Understanding Prior Restraints and NDA's

Under the First Amendment we are all protected from restrictions on our writing, reporting, and anything we release to the public or press.  However, many companies, corporations, and private institutions require employees to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, or NDA.  It is understandable that these would be required since it prevents sensitive material from being leaked.  Although we are protected from prior restraints by the First Amendment, it is applicable only to public actors.  This means that the Government cannot restrict your First Amendment rights in any way.  Private actors have no such restrictions.  For instance: if a private university were to impose a NDA and a professor disclosed a sensitive piece of information to the public, the university would be able to fire said professor without being sued for a First Amendment violation.  An article that does a good job explaining some of the rights protected by the First Amendment can be found here.  In summary, the American people are protected from restrictions imposed by the Government, not from private institutions, as per the intentions of the Founding Fathers.

Five Favorite News Sources

BBC World News

BBC offers up to date and accurate reporting on most events worldwide.  They also are fairly unbiased in their reporting, which adds to the credibility and reliability of their journalism.

Associated Press

The Associated Press is another fairly unbiased news source, which is why it is one of my favorites.  They cover events and issues both worldwide and domestically, providing a wide range of stories to the readers and marketing to a large audience.

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera deals mostly with international events and issues, usually offering several points of view on each topic.  I like using them as a news source because the site is easy to navigate and gives a good amount of information with every story.

Vox

While I generally lean the opposite direction of Vox, (at least on most political matters) I think it is important to read articles with a point of view that I would tend to disagree with.  Using Vox along with both neutral and opposite leaning sources I can form my own opinions on current issues.

Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal stays up to date on both political news as well as financial news.  Keeping track of financial statuses and corporations is important for any consumer that owns stocks, as well as business people working for corporations.