America’s balance between national security and press freedom depends on trust

When President Trump recently sought to ban three news outlets from the White House, he mentioned national security concerns as one explanation for why he felt the move was warranted.

National security is one area where Americans are willing to compromise on press freedom. But they do not always take such claims at face value.

Overall, Americans unquestionably value press freedom. But for most people, that comes with certain limits they think journalists should abide by — particularly around national security.

For instance, most Americans say news organizations should not publish classified details about military operations during an active conflict. And a majority say the U.S. government should be able to require a news organization to take down a story if it poses a national security risk.

These findings come from our new survey from the Pew-Knight Initiative on views of press freedom. Although this study was conducted before Trump’s recent actions — which have been temporarily blocked by a federal judge — it speaks to a longstanding point of friction: Where should Americans draw the line between press freedom and national security?

It may seem natural, even unsurprising, that people don’t want to risk the lives of U.S. troops or civilians. At the same time, our findings sit in tension with a core First Amendment principle: that the government shouldn’t have the power to censor speech and the press.

Americans certainly are not voicing a blanket rejection of press freedom in general. A large majority say that freedom of the press is extremely or very important to the well-being of society. And just 10 percent say the government should have the power to get a news story removed because it’s........

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