‘We Will Not Compromise’ on Independent Reporting

At The New York Times, we regard journalistic independence as central to our promise to the public. We will not compromise our commitment to report without fear or favor....  But rights are just ink on paper unless they’re exercised. Standing up for press freedom in court and losing is still a much healthier outcome than standing down and letting the administration simply rewrite the rules. Our country has some of the strongest legal protections in the world for free expression and due process. They mean nothing if the press is too timid to defend them.... That 250th anniversary our nation is celebrating happens to coincide with the 175th anniversary of The New York Times. I find these shared milestones fitting because the story of our great nation and its most intrepid chronicler — its paper of record — are bound up in one another. America’s abiding commitment to free expression and free inquiry has enabled the model of journalism “without fear or favor” that is the key to The Times’s enduring success. In turn, the commitment of The Times, and other independent news organizations, to providing the public reliable information and accountability has strengthened our country and helped it to thrive in countless ways. A free press depends on a free nation, and a free nation depends on a free press. Now that doesn’t mean we’ve always gotten along with the people running our country. Over the years, we’ve confronted our fair share of government overreach from left, right, and center. And if you can find the president who didn’t want to throttle us at some point I’d like his name.... But the press must carry on, as it has in previous moments of pressure, with faith in the power of reporting, the public we serve, and in the idea captured by the founders and echoed centuries later by Judge Friedman, that the truth will always matter.