John Peter Zenger was born in Germany in 1697. After emigrating to New York City at the age of 13, Zenger became a famous printer and journalist in the early 1700’s during a time of revolution for the English colonies of America.
At the age of 36, Zenger published his first issue of the New York Weekly Journal, a newspaper that opposed the policies of the colonial governor William Cosby. During this time, people of the original 13 colonies under British rule would claim they are treated “cruel and unfair”. The attacks on Cosby continued for a year in the journal by Zenger and his colleagues and were widely circulated in both England and the United States until he was arrested for libel on Nov. 17, 1734.
Zenger’s defense attorney, Andrew Hamilton, was successful in arguing that the jury itself was competent to decide the truth of Zenger’s printed statements. The colonial jury ended up acquitting Zenger because his charges were based on fact. This was a major key victory for freedom of the press in the English colonies of North America during the revolution.
Zenger not only was bold enough to publish these risky accusations against governor Cosby, but served jail time before his acquittal in order to spread the word and receive justice for the oppressive rule.
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