Hi, I just collected some quotes about freedom of the press to address an unfinished task from an article I wrote a year ago <http://www.draketo.de/english/freenet/answer-to-cannot-use> and I want to pass them on to you for times when you need them at hand:
»The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a state: it ought not, therefore, to be restrained in this commonwealth.« — John Adams, 1780, second president of the USA. »When people talk of the Freedom of Writing, Speaking, or thinking, I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.« — John Adams Letter to Thomas Jefferson (15 July 1817) »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.« — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Judge John Tyler (June 28, 1804) »Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.« — Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. James Currie (28 January 1786) Lipscomb & Bergh 18:ii. »What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed?« — Hannah Arendt, 1974 »And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment — the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution — … to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.« — John F. Kennedy's Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association (27 April 1961) »Without general elections, without freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, without the free battle of opinions, life in every public institution withers away, becomes a caricature of itself, and bureaucracy rises as the only deciding factor.« — Rosa Luxemburg, Reported in Paul Froelich, Die Russische Revolution (1940). »A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both.« — James Madison, Letter to W.T. Barry (1822-08-04). »A critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy.« — Nelson Mandela on freedom of expression, At the international press institute congress (14 February 1994). »we believe that when governments censor or control information, that ultimately that undermines not only the society, but it leads to eventual encroachments on individual rights as well.« — Barack Obama, Rangoon, Burma on November 14, 2014 »If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free.« — Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address to the National Education Association (30 June 1938). »The liberty of the press is no greater and no less than the liberty of every subject of the Queen.« — Lord Russell of Killowen, Reg. v. Gray (1900), L. R. 2 Q. B. D. 40. Happy Hacking! - Arne
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