The press is very powerful, and without freedom it can be used for harmful purposes. These can have negative impacts on the people reading the press. This is seen through twentieth century French author and philosopher Albert Camus’ quote, “A free press can be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom a press will never be anything but bad.” The validity of this quote, can be seen in many instances of history. This essay will focus on press during the Colonial Era of American History. There were prosecutions for seditious libel and speech, that was considered blasphemous. Those were usually censored. Over time, the intensity of censorship has diminished significantly, but was still noticeable up to the Sedition Act of 1798. According to the English Bill of Rights, of 1689, it is stated that, “That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal.” This means that all under the control of the crown, were not allowed to speak up against the King, no matter the situation. This is an example of restricting speech, which gives us an idea of where Freedom of Speech derived from, and why so many Americans would sacrifice for it. Another example of restricting Freedom of Speech, is the Trials of John Peter Zenger. This series of trials were conducted because Zenger was accused of seditious libel, which is a criminal offence under English law. It was considered a form of treason, and the consequences for it were severe. The Zenger trials are a remarkable event, and shows that when restricting Freedom of Speech, the only press that will be released will most certainly be bad press. Over time, the intensity of punishment towards seditious libel diminished significantly. This is because after the American Revolution, the Bill of Rights was established for the protection of the people against an oppressing government. With this protection, the people were