“The press, as in the old authoritarian days, is falling into the hands of a powerful few.
The Commission on Freedom of the Press said,
‘protecting against government is not now enough guarantee
that a man who has something to say shall have a chance to say it.
The owners and managers of the press determine which persons,
which facts, which versions of these facts, shall reach the public.’”
Fred Siebert, Four Theories of the Press, 1956
“Control of the press under authoritarian governments [or corporations] was also facilitated by the development of a branch of the law known as seditious libel or sedition. Treason was reserved for activities which shook the foundation of the state; sedition was used for the irritating flea-bites of the dissident and nonconformist.” Siebert.
“For it is very necessary for all governments that the people should have a good opinion of it. And nothing can be worse to any government than to endeavor to procure animosities as to the management of it; this has always been looked upon as a crime, and no government can be safe without it.” Chief Justice Holt of the Court of the Star Chamber, 1690.
“The basic idea underlying all tendencies of enlightenment was the conviction that human understanding is capable by its own power and without recourse to supernatural assistance, of comprehending the system of the world and this new way of understanding the world will lead to a new of mastering it.” Ernst Cassirer, German philosopher exiled from Nazi Germany, 1935
“John Stuart Mills presents four basic propositions. First, if we silence an opinion, for all we know, we are silencing truth. Secondly, a wrong opinion may contain a grain of truth necessary for finding the whole truth. Third, even if the commonly accepted opinion is the whole truth the public tends to hold it not on rational grounds but as a prejudice, unless it is forced to defend it. Last, unless the commonly held opinion is contested from time to time, it loses its vitality and the effect on conduct and character.” Siebert
“The democratic doctrine of freedom of speech and of the press, whether we regard it as a natural and inalienable right, or not, rests upon certain assumptions. One of these is that men desire to know the truth and will be disposed to be guided by it. Another is that the sole method of arriving at the truth in the long run is by the free competition of opinion in the open market. Another is that, since men will invariably differ in their opinions, each man must be permitted to urge, freely and even strenuously, his own opinion, provided he accords to others the same right. And the final assumption is that from this mutual toleration and comparison of diverse opinions, the one that seems the most rational will emerge and be generally accepted.” Carl Becker, American historian, 1940
“The proposition which I mean to maintain as the basis of liberty of the press and without which it is an empty sound, is this. That every man, not intending to mislead, but seeking to enlighten others with what his own reason and conscience, however erroneously, have dictated to him as truth, may address himself to the universal reason of the whole nation, either subject of government in general, or upon that of our own particular country.” John Erskine, in defense of Thomas Paine publishing The Rights of Man, 1792
“No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It therefore the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions. The firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false, and to form a correct judgment between them. I hold it to be certain that to open the doors of truth, and to fortify the habit of testing everything by reason, are the most effectual manacles we can rivet on the hands of our successors to prevent their manacling the people with their own consent.” Thomas Jefferson, 1805 Second Inaugural Address
“The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state, but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not its freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every free man has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public. but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal, he must take the consequences of his own temerity. Thus the will of individuals is still left free, the abuse only of that free will is the object of legal punishment. Neither is any restraint laid upon freedom of thought or inquiry, liberty of private sentiment is still left, the dissemination, or making public of bad sentiments, destructive of the ends of society is the crime which society corrects.” Chief Justice Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1769
“Facism denies that majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority can direct human society. it denies that numbers alone can govern by means of a periodical consultation, and it affirms the immutable, beneficial and fruitful inequality of mankind, which can never be permanently leveled through the mere operation of a mechanical process such as universal suffrage.” Benito Mussolini, President of Italy, 1922
“All propaganda should be popular and should adapt its intellectual level to the receptive ability of the least intellectual of those whom it desires to address. Thus it must sink its mental elevation deeper in proportion to the numbers of the mass whom it has to grip. The receptive power of the masses is very limited, their understating small, on the other hand, they have a great power of forgetting. All effective propaganda must be confined to a few points.” Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1926
“In the interest of national security, a general censorship is hereby established and shall continue to operate until further notice. The censorship shall be applied to all written or printed matter, photographs, packets and parcels entering or leaving. Provided that all matter and all messages originated by or addressed to the Royal Egyptian Government shall be exempt from censorship control.” Egypt’s 1952 constitution