Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The above sentence is the entire text of the first amendment to the United States Constitution. As far as a free press is concerned, it protects Americans from government interference. In Colonial days, a newspaper publisher named Peter Zenger was arrested for printing anti-government articles and was brought to trial. He was defended by no less an attorney than Alexander Hamilton, who argued that Zenger could not be punished for telling the truth. "The words," Hamilton said, "must be false, scandalous and seditious or else we are not guilty." Zenger was freed. The late publisher of the Manhasset Press, Karl Anton Jr., frequently said that "Freedom of the press belongs to the publisher." We have noticed some confusion on the part of some people who send us letters or articles which are not published. "What about freedom of the press?" they ask. Their freedom is not challenged. They are free to have their articles or letters printed wherever they can. But they have no automatic right to have them published in the newspapers, this one or any other. That is an editorial decision. We make a practice of printing the letters we receive, within reason. We do not print information which we know to be untrue because if the paper knowingly prints lies, anyone hurt by the falsehoods can sue the papers. We make every effort to print letters of differing points of view on local issues. We reserve the right to limit the frequency with which any individual's correspondence appears on these pages and we try to avoid one-on-one confrontations between any two correspondents. By all means keep your letters coming. We will continue our efforts to supply you with a voice.

E.F.B.