Re: Licensing Newspapers

Such a law would be blatantly unconstitutional in the United States. It would be in violation of the First Amendment. (The first 10 Amendments incorporate the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution).

Under judicial interpretation of the First amendment, the U.S government and State and local governments may not make laws regarding the establishmeent of the press or restricting the free exercise of publication of press materials.

Such an attempt to license could not be justified and would clearly be seen as an attempt to regulate the press, a blatant violation of the Bill of Rights. L'hitraot.

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Re: Licensing Newspapers

This issue can be analyzed several different ways. The most common way to view the licensing fee would be that it is the same type of fee any other business must pay to the government to process its license. I don't know if that is the case in Israel but I suspect it is.

It is in New York, where the fees are administrative in nature. The same type of fee applies to a restaurant as a publishing company.

However, I assume that you are asking whether this has a "chilling" effect on First Amendment Rights?

Since it isn't applied exclusively to newspapers I believe the answer is no: you can print and distribute a leaflet off a computer without going into business and paying the fee, and it would be protected speech in most cases, but that isn't a business like a newspaper publishing company, with the legitimate intent of creating a circulation of numerous people and therefore one would assume, will have a quality product.