Every year of my journalistic career of nearly half a century, I have known only a free and independent press in the United States. In the decades since those revelations, I took for granted that my country would always enjoy press freedom — and that the First Amendment of our Constitution would guarantee it. Or that free expression – not just for the press, but for all Americans – will endure. So, the public has much at stake in the struggle for free expression and an independent press. And in the difficult fight to uphold the fundamental democratic principles of free expression and an independent press, they can provide inspiration.