Palin says her free speech threatened

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Republican U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin says media coverage of her attacks on Democrat Barack Obama could threaten free speech.

Palin told Washington radio station WMAL Friday she is concerned that her First Amendment rights could be endangered by what she called "attacks by the mainstream media" in response to her political attacks on the Democratic presidential nominee.

The Alaska governor said her criticism of Obama's associations with such figures as 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright should not be considered negative attacks, ABC News reported Friday.

"If (the media) convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," she said, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

The First Amendment prohibits Congress from making a law "abridging the freedom of speech. It also protects free exercise of religion, freedom of the press, the right of peaceable assembly and the right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."