Freedom of the press was one of the founding points of assertion for the United States- the idea that journalists could say whatever they want whenever they want in whatever publication seems central to a functioning democracy. The government should not be able to silence the media, restrict it in any way or keep information from being exposed there.

In practice, of course, it isn’t quite that simple. The U.S. government is able to keep things classified for national security or, as humans are wont to do, people just decide to do things in secret- like Nixon in the Watergate scandal or, more recently, Cheney keeping information about secret CIA programs, well, secret.

It’s not always bad- there are things that shouldn’t be published for everyone to read that would compromise the national security of the United States or expose internal disagreement when all that matters in the end is a united front. For the most part, the U.S. does a good job of upholding the freedom of the press.

This is one of the precepts that bringing democracy to Iraq carries- freedom of the press. It seems that this freedom is under the microscope- hundreds of Iraqi journalists are staging a protest in Baghdad to protest censorship and intimidation from their government.

"Journalists and media workers have lost 247 of their colleagues over the past six years because of attacks and violations. The participants in this demonstration have confirmed they will not back down in the face of intimidation and threats,” said Emad al-Khafaji, a journalist and writer, at the protest.

The community of journalists are also concerned about possible government action to block some websites which are considered pornographic or encouraging bomb making, prostitution and terrorism. As of last month, the government ok’d screening of imported publications.

"Blocking internet websites and censoring books is a new dictatorship," ssid Muhammad al-Rubaie, a human rights activist.

The Iraqi constitution of 2005 protects the freedom of the press unless it violates “public order or morality,” a phrase that leaves those terms open to the interpretation by the government or whomever is in charge of the screening. This kind of broad authority to make those calls is a danger to the freedom of the press in the event that the government merely disagrees with what is being published.

Another Iraqi journalist, Ahmed Rushdi, told Al Jazeera said the government was considering laws allowing the "capture and control any data broadcast, published or uploaded from Iraq.”

He said:
"This is not acceptable, this is an error in the constitution ... we'll not accept any capturing, we will not accept any silencing, I will not accept to break my pen for [the prime minister] Maliki's sake or any other government. Before 2003 there was such silencing, now there will be no silencing."

He is referring to the way that Saddam Hussein controlled the media before the U.S. led invasion of Iraq. Since the invasion, close to 300 new media outlets across print, online and television have been established.

The state of the freedom of the press hangs in the balance.