Importance of This Case
After Zenger's verdict, British governors were reluctant to accuse people of libel because of the unlikelihood of a conviction. Public press also became freer. Printers had less worries when writing articles about dishonest governments. The printers could write about the corruption of governments without the fear of being arrested. This case also changed the way Americans viewed the definition of libel. Instead of meaning that one was criticizing the government, libel evolved to mean publishing false statements about the government. This gave writers, printers and artists more freedom to expose bad governments. This verdict was also an important precedent to the First Amendment in the Constitution. In America today, we take for granted the freedom we have to speak out against dishonest governments through newspapers or political cartoons.