Description: (German Printer and Journalist)
John Peter Zenger, a German printer and journalist in New York City, became famous for publishing The New York Weekly Journal, which criticized colonial governor William Cosby. Accused of libel by Cosby in 1734, Zenger was arrested but later acquitted by a jury. This case made him a symbol of press freedom. His lawyers, Andrew Hamilton and William Smith, Sr., successfully argued that truth can be used as a defense against libel accusations, a major legal milestone.