Censorship and the First Amendment: The American Citizen's Right to Free Speech Are we protected from censorship under the First Amendment? In other words do individuals or groups have the right or the power to examine material and remove or prohibit anything they consider objectionable? This argument has been progressing for centuries, in fact the first notable case was against John Peter Zenger, in 1743. Zenger was an editor of a New York colonial newspaper that often published articles critical of the colonial governor. He successfully argued that publishing the truth should be a defense and thus defied the conventional wisdo