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Defining Freedom > Freedom of Press > Answer to Question 1 Usually. The government may censor the news beforehand when it reveals critical information related to national security. It may also punish reporters after publication if they broke a law while reporting.   Through its decisions, the Supreme Court has ruled that press freedom is not absolute, particularly in war time. The news media can be ordered to stop publication in exceptional circumstances such as a threat to national security. Near v. Minnesota(1931) In the Near v. Minnesota case, the state of Minnesota tried to stop the Saturday Press from publishing. The state alleged that the newspaper attacked Catholics and Jews, and claimed that gangsters were running the state. The publisher, Jay Near, was charged and convicted under a Minnesota law banning the regular publication of malicious and scandalous materials. The Supreme Court overturned the conviction. This landmark case affirmed that the government cannot practice prior restraint. Prior restraint is the government act of censoring, reviewing, or prohibiting a publication from going to print. New York Times v. United States (1971) The precedent from the Near case was used in the New York Times v. United States case. In June of 1971 the New York Times began publishing government classified documents relating to the Vietnam War. The documents, popularly known as the Pentagon Papers, included detailed discussions and analyses of the war between top U.S. officials. President Richard Nixon’s National Security Council had labeled them top secret documents however one council member, Daniel Ellsberg, thought they should be public. Ellsberg leaked the documents to the Times and the Washington Post. The U.S. Justice Department used national security, and the clear and present danger standard , to secure a court order to stop the Times from publishing. The Supreme Court ruled that the government could not prove that publishing the Pentagon Papers were a threat to national security. In the majority opinion, Justice Hugo Black wrote that “both the history and language of the First Amendment support the view that the press must be left free to publish news, whatever the source, without censorship, injunctions, or prior restraints.” Back to Freedom of Press Questions