The people have a right to know.
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” Thomas Jefferson~
“The free press is the mother of all our liberties and of our progress under liberty.” Adlai E. Stevenson~
The Founding Fathers included within the First Amendment to the Constitution our right to freedom of the press. As each branch of government was a check on the others, the press was given the freedom to check on all of them and to make those answer to the public. State-run media only propagates the government’s actions to make the public believe such actions and laws are necessary. The press of our new republic needed and required freedom from government censorship in order to keep the government in check rather than the people. Without the ability to know information… without the ability to question our elected leaders… then democracy can’t survive or progress. It will just deteriorate into despotism. As stated in the Stevenson quote above, freedom of the press is essential to any democratic (or republican) form of government. The final say should always lie with the people, and the people have the right to be Informed.
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