You have no legal basis for saying this, because US freedom of the press rules are about prior restraint, and government retribution isn't prior restraint. You also have no philosophical basis for saying this, because nobody put you in charge of defining what freedom of the press means to everyone else, and you've offered no references to people more respected than yourself on the subject.

But good luck with a definition of freedom of the press that doesn't include when white mobs would break into black newspapers, break the presses, and burn the building down. Does freedom of the press give the government an obligation to prosecute, or nah?