LAD #2: John Peter Zenger

1) John Peter Zenger was a man who lived in the 1700s who began a newspaper company in New York.

2) John Peter Zenger was arrested for publishing an article against the Royal Governor at the time, so was arrested under the charge of "seditious libel". After 8 months in jail he had a trial, where he was defended by Alexander Hamilton who, because the judge favored the opposition, had to convince the jury directly instead of the judge. Once Hamilton brought forth the truth in Zenger's articles, it was proved that Zenger was not guilty, so they ended up winning the case.

3) This case was the first ever freedom of press trial America had, so it went against governmental tradition.

4) This case caused the freedom of press to become something real because even though Zenger wrote and published things against the governor, he was shown to be not guilty, and the same holds true today(if anyone publishes an article with facts behind it(ie article isn't made up) it's not against the law).

My source for this:
John Peter Zenger Trial



John Peter Zenger Trial(click hyperlink for source)