Free speech

The blog is giving me too many problems in posting a comment, so i'll post it here:

A very interesting discussion, but wouldn't it help to provide at least one suggestion for possible reforms, even if tentative, just to explore where the relations between the various social layers stand now? Most obviously, what would be the consequences of a reform of libel and defamation law? Or the prosecution of illegal leaks, which is not covered by 1st amendment protections, at least not under all conceivable interpretations? Any such reforms would reduce the power of the media, which raises the question of how the media have gained such power in the first place. I think in its origin, "free speech" meant the government could not prevent speech; it never meant that speech or published material couldn't be punished after the fact. The expansion of the concept seems to involve the removal of after the fact punishment, whether by government or injured parties, so this seems to be a good place to focus: on the erosion of norms and institutional arrangements that placed boundaries around speech by addressing its downstream consequences.