British News Agency

The former president said that the current government had long complained about a “culture of arrogance,” but was now resorting to new and dangerous methods – threatening the media with legal action if they did not silence or fire reporters and hosts they disliked.

Barack Obama said he would speak on the indefinite suspension of host Jimmy Kimmel from ABC television.

The reason was Kimmel’s remarks in the latest episode, where he said that the pro-Donald Trump movement was doing everything it could to score political points from the death of Charlie Kirk.

The Federal Communications Commission and others threatened TV channels with sanctions if Kimmel was not taken off the air. The vice president of Sinclair Media Group described these remarks as “inappropriate and extremely insensitive at a critical time for our country.”

Obama stressed that the First Amendment was written to provide protection against such pressures, and that media companies should resist rather than give in. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion are among the fundamental rights protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amendment I) prohibits Congress from making laws respecting an establishment of religion; prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right of the people to assemble, or the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights.