One or two rings later and the modem on the other end responds with high-pitched squeal. Your modem answers back with a similar squeal. The login message prompts you for your name and password, and soon you're connected. It may be a hobbyist's bulletin-board system, a university's mainframe computer, or a commercial information service. After all, most professional journalists would be less than amazed at the assertion that computer technology and the freedom of expression are intimately linked.
Computers also mediate the transmission of wire-service stories to subscribing newspapers.
Broadcast journalism has long relied on computers as well, for gathering news, for presenting it graphically, and for transmitting it by satellite. These trends have only accelerated in the last 15 years as the personal-computer industry has made this technology more and more affordable. This is a mistake. And because we will rely more and more on this third source of information, it is vital that we all work to ensure that this medium be afforded the same strong protections of freedom of expression that we advocate for more traditional media. Freedom of the press and the computer publisher In the United States, of course, fighting for recognition of First Amendment protections for online communications may be an uphill battle - First Amendment arguments are not as popular as they used to be.