The New York Weekly Journal

On January 15, 1734, Cosby ordered public burning of the newspaper on Wall Street, close to City Hall, and also offered fifty pounds as reward for who revealed the names of the Journal's authors.

On November 17 John Peter Zenger was arrested under a warrant of the Council for printing seditious libels in his Journal.

Zenger's lawyers, Andrew Hamilton and William Smith, Sr., successfully argued that truth is a defense against charges of libel.

[5] In defending Zenger in this landmark case, Hamilton and Smith attempted to establish the precedent that a statement, even if defamatory, is not libelous if it can be proved, thus affirming freedom of the press in America.

However, general distaste for Cosby was the main reason why Zenger was found not guilty, and succeeding royal governors clamped down on freedom of the press up until the American Revolution.