, 69 percent of the U.S. respondents said the government should be able to restrict reporting to protect military secrets, 60 percent would allow limits on reporting to discourage terrorism, 59 percent to restrict mentions of explicit sex and 52 percent to control portrayals of “unnecessary violence.”

Firm majorities in most of the other countries also favored such specific restrictions.

Paul McMasters, executive director of the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, said he was not surprised.

“Most Americans believe that they believe in a free press, but when it comes right down to it, they really don’t,” McMasters said in a telephone interview. “That’s sad because most Americans appear to be willing to give up quite willingly freedoms that have been fought for long and hard.”

But McMasters, who is also national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, warned against pandering to readers by giving them “what they want rather than what they need. The popular press never was meant to be popular, If we strive after mere popularity rather than relevance, then we are in trouble.”

Jane Kirtley, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the poll results underscore “the regrettable tendency to suggest that government does know best.”