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This year's State of the First Amendment report, which was released Wednesday, seems to show Americans are putting some perspective on their post-Sept. 11 fears.

The year following the attacks, the survey showed that some people believed that curtailing freedoms would mean a more secure country. In that year, 49 percent of respondents said they believed the First Amendment gives people too much freedom. More people showed a lack of support for the First Amendment that year than in any other year since the survey was first conducted in 1997.

This year, about 60 percent of respondents indicated overall support for First Amendment freedoms, while 34 percent said the First Amendment goes too far.

As pointed out by Kenneth A. Paulson, executive director for the First Amendment Center, this was not a clear victory for advocates of the First Amendment but it certainly was an improvement over impressions held in 2002.

The annual State of the First Amendment survey, conducted by the Center for Survey Research & Analysis at the University of Connecticut, examines public attitudes toward freedom of speech, press, religion and the rights of assembly and petition.

The survey was done this year in partnership with American Journalism Review magazine. The national survey of 1,000 respondents was conducted by telephone between June 3 and June 15. The sampling error is plus-or-minus 3 percent.

Unique to the survey this year was the war in Iraq, which was reflected in people's view of protests, embedded journalists, and how well they believe the government is keeping them informed.

U.S. journalists in individual combat units got high marks, with 65 percent of respondents saying they favor the policy of embedding and 68 percent saying the news media did an excellent or good job in covering the war.

Still, of those surveyed 44 percent strongly agreed and 23 mildly agreed that the government should be able to review in advance journalists' reports directly from military combat zones.

According to the survey, 67 percent of respondents agreed that individuals should be allowed to protest in public against America's involvement in war during a period of active combat, but nearly half (48 percent) would support the power of public school officials to prohibit high school students from wearing T-shirts, armbands, or other insignia expressing their opinions about the war on school property.

Some of the findings in the survey results include:

• 52 percent said media ownership by fewer corporations has meant a decreased number of viewpoints available to the public; 53 percent said the quality of information also has suffered.
• Almost eight in 10 respondents said owners exert substantial influence over news organizations' newsgathering and reporting decisions. Only 4 percent said they believed there is no tampering with story selection or play.
• 54 percent favored maintaining limits on how many radio, television and newspaper outlets may be owned by a single company, but 50 percent opposed any increased regulation.
• 48 percent said they believe Americans have too little access to information about the federal government's efforts to combat terrorism -- up from 40 percent last year.
• About 55 percent of those surveyed opposed a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning, up from 51 percent in 2002.

The survey taken over the last six years shows that opinions regarding the basic freedoms this country celebrates are consistently in flux. As a cornerstone of this country, we as citizens must be concerned with the public support or lack of support shown the First Amendment.

To review the complete survey, as well as surveys from previous years, along with analysis, got to: www.firstamendmentcenter.org.

"Bleeding the Black Ink" is a weekly column that aims at getting readers better acquainted with the Craig Daily Press, the First Amendment and the newspaper industry. Do you have a question or an issue for an upcoming column? Call Terrance Vestal at 824-7031 or email him at tvestal@craigdailypress.com.