John Peter Zenger

John Peter Zenger was a New York printer whose 1735 acquittal on a charge of seditious libel became a landmark in the history of press freedom.

Zenger trial: The 1735 New York prosecution of printer John Peter Zenger for seditious libel, ending in his acquittal. This trial made Zenger’s name a lasting reference point in debates about political criticism.
Grand jury: A body of citizens that determines whether evidence warrants bringing criminal charges. New York’s grand jury declined to indict Zenger, so prosecutors proceeded by a different route.
Freedom of the press: The principle that people and institutions should be able to publish without undue government interference. Zenger’s acquittal became an influential symbol of this principle in colonial America.
New York City: A major North American port city that served as the political and commercial center of colonial New York. Zenger worked and published there amid intense disputes over the governor’s power.
New-York Weekly Journal: A New York newspaper founded in 1733 that criticized Governor William Cosby’s administration. Zenger printed this newspaper, whose attacks on Cosby prompted his prosecution.
Information (law): A formal criminal accusation filed by a public prosecutor without a grand-jury indictment. The attorney general used an information to bring Zenger to trial after the grand jury refused indictment.
First Amendment to the United States Constitution: The constitutional amendment ratified in 1791 that protects freedoms including speech and the press. Later press-freedom arguments often linked Zenger’s story to constitutional protections, though his trial predated them.
Palatine migration: The early eighteenth-century migration of German-speaking people from the Palatinate and neighboring regions to other lands. Zenger came to New York as a child in the migration of German Palatines.
William Cosby: The royal governor of New York from 1732 to 1736, whose administration faced sustained newspaper criticism. His effort to punish the Weekly Journal’s criticism set the prosecution in motion.
Jury nullification: A jury’s decision to acquit despite evidence supporting a guilty verdict under the law. The jury’s acquittal defied the judge’s instruction that truth did not defeat the libel charge.

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Province of New YorkRelated: His trial made colonial political criticism a defining issue in the province.